Jimmy constantly checked rooms for signs of Bosco, coming up empty-
handed at every door, and feeling his spirits sink a little with each
disappointment. He had to be here somewhere. He hoped they had got the
right place. How many other burning buildings could there be around here?
"Bosco!" he called as loudly as he could manage, before he had a sudden thought. If this Thomson guy had been the one to start the fire... then it made sense that the very person they were looking for was pretty close to the fire itself, as terrifying as that concept was, even to a fireman.
"This way!" he yelled to the people behind him, who were checking and double-checking other rooms. They followed without question, equipment in their hands.
Jimmy carefully climbed the stairs, cringing at the sound they gave. This building was in a state. It should have been pulled down long ago from the looks of it. No one had lived here in years from what he could tell.
Jimmy kept on climbing, scanning the short corridors for the familiar glow that he knew to be a sure sign of the flashpoint, or at least a place close to where the fire had started... dammit, he wasn't even thinking straight anymore.
Just before he was about to swing himself round the stairwell to keep climbing, he came to a sudden stop, his eyes catching sight of thick black smoke and a light that he knew in his mind shouldn't have been present unless... they were in the right place.
"Here!" he called to the others, starting to travel the short distance to the door up ahead that was pouring out smoke. He tried the handle, feeling the heat and the resistance that told him this was definitely the right room and that it was locked also.
Jimmy banged on the door. "Bosco!"
He didn't receive a reply. That didn't mean a damn thing to Jimmy... Bosco probably wasn't even conscious anymore, if he was even still alive.
Jimmy took a step back, and braced himself, loosening his shoulders a little, and taking a great swing with his axe.
The wood splintered and cracked, shards falling to the floor with the impact.
Jimmy delivered constant axe blows to the door, each swing carrying more desperation and force than the last, perspiration beading his face, the axe striking the wood again and again until finally, with a solid kick of his boot, Jimmy saw the door fall to pieces.
Thick black smoke exploded from the doorway, and flames danced inside, covering most of the room.
"Bosco!" Jimmy yelled, fighting against the choking smoke to get inside, careful of the position of the fire in relation to himself and the other fire fighters that were right behind him. It was close to the door, a little intimidating. The flames seemed to dance and grab for them, eager to eat away at anything it could get its intensely hot grasp on.
Then he spotted something... or rather, someone, lying motionless over in the corner. He ran over, just as part of the ceiling above them fell, and Jimmy slung his body over the unconscious form of Bosco to protect him, feeling a section of plasterboard hit him square in the small of his back. He ignored the pain that swelled immediately, and moved to grab the prone figure, before he caught sight of what had obviously kept the officer from leaving the room, other than the locked door.
Handcuffs, locked firmly around one wrist and the side of an old radiator. Jimmy glanced to Bosco, and then back at the cuff, before turning his gaze upon his axe. He shook his head a little, before hearing the roar of the flames once again from behind him, and standing in determination, aiming carefully for the busted old heater.
Closing his eyes for a moment, he took a swing, hearing the clang as the blade of his tool came into firm contact with the radiator. It shook wildly, coming loose from the wall. A great dent had formed in the side pole where the cuff was locked.
"Come on!" Jimmy yelled, slamming the weapon against the pole once more time, hearing the snap of the metal as it gave. He immediately went about unhooking the cuff from the pole, and taking Bosco over one shoulder, and turning back.
The flames were eating insanely at anything it met, and they were pretty damn close to the doorway now, concerning Jimmy a little. Making a desperate noise under his breath, he gave a solid shake of his head, and darted from the room, keeping a tight hold of the form over his shoulder.
"Let's go, move it!" he ordered the others, leading the way out, feeling how limp Bosco was as he carried him. He didn't think about it, just kept right on going.
* * *
"There they are!" Kim yelled frantically, seeing the forms emerge from the unstable doorway leading into the building, letting Doc and Carlos through. They were ready, and she was in no state to treat anyone, let alone a fellow member of the third watch.
Jimmy lay an unconscious figure down on the sidewalk, and snatched his helmet and mask off, letting out a couple of long slow breaths. Kim came over, followed by Bobby whilst Doc and Carlos knelt instantly.
Doc went about listening for sounds of breathing, and Carlos took a hold of Bosco's wrist, feeling for a pulse.
For a moment, nothing happened, and Kim feared the worst, before Doc mumbled to himself, resorting to his stethoscope, and then nodded. "He's breathing... just barely."
"Got a pulse... weak and thready." Carlos looked to his training officer.
"Get the backboard," Kim said to Bobby, who nodded and fetched it quickly.
