Finally! Johnny thought as he stepped into the station and head for the locker room on Thursday. Breathing in deeply the underlying smells of sweat, soap, and chemicals with diesel engine fuel on top, he felt at home.
Opening his locker, he heard a sprong!followed quickly by cold water and the Phantom laughing from the doorway.
"Chet!" Johnny huffed at him, shaking his nearly non-regulatation black hair out as he reached into his locker to get changed.
"Watch it Junior," Roy gripped goodnaturally, shaking his head at the two's antics. "Couldn't you lay off for a bit Chet, he just came back."
"Ahh, but the Phantom has four extra weeks stored up of pranks!" he said, an twinkle in his eye as he played with the tips of his mustache.
Rolling his eyes, knowing it'd be fruitless to argue, Roy closed his locker, "Come on Johnny, at least we can beat him to roll call."
Looking at the clock, Chet's eyes widen while Johnny giggled and slammed his locker shut after stuffing his civilian clothes inside.
As he and Roy made their way to the squad, Mike paused in checking the engine out to welcome him back. Marco did the same as he came into the bay from the kitchen, the smell of brewing coffee following.
"John, can I see you a moment?" Hank asked.
Glancing at Roy with a worried look, Johnny nodded and closed the drug box with a click beforue following his Cap into the office.
Closing the door behind the, Captain Stanley pointed to the chair by the desk, "Sit. I just wanted to touch base with you, see how things are."
"I'm doing pretty good Cap," Johnny told him truthfully, unsuccessfully keeping his hands and feet from shuffling. "I gotta admit it's a bit weird knowing the arsonists are still out there. I guess I'm kinda worried when they'll come out from hiding."
"Worried how you'll deal with that?" he asked, leaning forward.
Grinning at the long squeak that came from the chair, Johnny admitted, "Yeah, a little. But not too bad."
Nodding, Captain Stanley looked at him a long moment before adding, "Make sure if you have any problems, you come to me, Roy, or someone at Rampart."
"You won't tell anyone else will you?" Johnny asked, still worried that his Cap would feel it would be in his best interest to have everyone look out for him.
"I mean, it isn't that I don't appreciate your help and concern, but it's bad enough knowing how guilty Dix, Doctors Early and Brackett, along with Roy feel for not noticing or figuring things out. Sure, it's 'case the doctors are trained to spot problems and didn't, but jeez, it wasn't as if I hadn't done everything I could to hide it from them," John rambled so fast, Captain Stanley couldn't find an opening. "And I know you feel bad too, but again, how could you know? It's not like I spent much time around the crew on their free hours and with so many fires being set, everyone was being run ragged.
"Roy was hard enough to convince not to feel guilty. Probably because we've become part of each other's family. I just don't want the others to worry or feel bad or well, anything," sighing, Johnny looked towards his Cap after shaking himself mentally, the plea vivid in his brown eyes.
Shaking his head no, Hank leaned back, smiling with John this time as. the chair let out another groan of protest, "I don't see a reason why we need to. all ever told them is that you had some difficulty with you arm after the first shift back from the initial injury and until Brackett released you, we would have a sub.
Now, as far as us feeling guilty, well..." Hank paused to think a moment about how to word things. "As your captain, it's always been my responsibility to make sure my crew is healthy, not just physically, but emotional and mentally. I do feel like I Iet my responsibility, not just professionally, but personally, slide a bit and because of how close our crew is, I didn't deal well that react at first. I did talk things over with Doctor Brackett and although I wish things had gone differently, they didn't. At least now we know and can support you, although I guess I wish that you had found a better method of dealing with your pain so you didn't have to deal with this now. "
"You and me both," Johnny muttered.
"I still care about you and consider you a very valuable member of the crew," Hank told him, clearing his throat. "The other reason I called you in here is the police believe they found a relative of what they are now saying is a father son team. They need to find a way to contact her, but hopefully, it'll produce a valid lead."
Nodding again, Johnny stood up after Hank did so, "Thanks, Cap."
"No problem," he said, opening the door to see the crew looking at them with curiosity. "Alright men, roll call. I'll tell you what I told John after handing out assignments. Kelly, you of course, get latrines..."
With that, the first shift back for John began.