The Boot

Chapter Thirteen

By GCS

DISCLAIMER: "Emergency!" and its characters © Mark VII Productions, Inc. and Universal Studios. All rights reserved. No infringement of any copyrights or trademarks is intended or should be inferred. This is a work of fiction. This story is only written for entertainment. No financial gain is being realized from it. The story, itself, is the property of the author.

The phone rang startling Jim. He turned from the groceries and briefly wondered who would be calling him. He didn't want the phone to wake Cody up. He already knew Cody would be irritable and probably have a hangover, so he hurried to the phone and grabbed if off the cradle. "Hello," he said softly.

"Jim?"

"Yeah, yeah, who is this?" He still kept his voice low.

"It's Bill, I…uh…we were wondering…"

"We?" Jim knew now that the call was about that nail.

"Yeah, Um Dave Gotchalk, Tony Freeman, Jeff Swanson and me…We wanted to talk to you."

"What about, McDonald?"

Jim's use of his last name struck a nerve making Bill a little uneasy about the call. "Well…ya see…Oh come on Jim, you now as well as I do it's about your brother and his vendetta against John Gage." Bill sounded frustrated through the phone. "Can you come by Tony's place?"

"Listen McDonald, Cody is asleep. I'm about to fix us some dinner. I don't think I can right now."

"Jim, we're not trying to accuse Cody of anything. He's your little brother. You're our friend. We…um…we just thought." Bill turned to the other men in the room. He wasn't sure how much to say over the phone. "We just wanted to talk to you about things. Do you think you could meet us later for a drink or something?"

Jim looked up and noticed Cody standing in the doorway to the kitchen. His hair was sticking up, his shirt wrinkled, and his eyes bloodshot. He looked like crap. "They think I did it too?" It was more of a statement than a question. Then Cody turned away and walked back down the hall closing his bedroom door.

Jim sighed into the phone. "Okay, I'll meet you. What time and where?"

Bill smiled at the others. "How about seven at McGill's Pub?"

"Seven's fine." Jim hung up the phone without saying goodbye. He rested his head against the wall. His hand remained on the phone. He slowly dropped it to his side as he turned his back to the wall and leaned against it. 'Did Cody do it? It must have been him. No one else would have. Why Cody? And how are we going to fix this? Maybe the guys can help. Maybe they can talk to Gage.'

...

Dixie walked out of the treatment room leaving a worried young man and his new friends to ponder who would be looking for Johnny.

She looked over at the nurse's desk and made eye contact with the young nurse who pointed to the waiting area. When she turned down the hall a smile spread across her pretty pink lips. She walked right up to the man who'd been flashing a badge and put her hands on her hips. "I thought you were retired?"

He whipped around at the sound of her voice. "Dixie!"

"James Boyd, your running around here flashing that badge and asking questions has that young man scared to death." She admonished. "What is this all about?"

He lowered his gaze to his shoes and scuffed his toe on the tiled floor. "No one would tell me anything. When he didn't call, I…he was supposed to call."

"Johnny? How do you know John Gage?" Her head tilted and she stepped up beside the man trying to make eye contact.

"He's a friend. I sent him here in a taxi. He was going to take the bus. I couldn't let him do that after he almost got mugged yesterday. I would've brought him myself but…the breakfast crowd." He looked into her eyes and shrugged hoping she understood. "I had to...I told him to call. Is he that sick? I knew he was sick, but….where is he Dix?"

She smiled and cupped his cheek in her hand. "I never once believed you were that gruff, no nonsense policeman you pretended to be for all those years. You really are a softy Jimbo." Her eyes sparkled with fondness. "I should have known better than to turn down your proposal." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him gently on the cheek."

He looked sheepishly up at her and returned her smile. "The offer still stands beautiful."

Dixie stepped back and smiled. "Now you know better than that. We haven't dated in years, and I happen to be in a relationship." She folded her arms across her chest in a gesture the man remembered. He flinched at the realization that she meant business. "He's just a kid. How did you get mixed up with him?"