Doc, Carlos and Bobby wasted no time in loading the police officer onto the backboard and securing him to it.
As they were loading him, Doc looked up at Kim suddenly, and snapped a command to her.
"What?" she asked immediately, realising she hadn't heard.
"A collar. I got a head wound." He indicated Bosco.
"Right," she mumbled frantically, grabbing one out of the large bag that sat just near to her foot, handing it to Doc, and watching him fix it around Bosco's neck.
"Okay, let's move!" Doc told them, and the three men lifted as one, sprinting as carefully as they could with their burden over to the bus.
"Carlos, get an IV going!"
* * *
Faith hadn't bothered waiting for a wheelchair, and ran as fast as her feet would carry her, having lost her slippers as soon as she'd hit the corridor. Her arm hung in a sling.
"Bosco!" she screamed, seeing the gurney wheeled in, surrounded by medical personnel... but she recognised enough of the patient to know who it was.
He looked awful. An oxygen mask covered his dirty face, and Kim ran by the side of the gurney, and it looked as though she was squeezing the bag attached to it.
Faith almost stopped when she saw Dr. Morales climb on top of the gurney, careful not to sit on the patient. Her hands moved for the chest.
"My god," she breathed, and ran along after the gurney, hearing the doctor call for assistance.
"Bosco!" she yelled again, feeling her eyes swell with tears. She sniffed, and wiped them away with her good hand as she saw and heard them hook up a heart monitor shortly after wheeling the gurney into a room.
The doors swung closed, and before she could make a move to open them to follow, strong hands took a hold of her, even as she sobbed once.
"Faith, Faith, let them work," came Sully's calm words as he took her in an embrace, turning her gently to hold her soothingly. "Bosco's a strong guy... he'll get through this."
Faith's eyes never left the window that looked through to the ER, and her mind had to work frantically to process what she was seeing.
Dr. Morales held out her hands for paddles, and Faith swallowed chokingly as she watched them cut open Bosco's shirt, and swiftly work at removing his bullet-proof vest.
Another doctor was working on putting a tube down his throat, and Faith realised at that point that she couldn't bear to watch.
She heard the woman call for everyone to clear, and the whine of the heart monitor as Faith kept her head pressed into Sully's chest, breathing rapidly in horror at what was going on.
She hadn't even noticed Bobby, Doherty and Ty come up alongside them. Faith didn't even react when Bobby's gentle hand landed on her back for comfort.
Her knees weakened as all sound was drowned out by one thing.
A single high-pitched whining tone.
* * *
Carlos felt like he had lost control of all his limbs. Nothing would move. The quick movements of the doctors and nurses working frantically to save Officer Boscorelli's life transfixed him. He couldn't look away.
"Charge to three-hundred," Morales ordered quickly, and held up the paddles, not even distracted by the constant movement going on around her. "Come on, Boscorelli, don't you give up on me..." She shook her head quickly, working all the time.
"Clear!"
Closing his eyes, Carlos took a deep breath, and lowered his head, trying to clear his mind, when suddenly; an unexpected sound filled the room.
"We've got a rhythm," a nurse reported, and Morales allowed herself a smile, jabbing the paddles at someone else until they took them off her hands.
"There's a good boy, Boscorelli," she said to her unconscious patient as she worked on him, and turned her head to the two paramedics at the side of the room, saying, "Nieto, see if we can get these cuffs off. They're in the way."
He nodded vigorously, and stepped outside the room, noticing Officer Yokas whirled to him immediately, just as Kim followed him out of the room, trailed by Doc.
"What's goin' on? Is he okay?" The look on Yokas' face was enough to make Carlos momentarily forget his task. Her concern was unmistakable.
"He's okay, they've managed to restart his heart," Doc informed them, and Carlos watched as everyone visibly relaxed.
"Thank god," Yokas said quietly, and stared through the window, looking as though a tornado wouldn't budge her.
Carlos looked to Officer Sullivan. "Um... we need a key for the cuffs."
"Sure," Sully agreed, and dished out a small key and handed it right to Carlos. He took it, and went back into the room, going to Morales' side.
"Thank you," she said to him without thinking, and accepted the key, unlocking the cuff and sighing at the cut beneath it.
Carlos grimaced, even though he had -by far- seen a lot worse injuries in his time as a paramedic. It was just the thought of having to come to terms with the fact that no matter how hard you tried, there was no way to escape. Boscorelli had to have been terrified; especially after realising the cuffs weren't going to give.
"Nieto, you're in my way," Morales told him as gently as possible, which, for her, wasn't too gentle at all.
