Back Where We Belong
When Hank reported for duty Monday morning he was early as usual. Chief McConnike was there waiting for him in the parking lot behind the station and beckoned him into his car. For the next twenty minutes the two men went over all the reports the incident commander Desoto had filled out and a rough draft of what was expected to happen that morning. When Chief McConnike shuffled through all the papers they had finished discussing and started with one a second time Hank knew what was really going on.
"A, Chief, Sir, It's fine with me if we talk about your grandchildren until who ever they are, have the station ready for us."
"That obvious am I?" the Chief gave a sheepish grin.
"Let's just say, I think we would all be a little disappointed if there wasn't some kind of a welcome back. I just hope no one goes too far with it."
"You are a good Captain," McConnike admitted, "Your suggestion of including the children from the hospital is a real nice touch."
"The letters and the pictures they sent to us the day after really cheered us up when we felt our worst." Cap revealed with a smile. "If you had seen the look on my men's faces when they were visiting with the children after they had their eyes bandaged, you'd have thought of it too."
One by one the crew of station 51 A shift started arriving in the bay. Not surprisingly all of them were in Uniform ready to go to work or at least looking like it in the case of Chet and Marco. They knew the media was going to be there and none of them wanted to be caught on TV in their underwear. Captain Stanley helped the Chief keep them from entering the building before the okay was given.
As the men started to look a little antsy Hank ordered Roll Call line up, in the parking lot while Chief McConnike ran inside to give everyone a five minute warning.
When the rear bay door began to rise Hank did an about face putting his back to his men and facing what the open bay was about to offer. "Alright men here we go, follow me."
With Captain Stanley in the lead and the rest of the men lined up behind him they all walked into the bay. For some this was the first time they had been there since the fumigation and they were pleasantly surprised by the smells they could detect and the one they couldn't. Once everyone was inside confetti cannons fired followed by a shout of welcome home. Once their eyes adjusted to the light and were sure there was no more confetti falling the men smiled for the cameras and an expert on smells, Chief McConnike's mother-in-law, stepped forward to inspect each man. They were all given a B+ for smell factor and declared ready to unleash on the public.
As the media filmed them inspecting their equipment the men noticed that the cabs of both the squad and the engine were stuffed with stuffed animals and further inspection found several stuffed animals hiding in most of the compartments.
Once Chet and Marco loudly announced that they were not going to pull the ones out of the draft hose, Chief McConnike stepped up and gave instructions on the new policy for checking the inside of the draft hose.
"Alright men this is how the draft hoses will be inspected from now on." He barked like a drill instructor. "Avoid the ends at all times, step up to the side and two men working together will unlatch the hose, after tipping it on its end and giving a good shake." Mike and Johnny were going through the motions as the Chief was calling them out and when they tipped the hose on its end several stuffed Skunks slipped out of the hose and bounced on the floor.
"Once you have given the hose a good shake and feel certain that it is empty then and only then should you look inside to see if all is clear." The chief ended with laughs and giggles all around him as the crowd began to applaud.
Chet and Marco demonstrated the new procedure on the second hose producing several more stuffed skunks but there were also a couple of teddy bears in that hose.
Once the draft hoses were again latched onto the fire engine Captain Hank Stanley was official declared in charge of the station and he started barking out order.
"All right men let's get those stuffed animals unloaded from the vehicles and into bags. We'll be taking them with us."
All of the firemen including Rollins and Carrington, Chet and Marco's replacements, hurried to make quick work of readying the engine and squad for service. The stuffed animals were stuffed into garbage bags and tied down on top of the hose then more orders came. "Kelly, Lopez, your in the seats, Carrington, Rollins, Gage and Desoto your on the tailboard. Let's move it out."
The men hurried into their assigned positions and Mike drove the engine to Rampart with a convoy of news crews and a Chiefs car following behind.
Once the fire engine was parked each man on board was given an arm load of stuffed animals and a pocket full of printed coupons, good for a full tour of any fire station of their choice. From there they walked inside as a group and rode the elevator up to pediatrics. The charge nurse was ready for them when they stepped off the elevator and each fireman was directed into rooms where they were able to visit with the children there and leave each child with a stuffed animal and a coupon. When they had visited every child that couldn't get out of bed they were all led to a waiting room where several children who could be moved were waiting in wheel chairs. Each fireman pulse a few nurses took control of a wheel chair and moved toward the elevators. It took several trips but then all of the children who were able to, were lifted onto the fire engine. Three children who had suppressed immune systems were crammed into the cab with Mike and a nurse while Chet and Marco were strapped into their seats with two kids each on their laps. The rest of the children and nurses were then lifted up on top of the hose bed. The rest of the firemen including Captain Stanley and Chief McConnike then climbed up in the hoses and helped to hold each of the children, Johnny helped hold a nurse too. Each child was given a stuffed animal but no coupons, they had to do something to at least make if feel fare for all those who couldn't ride on the engine this time.
Mike then took all of the children for a nice slow ride around the parking lot, at five miles per hour, with media cameras rolling. When they were at the far end of the parking lot Mike let the children in the cab take turns sounding the air horn and the sirens and then asked them to be quiet again when they got close to the hospital again telling them that they didn't want to wake up the sick patients.
It was far too soon for the children when Mike pulled the fire engine to a stop in front of the hospital once again and while Hank was pushed in front of several microphones to explain in front of news cameras why they gave the children a ride, the rest of the firemen started lifting the children back down from the engine and into their waiting wheel chairs.
