"A Heavenly Cause"
Chapter Ten
Two days later…
Hank Stanley had been 'summoned' to headquarters.
Chief Brevik escorted the fire officer up to his boss' office and gave its closed portal a tap. "Captain Stanley is here to see you, sir…"
"Yes. Of course," an amicable voice called through the door. Moments later the portal opened. "Captain," LACFD's Chief Engineer gave the fire officer's hand a hearty shaking. "Come in. Come in. Have a seat," he continued, the invitation matching the warmth in the broad smile on his face.
"Thanks, Chief," Hank acknowledged, sinking into the only seat in sight—a rather large, heavily cushioned chair situated smack dab in front of Jenner's desk.
Jenner re-assumed his seat, and steepled his fingers. "I assume you know why you were summoned here today."
"If I were to guess, I'd say it had something to do with one of my men. Firefighter Paramedic John Gage, to be precise."
Jenner smiled. "Good guess. I had a whole pile of paperwork sitting on my desk: half of it citing him for valor, the other half for insubordination. The way I looked at it, it all sort of balanced out. So-o, seeing as how I happen to love a clean desk...and how regulations state that all reports must be filed…I gathered the whole works up and stashed it into File 13."
Hank saw the Chief pointing to his wastebasket and couldn't help but smile. "I've filed a few things there, myself."
"All disciplinary measures in this matter will be left to your discretion, Captain."
"Appreciate that, Chief. But you may want to reconsider that, because I have no intentions—what-so-ever—of disciplining John Gage. If we'd a' had medical clearance at the time, my guys and I would a' been right behind him." If saying that cost him his job, then so be it. Any department that would fire someone for wanting to save one of their own wasn't worth working for, anyway.
The officer's frank admission caused Jenner's smile to return. "Not just you and your crew. The way I hear it, half the men on the fire-ground were set to go in." The head honcho's smiling face quickly filled with a scowl. "None of you should have been forced into that position in the first place. It may interest you to know that I have already taken 'steps' to assure that it won't happen again…"
Hank knew how the political game was played, so he understood what Jenner was hinting at.
Bergmann had been promoted.
'Probably figured he'd pose less of a danger to the department if he was stuck behind a desk,' Hank silently mused. "Appreciate that, Chief," 51's Captain repeated and exchanged a knowing smile with LACFD's Chief Engineer.
John Gage had also been 'summoned' to headquarters, which, he figured, signaled the end of his career…at L.A. County, anyway.
He had hoped his efforts to save his partner's life wouldn't get him fired. But, if they had, well…it was worth it…Roy was worth it!
Besides, any department that would fire a guy for trying to save his partner wasn't worth working for, anyway.
He had contemplated wearing his dress blues, but had finally settled on his duty uniform. Might be the last time he'd be donning it. Besides, he'd learned the hard way that it was always best to be under, rather than over, dressed.
The paramedic pulled up in front of the LACFD headquarters building and was amazed to find every off-duty firefighter and paramedic that had responded to that apartment complex fire with him standing out front, apparently, awaiting his arrival.
He parked his Rover and went stepping up to the building's blocked main entrance. "Look, guys, I appreciate this show of support. I really do. But I don' wanna see anybody else gettin' in trouble on account a' me."
"That's very noble of you, Gage," Rob Turcott told him with a grin, "but we ain't goin' anywhere."
Gage flashed them all a grateful grin. "Thanks!"
The crowd of supporters parted, and the summoned paramedic reluctantly stepped inside.
John was seated just outside Jenner's office, massaging his forehead and critiquing the color and pattern of the weave in the carpeting beneath his tapping feet. Of course he was nervous. Who wouldn't be?
Suddenly, the Chief Engineer's office door opened and his Captain emerged.
"C'mon, pal," Hank warmly invited, giving Gage an assist to his feet. "Let's go find a coffee machine and a quiet place…where we can talk."
'Uh oh…here it comes.'
John had sniffed out a coffee machine and his Captain had found an empty conference room.
The two of them sat at the room's long oval table, steaming Styrofoam cups of coffee in hand, staring aimlessly down at the floor.
Stanley suddenly realized something. "You're wearing you're luxuriously comfortable new safety shoes! How did you get them to stop passing gas?"
