Hurrying into the ER, Dixie headed straight towards the nurse's station where she could hear a very loud argument going on between Carol and Roy DeSoto echoing down the corridor. She didn't need to guess just what they were arguing about. Carol's firm voice telling Roy that she could not release any information, instantly told her Roy was demanding information about Johnny's condition, information that she doubted Carol even knew yet, and patient information that Carol could only tell her because she was Johnny's next-of-kin.
Passing Roy's new partner, Allen Hodges, who was standing, obviously uncertain if he should intervene and cop the wrath of his new partner or let the hospital staff handle the confrontation, in the doorway of the break room, she almost hesitated. The look on the young paramedic's face was the same defeated look that she had seen too many times on Johnny's face during the last few shifts that he had worked with Roy. Roy's fist slamming onto the nurse's desk in anger as he again demanded an update on Johnny's condition made up her mind for her and she hurried down the corridor towards the furious paramedic and her harassed looking nurse.
"Roy DeSoto, I won't have you speaking to my nursing staff like that!"
Spinning around, Roy found himself face to face with a very angry-looking, hands on hips, Dixie. The look on the head nurse's face warned him that he had just crossed the line. "Dix!"
"Don't you dare Dix me, Roy DeSoto!"
"I just-" Roy began weakly.
"Just what? Just wanted to harass my staff?" Dixie growled quietly, waving the security men who were heading towards the nurse's desk away. The tone of her voice warned Roy it was safer if he stopped speaking for the moment as she ordered, "If you want to harass and yell at my nursing staff, then you had better be willing to harass and yell at me! And if you want an update on Johnny's condition, it's me who you should be asking, not screaming at my nursing staff for one, because I'm now listed as Johnny's next of kin not you! So why don't we take this conversation into Dr Brackett's office!" Turning to head towards the empty doctor's office. Sensing Roy hesitating behind her, she ordered over her shoulder, "Now!"
Reaching Brackett's office door, she held it open in an unspoken order for Roy to enter. She waited until he brushed past her and headed towards the coffee pot on the small table in the corner before she stepped inside and closed the door firmly behind her. "Just what the Hell is going on with you, Roy DeSoto?" She demanded angrily, "You have a new partner out there who looks like he wants to be anywhere else but here with you, and your old partner and best friend doesn't want to have anything more to do with you! Damn it, Roy I don't know what happened between Johnny and you, Johnny refused to tell us, but what I do know is both Kel and I had one hell of a time convincing him not to give up being a paramedic. He wanted to drop out of the paramedic program and go back working the big rigs. Damn it, Roy, I don't know just what you said to him, but he didn't even want to be a rescue man anymore. And now, when I walked into my ER, I find you bullying my nurses! Now I don't want to hear that nothing's wrong because we both know there is!" Dixie crossed her arms across her chest, "So why don't you tell me what's going on with you? Or do I need to talk to Kel about benching you until you get your head back into the game because I will!"
"Joanne's pregnant." Row answered softly, keeping his back to Dixie as he forced himself to finish pouring himself a mug of coffee.
"Joanne's pregnant?" Dixie asked, staring at Roy's back, not sure that she had heard Roy correctly and unsure just what Joanne's pregnancy had to do with the fight with Johnny or Roy's out-of-character behaviour of the last few weeks.
Roy swallowed hard as he slowly picked up the coffee cup, his hold on the mug tightening as he slowly nodded his head, not trusting his voice to verbally answer.
"Congratulations Roy, that's great!" Dixie began until she saw the muscles in Roy's shoulders tighten. Frowning, she asked cautiously, "Isn't it?"
Roy shrugged, "I guess so … I mean we always talked about having another baby after Chris was born but…"
"But?"
Roy spun around, ignoring the hot liquid as it spilled over the lip of his cup and burned his hand, as the words rushed out, "I thought we had agreed that we couldn't afford to have another baby just yet, that we were going to wait a little while and save up before we tried."
"But things didn't quite work out the way you planned?" Dixie asked softly, wondering if her growing suspicion about what might be behind Roy's behaviour was correct.
Roy gave a single strangled laugh and shook his head, "No, Joanne made sure of that. She decided she couldn't wait and went off the pill without telling me. She thought that when she fell pregnant that I would be as happy about it as she was."
"But you weren't?"
"No, I wasn't … well, not at first… but now…" he sighed. "But now I guess it doesn't matter anymore."
Dixie's frown deepened, "It doesn't matter anymore? What do you mean but it doesn't matter anymore?"
"Joanne left me! That's what I mean!" Roy's voice rose as he struggled to stop the tears that threatened to fall. Taking a deep shuddering breath, he forced himself to lower his voice as he quietly spilled the secret, he had been hiding from everyone, even from Johnny, for weeks. "We had a massive fight when she told me what she had done, and that she was pregnant. The next day she took Chris and moved back in with her parents!"
"Ohh, Roy," Dixie murmured, her anger momentarily forgotten as she took a step towards the upset man.
Roy shook his head, his eyes bright with unshed tears as he continued, "I was so upset, so angry with not only Joanne but I was angry at the way I reacted myself, so I…I guess I took all my anger, my frustration and my hurt out on Johnny. I knew what I was doing was wrong but-"
"You were hurting so badly that you wanted someone else to suffer as well. And if that person wasn't Joanne, it might as well be Johnny." Dixie sighed, trying to keep a lid on her rising anger as she remembered just how miserable Johnny had looked the last couple of shifts that he had worked with Roy. She had tried then to find out what was wrong, but the usual animated young man had barely spoken a word.
Roy sighed guiltily, looking down into the mug he held in his hand. "Yeah, I guess that's what they mean when they say misery loves company."
Dixie nodded, "Just what happened between you and Johnny, Roy? I spoke to Captain Stanley and the other guys at the station but all they know is that you and Johnny had some sort of argument in the locker room just a few minutes before Johnny requested his transfer. I even tried asking Johnny what the argument was about, but each time your name comes up, he just changes the subject or clams up altogether."
"It was just a misunderstanding, Dix," Roy murmured, unable to admit aloud to anyone the hurtful, untrue, and undeserved things he had said to Johnny that morning in a moment of unjust temper or had been saying to him each time they had worked together after Joanne had left. No wonder, Johnny no longer wanted him as a partner, he couldn't blame him for that, nor could he blame Allen if the younger man was feeling the same way. But the realization that he had also managed to undermined Johnny's confidence in being a paramedic and or a rescue man with his unreasonable behaviour, tore through his soul. He turned his back to Dixie again, and whispered, "Just a stupid misunderstanding." as the office door behind him opened and Kel Brackett and Joe Early, still dressed in their OR scrubs stepped inside, followed closely by Johnny's partner, Benjie Melendez, and his new captain, Matt Roberts, as the rest of the Station 8 team waited outside`.