When the children were unloaded and wheeled inside the hospital Hank pulled his handy talkie off from his belt and as the media recorded put the fire station back in service. It had been prearranged with dispatch that that meant in five minutes, giving the engine time to get back to the station and unload the paramedics to run the squad and the not yet released for duty firemen to go home and get some rest.
Half of the media crews stayed to interview the children while the other half followed the engine back to the station to interview the firemen.
At last but not nearly soon enough for the men the media circus was brought to an end when the station was called out on a traffic accident with injuries.
Chief McConnike mercifully remained behind to help Marco and Chet make their escape from the media with their mothers and answered a few more questions before assisting the Public Relations manager in escorting the reporters and camera men on their way and locking the doors behind them.
As he did so he kept an ear trained on the radio transmissions from engine 51 to make sure all was well.
The accident had involved three cars, one had changed lanes too abruptly clipping another car and causing the axel to break. The second car had then spun out of control and ended up smashing into the driver's side of the car in the next lane.
The occupants of the first two cars were uninjured just terrible shook up and furious with each other over the damage done to their cars. It was definitely good that the police had arrived at the same time as the squad.
The third car needed help. The woman driving had hit her head on the drivers side door on impact and was unconscious as a set of six month old twins were strapped into car seats in the back screaming.
Johnny managed to get the passenger door opened and climbed in to do evaluations on the occupants of the car. The car seats had broken loose from their restraints and were turned upside down but the children remained safely strapped inside the child seats so that all Johnny could find in a hurry was a few bruises. Both car seats were lifted out with the children still in them and handed to Roy and one of the police officers on site while Cap worked with the crow bar to get the driver side door open.
Once Roy had given the children a good checking over they were placed in Mike's care while Roy helped Johnny with their mother. Together with the help of the sub firefighters they managed to get their patient on a back board and laid out on the pavement before she began to regain consciousness. Once she realized what was happening her one and only concern was for her children and neither John nor Roy were able to calm her down until she was loaded in the ambulance and was able to see for herself that her two small children were indeed okay. Both infants were still in their car seats and totally mesmerized with a stuffed animal in their hands.
Johnny was quick to notice that the little dog had a small close pin on his nose so Johnny quickly removed it before the baby could get it in its mouth. The mother somehow managed to turn her head enough to see that the other baby was holding a skunk and after a moment of confusion she asked, "Are you one of the firemen who were attacked by the skunks last week?"
"Yes ma'am, this is our first day back on duty," Johnny assumed she was smelling his unpopular aftershave.
"That's surprising, I can't smell skunk on you at all, I thought it would take a lot longer to get you guys descented." She then opened her eye's wide and turned pink in a hurry. "I'm sorry, that wasn't a very nice thing to say."
"Ma'am, that's the nicest thing you could have said. For the most part we haven't been able to smell skunk since thirty seconds after we got hit and most people are too polite to tell us anything," Johnny gave a crooked smile.
For the next several weeks the fire fighters from Station 51 were the public's favorites even if they weren't on the shift that got fumigated. They were the station who was handing out stuffed animals to all of the children they rescued. The PR was so positive several volunteer groups were providing other stations with homemade stuffed animals so they could do the same. Some one determined it helped the children deal with the stress of the crisis.
It took a good two weeks for Chet and Marco to produce chest x-rays clear enough to be cleared to fight fires but it was good to get them back on duty. Their family was whole once again. It was their second shift back when the men were called out on a structure fire in the middle of the night.
As they pulled onto the scene they could see a hay stack on fire but while the rancher was waiting for the fire department to arrive he started up his tractor and started pushing the part of the stack on fire away from the chicken coop and barn.
That was a good move but he wasn't fast enough to keep the chicken coop from catching sparks so Chet and Marco were ordered to take in a two and a half hose to extinguish it.
Things were getting under control quickly when Hank heard what sounded like high powered water jets hitting the unaffected side of the chicken coop at the same time Mike reported a pressure jump on Kelly and Lopez's line. Hank quickly looked in that direction only to see something coming out of the opening meant for the chickens to come and go through. It was large, black with white stripes and soaked wet, shaking water from its fur as it ran away from the action followed by three smaller versions.
Johnny and Roy were aware that something wasn't right and looked to their captain just incase he had orders for them. The look on his face was one of shock, his eyes wide, his mouth just as wide and his hand at the side of his face looking at the chicken coop.
The two paramedics followed their leaders gaze and managed to get a solid glimpse of the retreating wild life. Their expressions soon matched their leaders. Chet and Marco then backed out of the coop door keeping their hose at the ready.
Hank and his paramedics cautiously approached their team mates and when they met half way between the coop and the fire engine Chet and Marco shut their hose off and turned to face their leader.
Cautiously Hank took a breath and then stopped in surprise, "You don't smell like you got skunked."
"We tried a slightly different approach this time," Marco commented.
"Yeah," Chet added, "When we saw them turning their back sides to us we sprayed first." Chet then patted his hose nozzle and slid it downward against his leg as if he were holstering a gun.
It took a moment for everyone to catch their breath or rather dare to breath but then they started laughing. "I guess we can say you're the quickest spray of the west Kelly,"
"Not to mention better smelling spray," Johnny added and they all gave out a sigh, a laugh and went back to work. There was still a fire to get out.
The end