Chapter 7
Squad 51, difficulty breathing, 2198 West More, Apartment 4 C, 2198 West More Apartment 4C, time out 3:41
When any one gets called out in the middle of the night everyone gets woke up. Because of the social conditions often presenting themselves late at night the engine is often dispatched along with the squad but not this time. Still the not currently needed Engineer was awaken along with the others and like the others he had his covers thrown to the side, his turn outs on, his suspenders over his shoulders and was half way to the engine before it registered that he wasn't going to be going anywhere.
Leaning against the engine for just a moment to calm his heart rate Mike then made his way back to his bed. After slipping his turnouts off and placing them in the ready position he pulled his feet into bed and pulled the covers back over his body then felt a nose and paw placed on his chest.
"What are you doing in my bed?" Mike talked to the dog not really expecting an answer.
"Cap did it not me," Chet defended himself before he was accused.
Mike lifted his head and gave his captain, who had just pulled his boots and turn outs off in preparation of going back to bed himself, a puzzling look.
"I thought it might help you sleep better," Captain Stanley shrugged, "I'll but him back on the sofa if you want me to."
"Just push him on the floor if he's taking up too much room," Chet countered, "He doesn't need to be carried around."
Just then Henry snuggled in closer nuzzling Mike's shoulder and breathing softly on his neck. Absent mindedly he reached over with his hand and started toying with the dog's soft, floppy ears, "No, s'kay." Mike settled in and drifted off to sleep dreaming of the little dachshund hound that was his first boy hood pet. Until the alarm sounded again two hours later Mike dreamed of being small and playing catch with his father as his little wiener dog, Frankfurter, chased after all the balls he missed. The times his father flew him around the yard with a towel pined around his neck while Frankfurter wore a washcloth pinned around his collar. But most of all the times he just lay on his bed before falling asleep at night with his dog there beside him.
He was sleeping soundly enough that he didn't hear the squad return and when the alarm sounded calling them to an accident with injuries Henry gave him a big wet kiss to help him get moving.
Hank watched his engineer closely during the response being aware of his slower than normal response to the alarm. The accident was far from being the worst they'd had to work on but Mike did his part well. The wake up tones sounded while they were returning to the station and that meant no one was going back to bed.
As the crew gathered in the common room in their fresh uniforms to partake of the fresh coffee Hank noticed that the station mascot had yet to return to his usual perch on the sofa and slipped in to the dorm for find that he had truly made himself comfortable in Mike's bunk.
"Good boy," Hank patted the dog on his head before lifting him down onto the floor. "You just might earn your keep around here in ways I've never thought of before." Hank returned to the office pausing to hold the door to the dorm open for Henry to slowly waddle through showing his objection to being made to walk all the way back to the common room. "You poor picked on Pooch," Hank mumbled as he stepped around the slow moving obstacle and made his way to the office to finish his end of shift paperwork.
Hank had just hung up with Headquarters when Laura's call came in.
"How's our boy?" Laura asked after the official phone response.
"He seems to be following the steps laid out in your book as if he'd actually read it," Hank answered. "He slept better last night than he has in a while."
"That's good," Laura sighed, her voice surprisingly void of any emotion.
"Headquarters has called to let us know that they've found at least some of the information you told us about and I've convinced him to take the next shift off to sort everything out," Hank reported.
"I guess I better check in with him then and see if he still wants me to go with him or not," Laura responded.
"I'll get him for you." Hank then stepped into the bay and called to the first man he saw. "John, would you please tell Mike he has a phone call, It's Miss Elmer."
Before John could even step into the common room Mike came running having heard that the phone call he was waiting for had come in.
Before Hank handed the phone over he held his hand over the receiver, "Before you talk to Miss Elmer you should know that headquarters just called and you'll be meeting with Chief Jenner this afternoon."
"So you're saying I should wear my dress uniform?" Mike questioned.
"I'd recommend it."
Mike nod his head to show that he understood and Hank handed him the phone and then politely left the room.
"Hello, this is Mike Stoker"
"Hi, do you still want me to go to the fire department headquarters with you?"
"Yes, Please, I mean if you can," Mike stammered slightly and then he heard in the back ground, "Dr. Bracket please report to emergency, Dr. Bracket please report to emergency."
"Are you at the hospital now? I thought you were going to go in last night." Mike felt confused and panicked he really felt like he needed Laura with him if he were going to get any information at all.