Jimbo shrugged again. "Some thugs beat him up and left him for dead in my alley about a year back. I couldn't just leave him there. He's so skinny. I helped him, fed him. Hell I've been trying to fatten him up, but nothing works. He kept coming back, cleaning up the place, fixing things…to pay me back. He said he couldn't take charity. He's never taken advantage of me like so many others have. I just…I don't know Dixie…he's a friend." He smiled, "A good friend."

"He gets to you doesn't he?" She patted him on the shoulder. "Come on." She turned and led Jimbo down the hall. She stopped and turned to him just before they entered a treatment room. "He almost got mugged yesterday?"

"Yeah, but somehow he talked his way out of it; brought the guy to my place for some food instead." Jimbo chuckled. "He really is a good kid Dix."

She smiled and winked at him. "I'm beginning to see that."

...

"So Johnny do you have any idea why a policeman would be looking for you here at Rampart?" Scotty asked, his eyes on the door expecting it to open at any minute.

"No." Johnny answered softly. His eyes were also glued to the door. His hands pulled at the blanket, fidgeting with the edge that he had pulled up to his chest again.

Captain Jones walked over and put his hand on Johnny's shoulder. "I'm sure we'll find out soon enough." He had noticed Johnny's breathing increased. He could hear some wheezing…or at least he thought he did. "Don't get yourself all worked up. Ms. McCall will find out what it's all about."

Johnny's eyes moved to his Captain for a few seconds before he closed them and tried to calm down. The minutes ticked by slowly. Captain Jones and Scotty returned to the wall and leaned back to wait. There was no way they would leave John now. He was one of them, one of their crew, a brother.

Johnny was tired. His chest ached, and he felt sick to his stomach again. He thought maybe if he just didn't move; if he could lie still and breathe carefully he would be okay. The room was quiet. Scotty and Cap didn't speak. Johnny almost forgot they were there with him. Somehow, even though he was really worried about the policeman on the other side of the door, he managed to fall back to sleep.

"He's asleep again." Scotty whispered.

Cap nodded his agreement. "He's had a rough couple of days."

They both startled when the door pushed open.

...

Everything was a blur.

He was hot, very hot, and it hurt to take a deep breath. Wherever he was, it was dark. He could hear people talking. Someone was yelling obscenities about getting out of there. Another voice sang a sad tune that sounded a lot like the chants he remembered as a child when he visited his ailing grandfather. The medicine man waved herbs over his withered body and murmured strange words. Johnny thought he must be back home in Montana. Someone must be sick or dying. The medicine man continued chanting.

He had his back against a cold concrete block wall. He knew it must be made of cinder blocks because of the pattern that ran between the rectangular shapes and the size of the gray blocks. They didn't look like they were meant to be gray. Maybe they had become gray over time from lack of care. He couldn't quite make it out, but there appeared to be writing on the other wall.

There was a cot against that wall, but why wasn't he in it? 'Why am I in the floor, in the corner?' He didn't know the answer to that question. He just knew he hurt all over. 'Did I get hurt at a fire? No I was at the hospital.' His eyes widened as he remembered the pretty nurse popping her head in and telling them an officer was looking for him. 'Oh God! I'm…I'm in jail.'

His lowered his aching head into his hands and pulled his knees in tighter to his chest. His breathing became more gasps than breaths. He knew what happened in jail. He'd heard stories while growing up on the reservation. The stories of how Indians were treated in jail. How they were wrongly accused, badly treated, even beaten unnecessarily, but he couldn't remember why he was arrested.

He raised his head from his knees and slowly opened his eyes. He looked around the small space.

In the center of the ceiling there was a lone light fixture incased in some sort of grate. The dim lighting didn't allow much of a view. One thing he did know for sure. At the far end of the narrow space were bars that ran from ceiling to floor. 'Oh God.' Fear gripped his heart. His stomach lurched. 'What have I done? Why am I here?'