"Well, after I got that call from headquarters, I couldn't sleep. So I decided to take 'em for a long walk."
"How long a walk?"
"I ain't exactly sure. But it cost me over six bucks in cab fare to get home."
"How long before they stopped…you know?''
"I was so distracted I guess I didn't even notice." John couldn't take the suspense any longer. "Cap, have I been fired?"
Stanley was so astonished by the question it took a second or two to regain his ability to speak. "No, you haven't been fired, yah twit. Were you expecting to be?"
"I dunno. Maybe. I wasn't really sure what to expect. I never disobeyed a Battalion Chief's direct order before. I've never been summoned to headquarters before, either."
"You took the initiative to circumvent an order that never should have applied to rescue efforts, in the first place. The only thing I can see that you did wrong was…you didn't go to your Captain first."
"I wanted to. Honest, Cap. But I didn't wanna get you in trouble with the department brass."
"Department brass be damned! They don't concern me. My men are—and always will be—my main concern. Got it?!"
"Got it, Cap!"
"Good…good…Now, before you go starting any future insurrections, I want you to promise me that you will always come to your Captain first."
"I promise, Cap!"
"Great! Now, what d'yah say we get outta here? The coffee stinks!"
They set their barely touched cups down on the conference table and began taking their leave.
"Man, I sure hope we don't get another call with 10's any time soon. I got a feeling Chief Bergmann isn't gonna be as understanding as you are, Cap."
"Relax. Chief Bergmann doesn't work at 10's anymore."
"Oh yeah? What Battalion does he work outta?
"None. He works here now."
"Here?"
The Captain nodded. "He was promoted."
"Promoted? Promoted?" John dazedly repeated.
"Eh-yup."
They exited the building and were immediately engulfed by the summoned paramedic's support group.
"Captain," Rob Turcott, who was apparently the group's spokesman, solemnly began, "We took a vote. The decision was unanimous. Whatever disciplinary action the department has decided to take against John, should be applied to the rest of us, as well."
Hank had to fight back a grin. "Fine. Then you can all go back to your respective stations and start cleaning latrines."
The looks of defiance on the faces of John's supporters were slowly replaced with ones of both disbelief and relief, followed finally by consternation.
"Thanks, again, guys!" John called out as his sullen supporters slowly began to disperse. Then, in an aside to his now broadly grinning boss, he said, "Know somethin', Cap…you can be awfully cruel."
"Eh-yup," his cruel superior unabashedly admitted and went snickering gleefully off in the direction of his parked car.
"Promoted?" John numbly repeated—all the way over to his own parked car.
John popped into his partner's hospital room. "He-ey, how yah doin'?" he cheerfully inquired and plopped two glass bottles down on his buddy's nightstand. "I was gonna bring you a Juicy Burger and fries, but they still got you on a liquid diet."
Roy completely ignored the gifted Gatorade. He was far more interested in the whole 'summoned to headquarters' thing. "What happened?!"
"Chief Bergmann was promoted. Can you believe it?"
"Figures. But I meant between you and the Chief."
"Nothin'."
"Nothin'?"
"I didn't even get to see him. But Cap' did and he says that I am not going to be fired."
His partner was completely overjoyed. "Well, all-righty!" he exclaimed, borrowing a 'Gageism'.
Johnny spotted his convalescing partner's untouched lunch tray and the bowl of some sort of unsavory looking gruel and his grin vanished, but only momentarily. "Could be worse," he teased.
His bed-ridden buddy looked extremely dubious.
Gage's grin broadened. "You could actually be able to taste that stuff."
DeSoto couldn't help but grin.
"Look, I'll be back in a bit. I'm gonna go see if I can find out when I can start bringin' you some real food." He started backing toward the door, bursting into song along the way. "This is my quest…To follow that star…" he reached the door and then kept right on singing, clear down the corridor and up to the Nurses' Station. "No matter how hopeless…No matter how far…"
The patient's grin broadened. 'Speaking of hopeless…'
Roy was certain Johnny would reach that 'star' long before he would. His partner was already on another planet.
'Bergmann was right,' he silently realized. 'They sure don't make firemen like they used to.'
Nowadays, they made 'em even better.
The End
"And the world will be better for this…" —Joe Darion