Carlos gave a nod, looking down at the patient, and then leaving the room without question, back out into the hall where the familiar faces of the third watch waited, Yokas standing as close to the window as she could manage to watch the doctors and nurses work on her partner.
"Bosco!" he called as loudly as he could manage, before he had a sudden thought. If this Thomson guy had been the one to start the fire... then it made sense that the very person they were looking for was pretty close to the fire itself, as terrifying as that concept was, even to a fireman.
"This way!" he yelled to the people behind him, who were checking and double-checking other rooms. They followed without question, equipment in their hands.
Jimmy carefully climbed the stairs, cringing at the sound they gave. This building was in a state. It should have been pulled down long ago from the looks of it. No one had lived here in years from what he could tell.
Jimmy kept on climbing, scanning the short corridors for the familiar glow that he knew to be a sure sign of the flashpoint, or at least a place close to where the fire had started... dammit, he wasn't even thinking straight anymore.
Just before he was about to swing himself round the stairwell to keep climbing, he came to a sudden stop, his eyes catching sight of thick black smoke and a light that he knew in his mind shouldn't have been present unless... they were in the right place.
"Here!" he called to the others, starting to travel the short distance to the door up ahead that was pouring out smoke. He tried the handle, feeling the heat and the resistance that told him this was definitely the right room and that it was locked also.
Jimmy banged on the door. "Bosco!"
He didn't receive a reply. That didn't mean a damn thing to Jimmy... Bosco probably wasn't even conscious anymore, if he was even still alive.
Jimmy took a step back, and braced himself, loosening his shoulders a little, and taking a great swing with his axe.
The wood splintered and cracked, shards falling to the floor with the impact.
Jimmy delivered constant axe blows to the door, each swing carrying more desperation and force than the last, perspiration beading his face, the axe striking the wood again and again until finally, with a solid kick of his boot, Jimmy saw the door fall to pieces.
Thick black smoke exploded from the doorway, and flames danced inside, covering most of the room.
"Bosco!" Jimmy yelled, fighting against the choking smoke to get inside, careful of the position of the fire in relation to himself and the other fire fighters that were right behind him. It was close to the door, a little intimidating. The flames seemed to dance and grab for them, eager to eat away at anything it could get its intensely hot grasp on.
Then he spotted something... or rather, someone, lying motionless over in the corner. He ran over, just as part of the ceiling above them fell, and Jimmy slung his body over the unconscious form of Bosco to protect him, feeling a section of plasterboard hit him square in the small of his back. He ignored the pain that swelled immediately, and moved to grab the prone figure, before he caught sight of what had obviously kept the officer from leaving the room, other than the locked door.
Handcuffs, locked firmly around one wrist and the side of an old radiator. Jimmy glanced to Bosco, and then back at the cuff, before turning his gaze upon his axe. He shook his head a little, before hearing the roar of the flames once again from behind him, and standing in determination, aiming carefully for the busted old heater.
Closing his eyes for a moment, he took a swing, hearing the clang as the blade of his tool came into firm contact with the radiator. It shook wildly, coming loose from the wall. A great dent had formed in the side pole where the cuff was locked.
"Come on!" Jimmy yelled, slamming the weapon against the pole once more time, hearing the snap of the metal as it gave. He immediately went about unhooking the cuff from the pole, and taking Bosco over one shoulder, and turning back.
The flames were eating insanely at anything it met, and they were pretty damn close to the doorway now, concerning Jimmy a little. Making a desperate noise under his breath, he gave a solid shake of his head, and darted from the room, keeping a tight hold of the form over his shoulder.
"Let's go, move it!" he ordered the others, leading the way out, feeling how limp Bosco was as he carried him. He didn't think about it, just kept right on going.
* * *
"There they are!" Kim yelled frantically, seeing the forms emerge from the unstable doorway leading into the building, letting Doc and Carlos through. They were ready, and she was in no state to treat anyone, let alone a fellow member of the third watch.
Jimmy lay an unconscious figure down on the sidewalk, and snatched his helmet and mask off, letting out a couple of long slow breaths. Kim came over, followed by Bobby whilst Doc and Carlos knelt instantly.
Doc went about listening for sounds of breathing, and Carlos took a hold of Bosco's wrist, feeling for a pulse.
For a moment, nothing happened, and Kim feared the worst, before Doc mumbled to himself, resorting to his stethoscope, and then nodded. "He's breathing... just barely."
"Got a pulse... weak and thready." Carlos looked to his training officer.
"Get the backboard," Kim said to Bobby, who nodded and fetched it quickly.
Doc, Carlos and Bobby wasted no time in loading the police officer onto the backboard and securing him to it.
As they were loading him, Doc looked up at Kim suddenly, and snapped a command to her.
