Chapter Two

Johnny shook his head to focus as the stretcher was wheeled in, water spraying from his soaked hair. He heard Roy talking in the background, "We shocked twice more on the way in, we're in asystole now." Doctor Brackett nodded. Johnny kept straddling the patient, giving CPR, as they were slid over to the bed. Sharon came running back into the room and stood off to the side waiting for orders.

Doctor Brackett saw her, "Sharon, take over for Johnny." Sharon nodded, she walked over to the bed and stood up on the rails. Johnny got off the stretcher rubbing his wrists, relieved at the break. He walked away from the clump of people and leaned against the wall, watching. After another nurse took over bagging the patient, Roy joined him. He grabbed a couple towels from the cabinets and offered one to Johnny.

"That was a bad one." Roy unnecessarily said as he dried his hair. Johnny nodded as he was still catching his breath after a half hour of CPR. They sat in silence as they watched the well-oiled team work.

Doctor Morton came in moments later, he walked up to the patient and said, "Sorry I'm late, what's the story?" Kelly nodded his head towards the medics.

Roy spoke up, "He was driving home, crashed his car into a ditch. A bystander called when they saw car lights underwater. He was under for at least eight minutes. When we first hooked him up to the monitor, he was in sinus tach, then he bradyed down. We gave 'im atropine with no effect. We shocked twice on the way in with epi's on board. When we got here, we had asystole on our monitor." Morton nodded and joined his attending at the bedside.

"We're in PEA!" Brackett announced, "Dix, give 50 amps of bicarb, see how he does with that." Dixie nodded and picked up an already filled syringe and injected it into his IV line. "Can we get another line?" the Doctor asked anyone free.

"On it" Dixie replied. She deftly found another vein and quickly set up another IV.

Johnny and Roy walked out of the treatment room moments later, towels around their necks and their shoes squelching. They didn't want to watch their patient die, he had just underwater too long. They dejectedly walked to the doctor's lounge looking for a cup of coffee. "We did all we could Junior." Roy said, without much conviction behind it.

"I know," Johnny replied, "Still sucks." Roy nodded and took a sip of the hot strong coffee. "I can't wait until we can change out of our wet clothes." Johnny added. "It's like walking around in cardboard." Roy nodded again. After they finished their cups of terrible hospital coffee, they walked out, looking for Dixie so they could restock. They knew they wouldn't find her in the treatment room.

"I'm sorry guys," she said, "He was just under too long." She looked up in sorrow from the counter

"We know." they replied in unison. Johnny added and trailed off, "We have a pretty long restock list..."

Dixie nodded, "I figured as much, what do a couple of soaked medics need?"

"Let's start with a size 8 ET tube, a BVM, an IV kit, atropine,..." as Johnny rattled off equipment and meds, Roy noticed the lady they rescued from the ice machine earlier. She quickly looked away when she was caught staring.

"Hey Dix," Roy said. Dixie turned around from the restock cabinet expectantly. "How's that lady's hand we took in earlier?"

Dixie smiled, "Not broken, she should be discharged when Morton gets a chance to talk to her." She looked at Johnny, "She was asking about a certain medic." she said with a smirk.

Johnny looked up from the growing pile of supplies, "Wha'?" not paying attention as he concentrated.

"The lady you brought in; she was asking about you." Dixie smirked again.

"Oh, how is she?" Johnny repeated his partner's question. Dixie rolled her eyes and answered while Roy looked thoughtful and stole another glance at the mysterious lady.

Morton walked out of the treatment room and over to the pair of medics at the counter. "How long did you say he was under again?" he asked.

"At least eight, ten minutes" Roy replied.

Morton nodded, "Good job guys," he added. "That one was tough, good job staying with him." There was a moment of silence then he said to Johnny "Did you notice the resemblance between you and your hand lady?" he asked.

Roy nodded answering for his partner, "Could've been Johnny's twin."

Dixie looked at her in the patient waiting room then back at Johnny, "They do look alike, different complexions though." Dixie thought.

Johnny looked off in the distance, chewing on the end of his green pen. A distant "Yeah." was all he said on the matter. Chet suddenly appeared at the counter. Like the medics, he was dripping water all over the hallway. He looked sheepishly and shrugged at the custodian who was glaring at him, all three of them.

"Thanks for driving the squad in." Roy said when they were all scrunched in the squad going back to the station. "We needed both hands." Chet nodded.

"I'm sorry you lost him." Chet replied. There was silence on the rest of the way back.

Roy backed the squad into the station and the three soaked firefighters headed for the locker rooms, looking forward to changing into dry uniforms. Johnny sat on the bench in front of his locker, instead of chewing his pen, he was twirling it in his fingers, lost in thought. Footsteps brought him out of his reverie, "I'm coming Roy." he said with a touch of irritation in his voice. When he looked up, he wasn't looking at his partner, he was looking at Captain Stanley. "Oh, sorry sir." he said standing up.

"It's okay John, I just came in to tell you there's fresh coffee in the day room. None of us thought it was worth going back to sleep." Johnny nodded, sitting back down to finish tying his shoelace he had forgotten about. "You okay?" the Captain asked, concerned about his youngest medic. "Chet told me you lost 'im."

"Yeah, I'm good Captain, I'll be right in." Hank looked surprised at the obvious dismissal and formal use of his rank. Even though he was new to this crew, this didn't seem to be normal behavior from the exuberant man.

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Jane was in a taxi going back to her hotel. The doctor told her it wasn't broken, but she should ice it at least three times a day. Jane smiled at the irony, the thing that caused her injury, would be vital to heal it. Back in her room she glanced at her watch. "If it's 6 am here, then it's 9 in Maine." she muttered thinking out loud. She picked up the phone in her hotel room and gave the number to the operator. The phone rang three times, then someone picked up, "Hey Mom." Jane said.