Thinking back to the past few days the only thing that came to mind was the seedy man on the bus, the man who tried to mug him, the man he'd taken to Jimbo's, the man he'd helped. Johnny wondered if the man had done something. Maybe he had mugged someone else. Maybe they thought. 'No, that couldn't be. I didn't know him. Oh please, they didn't think we were together.' He squeezed his eyes shut. That had to be it. Someone had seen him with that creep and thought he was helping him, that they were accomplices. Now he had been arrested and left to rot in a cell.

"I di-n…I don…" His head thrashed from side to side. His hands reached out and wrapped around something in his mind. His knees pulled up from the treatment table. "Out…I nee-d…ou…Help."

...

Bill hung up the phone and turned to the other guys.

"Well?" Tony asked first. "Will he meet us?"

"He said he'd be there at seven." Bill ran his hand through his hair and blew out a long breath. "I don't know guys. I mean Cody is his brother. He's part of our shift. We need to think about that. If he did it then fine, we'll deal with that. But if he didn't…if he says he didn't do it, we'll have to trust that he didn't."

"He did it." Jeff said quietly. "I'm pretty sure he did it, but I'm not sure why."

"Well that's why we're meeting with Jim. If he did it we need to understand why, so we can help." Dave took a swig from the beer he was holding.

"Yeah, but help how?" Bill walked towards the kitchen. "Anybody need another drink?"

"Better slow down on that if we're going out later." Tony suggested.

"Yeah, you're right. How about sodas then, you have any soda?" Bill continued into the kitchen.

"Help yourself." Tony called to him.

Dave looked at his half finished beer and followed Bill into the kitchen. "I'll take a soda too." He poured the remainder of his beer down the drain and tossed it in the trash. "So do you think we should call Scotty to meet us?"

"I think we should, he's senior man. Well other than Cap and I don't think Jim will want to talk if Cap is there." Tony grabbed a soda and some more salsa and chips and headed back to the living room. "We need a plan." The others follow him and gathered around the table sharing the chips and dip as they talked about what to say to Jim and how they could help Cody, even if it meant asking him to resign, or at least seek some help.

...

Jimbo followed Dixie into the treatment room where they found Captain Jones and Scotty trying to hold the thrashing man on the table.

"What happened?" Dixie asked as she reached for the phone to page Dr. Early. "Hold him until I can page a doctor. Don't let him fall." She turned to the phone and dialed the number for the hospital operator. "Page Dr. Early to the ER, STAT."

Jimbo moved over beside Johnny and tried talking to him. "Hey kid, calm down. Everything is gonna be fine." He reached over and put his arm across Johnny's chest and tried to ease his arms down.

"I di-n do it. I didn't. Please le-me go." Johnny could barely get the words out between gasps.

Dixie put her hand on Johnny's forehead and could immediately tell his fever had gone up. She could feel the shudder that moved through him. She bent close to his ear and spoke calmly to him. "Shhh, sweetheart, it's okay, everything is okay. You're at Rampart. You have a fever. Calm down, please calm down." She recognized the signs of a panic attack, but the fever wasn't helping. She suspected that he was somewhat delirious from it. She also knew he was worried about the thought of a policeman asking questions about him. He didn't know it was just his friend trying to find him. She brushed his sweat soaked bangs from his face and continued talking to him until Dr. Early came in the room.

"What happened?" Dr. Early asked as he reached in the drug cabinet and picked up several bottles quickly reading the labels until he found the one he needed. He grabbed a syringe and filled it with the needed medication to calm the thrashing young man. Then he handed it to Dixie. "This should calm him down."

Dixie administered the medication through the IV port and continued brushing her hand across Johnny's forehead trying to sooth him. Captain Jones and Scotty were still holding his other arm and legs. Jimbo had moved back out of the way. He felt responsible for his friend's upset. He looked up and met Dixie's gaze. She gave him a reassuring smile. "He's going to be okay. He's spiked a temperature. He doesn't know it was you."

Dr. Early took his stethoscope from his pocket and began listening to Johnny's lungs. "Dix, can you get some vitals?"

Johnny's body had stilled and his breathing slowed. His face relaxed, and he no longer had his eyes squeezed shut. After a few minutes he slowly opened his eyes and looked around the room. "Wha…what happened? Can I go home now?"