"I did come last night and I'm still here but they are getting ready to kick me out as soon as the doctor finishes his rounds," Laura lied. She could hear the panic in his voice and felt a responsibility to do something to ease it. She also could feel the walls closing in on her and wanted out. Every page she heard overhead, every code blue that was called was driving her crazy. Twice she had tried to respond but didn't know her way around the hospital well enough to be able to get where the help was being called for. Besides the doctor hadn't said she couldn't go, he had just said he would discuss it with her in the morning. She was sure she could convince him to let her go, if not, she'd go anyway.
"The captain said they found some information for you, do we have an appointment?" Laura confirmed she was planning to attend as subtly as she could.
"Yes, 13:00 hours, I thought we could go out for lunch before hand, If you're up to it?" Mike's voice was hesitant and Laura picked up on it. This wasn't her first time of dealing with a rescue worker in stress.
"Sure, what time are you going to pick me up?"
"I'll be off duty in a little over an hour then I need to go home and put my dress uniform on," Mike explained, "We'll be meeting with the head Chief."
"OOWW, the Head, Head Chief?" Laura's voice showed her first bit of emotion.
"Yeah, the big wig himself," Mike confirmed. "You're okay with that aren't you?"
"Those big wigs don't scare me none." Laura swatted at the air with her hand, "It's not like my job is on the line if my button's loose or my shoe lace breaks."
"I guess your right, so can I pick you up around eleven?"
"Sure, I'll be here at the hospital ready and waiting." Laura looked up to See Dixie McCall coming through her door. "I've got to go now but I'll be ready at eleven." Laura ended the call.
"So Dr. Bracket has released you, I thought he was waiting for lab results?" Dixie questioned.
"He will," Laura spoke positively, "Or you'll have to clear out one of your padded cells and find a straight jacket." "Are those my release papers?" Laura made notice of the papers in Dixie's hands.
"NO," Dix said a little too carefully for Laura's comfort.
"They're not my commitment papers are they?"
"No," Dix laughed. "It's an application for employment here. I was hoping I could persuade you to join us here at Rampart."
Laura rested back against the pillow and looked at the Head nurse of ER in surprise. "Just like that? You really don't know anything about me."
"I've checked your credentials; you've got quite an impressive resume." Dixie pulled a chair up and sat down.
"I haven't even written a resume," Laura countered then studied the nurse's face closely. "Who have you been talking to?"
"A military friend of mine," Dix answered, "Someone who worked along side of you at both the Indonesia and the China earthquakes,"
"Maggie Shuartz?" Laura guessed.
"The one and the same." Dix smiled. "She says you really know how to handle yourself when the world is going to pieces around you."
"Did she tell you I'm a frequent passenger on the banana boat to the funny farm?" Laura still acted skeptical.
"She said you were very passionate about your work and the patients you care for, that does come as part of the package especially when you go weeks at a time on only a couple of hours of sleep. She also said you were the one who knew how to pull everyone else together." Dixie revealed she had truly spoken to her friend. "We would make sure you keep your overtime to a minimum around here. Budget restraints and all."
"Yea well sometimes sleeping is more exhausting than running a marathon," Laura showed a flaw in her armor. "If you know Maggie you must have been in the Military yourself."
"A MASH unit during the Korean war, and I know what you mean," Dixie countered.
"Yeah, I guess you would understand then wouldn't you, At least I didn't have to deal with people trying to kill each other." Laura pulled her knees up in bed and relaxed her stance.
"I'm real flattered at the offer but I'm going to have to give it some thought." Laura responded to the papers in Dixie's hand.
"That's fair enough." Dix smiled, "Now is there someone I can call to bring you some clean clothes?"
"A, No, there's no one since my brother died, I have clean clothes in my camper, I'll just have to slip out there and get them."
"I can get them for you, would you like a pair of sweats?" Dixie offered.
"NO you better bring in the dark blue pants suit I guess I have an appointment with the great High almighty of the County fire Department this afternoon."
"Are they our competition for your services?" Dixie looked both worried and confused.
"NO, just some unfinished business," Laura looked the head nurse over, "And don't worry by the time I get through with them they won't want anything to do with me. You might be wise to reconsider."
"Not happenin, I saw you work last night, you're a keeper." Dixie called as she left the room.
When Dixie returned with the two dark suits that were found in Laura's camper, one being a Civil Air Patrol dress uniform with Captain's bars on the lapels, along with the unmentionables to go with them. As she approached the door to Laura's room she was stopped by the sound of Dr. Bracket talking with his patient.