"What?" she asked immediately, realising she hadn't heard.
"A collar. I got a head wound." He indicated Bosco.
"Right," she mumbled frantically, grabbing one out of the large bag that sat just near to her foot, handing it to Doc, and watching him fix it around Bosco's neck.
"Okay, let's move!" Doc told them, and the three men lifted as one, sprinting as carefully as they could with their burden over to the bus.
"Carlos, get an IV going!"
* * *
Faith hadn't bothered waiting for a wheelchair, and ran as fast as her feet would carry her, having lost her slippers as soon as she'd hit the corridor. Her arm hung in a sling.
"Bosco!" she screamed, seeing the gurney wheeled in, surrounded by medical personnel... but she recognised enough of the patient to know who it was.
He looked awful. An oxygen mask covered his dirty face, and Kim ran by the side of the gurney, and it looked as though she was squeezing the bag attached to it.
Faith almost stopped when she saw Dr. Morales climb on top of the gurney, careful not to sit on the patient. Her hands moved for the chest.
"My god," she breathed, and ran along after the gurney, hearing the doctor call for assistance.
"Bosco!" she yelled again, feeling her eyes swell with tears. She sniffed, and wiped them away with her good hand as she saw and heard them hook up a heart monitor shortly after wheeling the gurney into a room.
The doors swung closed, and before she could make a move to open them to follow, strong hands took a hold of her, even as she sobbed once.
"Faith, Faith, let them work," came Sully's calm words as he took her in an embrace, turning her gently to hold her soothingly. "Bosco's a strong guy... he'll get through this."
Faith's eyes never left the window that looked through to the ER, and her mind had to work frantically to process what she was seeing.
Dr. Morales held out her hands for paddles, and Faith swallowed chokingly as she watched them cut open Bosco's shirt, and swiftly work at removing his bullet-proof vest.
Another doctor was working on putting a tube down his throat, and Faith realised at that point that she couldn't bear to watch.
She heard the woman call for everyone to clear, and the whine of the heart monitor as Faith kept her head pressed into Sully's chest, breathing rapidly in horror at what was going on.
She hadn't even noticed Bobby, Doherty and Ty come up alongside them. Faith didn't even react when Bobby's gentle hand landed on her back for comfort.
Her knees weakened as all sound was drowned out by one thing.
A single high-pitched whining tone.
* * *
Carlos felt like he had lost control of all his limbs. Nothing would move. The quick movements of the doctors and nurses working frantically to save Officer Boscorelli's life transfixed him. He couldn't look away.
"Charge to three-hundred," Morales ordered quickly, and held up the paddles, not even distracted by the constant movement going on around her. "Come on, Boscorelli, don't you give up on me..." She shook her head quickly, working all the time.
"Clear!"
Closing his eyes, Carlos took a deep breath, and lowered his head, trying to clear his mind, when suddenly; an unexpected sound filled the room.
"We've got a rhythm," a nurse reported, and Morales allowed herself a smile, jabbing the paddles at someone else until they took them off her hands.
"There's a good boy, Boscorelli," she said to her unconscious patient as she worked on him, and turned her head to the two paramedics at the side of the room, saying, "Nieto, see if we can get these cuffs off. They're in the way."
He nodded vigorously, and stepped outside the room, noticing Officer Yokas whirled to him immediately, just as Kim followed him out of the room, trailed by Doc.
"What's goin' on? Is he okay?" The look on Yokas' face was enough to make Carlos momentarily forget his task. Her concern was unmistakable.
"He's okay, they've managed to restart his heart," Doc informed them, and Carlos watched as everyone visibly relaxed.
"Thank god," Yokas said quietly, and stared through the window, looking as though a tornado wouldn't budge her.
Carlos looked to Officer Sullivan. "Um... we need a key for the cuffs."
"Sure," Sully agreed, and dished out a small key and handed it right to Carlos. He took it, and went back into the room, going to Morales' side.
"Thank you," she said to him without thinking, and accepted the key, unlocking the cuff and sighing at the cut beneath it.
Carlos grimaced, even though he had -by far- seen a lot worse injuries in his time as a paramedic. It was just the thought of having to come to terms with the fact that no matter how hard you tried, there was no way to escape. Boscorelli had to have been terrified; especially after realising the cuffs weren't going to give.
"Nieto, you're in my way," Morales told him as gently as possible, which, for her, wasn't too gentle at all.
Carlos gave a nod, looking down at the patient, and then leaving the room without question, back out into the hall where the familiar faces of the third watch waited, Yokas standing as close to the window as she could manage to watch the doctors and nurses work on her partner.