"The lab work agrees with me that you're working yourself into the ground."
"That's why I'm on a run and hide Doc."
"But you worked in the emergency department just last night when you were quite sick I might add." Brackett countered.
"I was just trying to hurry the ones ahead of me doc. One of these days I'm going to offer to help and they tell me they don't need me but until they do I just can't sit still when there's something I can do to help. But trust me, as soon as I get out of here I'm not going any where near another hospital of disaster, Their going to have to come to me." Laura tried to convince her doctor he had nothing to worry about.
"Can you explain to me why you waited so long to get your shoulder taken care of after you returned from China?" Bracket showed he wasn't convinced.
"I was scheduled for surgery once but there was this tornado that went through and all elective surgeries were canceled and before I was rescheduled they were begging me to go to Baja to work that hurricane there and then I was dropped off at the apartment explosions here in LA county before I was put on a plane and sent to Washington DC to talk to them about some bill they wanted me to support. That's when I got word that my brother had accidently shot our father in the head while they were hunting. I had to make the call to take him off life support but my brother never forgave himself. He made four attempts at suicide over the next five months and I just couldn't leave him alone."
"I see," Bracket began to understand, "I assume that you've been able to get your brother the help he needs or you wouldn't be here now?"
Laura chewed on her tongue for a moment then turned a moist eye to her doctor. "His fourth attempt was successful."
"I'm sorry to hear that, sadly there are times when nothing we do is enough I hope you don't blame yourself."
"I'm working on it." Laura admitted.
"According to the Nurses charts from last night you didn't sleep well and you refused the prescribed pain med and sedatives."
"This is one of those times when I need to make sure I stay in control and totally sober at all times. When I'm digging out like this I can get very scary when I'm on drugs."
Through the partially open door Dixie watched Dr. Brackett sit on the foot of Laura's hospital bed and hold the chart in his lap.
"When you say digging out are you talking about depression?"
"That's part of it," Laura admitted pulling her knees up to her chest and draping her good arm across the top of them. "It goes deeper than that though. It's more of a rescue workers fatigue."
"Are we talking nightmares?" Bracket questioned.
"Some beauts." Laura admitted but then saw where the conversation was going. "But I'm not taking any anti-depressants; I've never planned more ways to off myself than I did when I was on those things."
"So you do have suicidal tendencies?" Brackett pressed harder.
"Not as long as I stay completely sober and in control." Laura spoke with emphasis and determination.
"You can get yourself into trouble by not getting quality sleep too you know." Brackett cautioned.
"The nightmares will pass, they always do. I've dug myself out before I'm sure I can do it again, I just need some time."
"We do have a very fine out patient psychiatrics department here at Rampart. Perhaps we can be of some help."
Laura studied her doctor for a moment tilting her head as she did so. "You're not telling me expert heal thy self. What a novel approach."
"I wasn't aware that you were an expert in this subject."
"I'm not really. I've just written a couple of books and given a hand full of lectures that's all. But it's a field that isn't getting adequate attention in the medical field these days."
"I'm afraid you're right, I've been reading a few papers on the subject."
"If I didn't write 'em I'd like to read 'em," Laura gave her doctor a smile. "Just to see if I agree with what they have to say."
"I can't keep you against your will but I would like you to come back in a week and have the stitches removed and sooner if the infection doesn't completely clear up with the anti-biotic. And I'm going to give you a prescription for pain just incase, once you get moving around I think you're going to find that the pain increases."
"I can agree to that." Laura conceded. But then she would have agreed to anything if it would get her out of that room, something both Dr. Brackett and Dixie suspected by her tone.
As Doctor Bracket left Laura's room he and Dixie shared a knowing glance that comes from their years of working together. Dixie waited a short amount of time and then entered and began to help Laura get showered and dressed. She didn't want to wear the uniform just the suit it fit better with her run and hide attitude.
When Mike Stoker arrived to pick her up Dixie was helping her adjust a sling to support her shoulder.
"Wow, don't you look sharp." Laura commented on the fireman in his dress uniform.
"You look sharp to," Mike commented on Laura's suit, "Are you sure you're up to this."
"We're going to have a meeting in an office right, not on the obstacle course." Laura gave as an answer.
"Yeah," Mike smiled and gave a slight sigh of relief.
"I'm sure I can handle it."