The Boot

Chapter Fourteen

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.

Johnny blinked several times looking warily from face to face and whispered, "Why is everyone looking at me?" He lifted his glazed eyes to Dixie who stood above his head. Her hand still rested on his shoulder. Scotty and Captain Jones still held on to his arm and leg. He shifted a little and felt trapped. He hated to be the center of attention. A shudder ran through him. "Uh…" He cleared his throat. It felt like it was full of cotton. "Am I under arrest?"

"No Johnny. Just take it easy. It was a mistake. No one is going to arrest you." Dixie soothed. Captain Jones and Scotty moved back against the wall to give Johnny some space. Dr. Early nodded to Dixie to meet him at the nurse's desk as he slipped from the room.

"I di'n do nothin' wrong." Johnny whispered groggily. He closed his eyes and sighed. All he wanted to do was sleep, but he had to make them understand. "Th..that guy yesterday ..he was tryin' to take my wallet. Did he mug somebody else? I di'n know 'im. I promise." He looked at his new boss. He wanted…no he needed him to know. He needed to be sure he would still be able to return to the job that he had already come to love. "I di'n know 'im," he spoke softly, his voice almost pleading.

They all looked at each other. The realization that Johnny still thought he was going to be arrested and that he thought he had somehow been linked to his would be mugger dawned on them; Jimbo was the first to react. "Hey kid, everything is okay. Just relax." He moved back up beside the treatment table.

Johnny slowly turned his head and squinted at Jimbo whose face slowly came into view. "Oh man did they call you too?" His eyes moved back to Dixie. "I don't want to be any trouble. I'll just get out of your way." He tried to sit up, but Jimbo put his hand in the center of Johnny's chest and easily pushed him back down. "You didn't have to call Jimbo. He's gotta cook. 'm s..sorry Jimbo. I'll just go with them. I won' resist." His words began to slur, his eyes grew heavy, and he blinked a few times trying to keep them open. He was having trouble fighting the medication Dr. Early had given him to help him calm down.

"It's okay Johnny. I just came down because I didn't hear from you. No one called me. I'm real sorry you were worried about the police thing." Jimbo felt like a heel. Here he had wanted Johnny to see a doctor and now he had upset him so badly with his little white lie that he might have to be admitted to the hospital. He patted Johnny's chest and feeling like he no longer needed to hold him down, removed his hand. "I had to flash my badge to get some information about how you were. No one would tell me anything." He lowered his eyes and shrugged.

"Oh man, that was you?" Johnny relaxed a little more. Once he realized it was just Jimbo and not some officer come to take him into custody, exhaustion seemed to overcome his senses. His eyes blinked slowly.

Jimbo watched the tension ease out of Johnny's face. "Well you know old habits die hard." He chuckled. Then he looked up at Captain Jones and Scotty. "Hey Dale, Ben, nice to see you; I haven't seen you at the diner in a while."

Captain Jones walked over and shook Jimbo's outstretched hand. "Jimbo, good to see you. I've been meaning to stop by. You look like the retired life is agreeing with you." He patted his stomach indicating that Jimbo had put on a few pounds.

"Well, I don't know about the 'retired life', I work more hours now than I did when I was on the force, but I'll tell you the company is better." Jimbo smiled proudly.

"So Jimbo, you know this boot?" Scotty shook his hand as well.

Jimbo glanced over at the now sleeping Johnny, "Yeah, I know him. I met him about a year ago before he joined the academy. He kind of grows on you." He smiled. "Like a stray cat or something." Everyone laughed causing Johnny to stir. He softened his voice and continued. "He's ah…he's a good friend."

"Gentlemen if you will excuse me a minute. I'm going to see what Dr. Early wants to do about our patient." Dixie felt of Johnny's forehead to see if he was still warm. "Can you stay with him for a few minutes?"

"Yes, we'll be here." Jimbo answered; then turned to Ben and Dale. "Sorry," He shrugged. "I'll stay."

Understanding that Jimbo didn't want to speak for the two of them, Captain Jones nodded. "We'll stay. I need to know how to fill out the incident report anyway."

"I'll be right back Cap. I think I'll call Tony. He was expecting me to watch the game this afternoon. I need to let him know what's going on." Scotty followed Dixie from the room.

The phone rang just as the crowd cheered on the TV set. "Oh man this always happens when the game gets good." Tony complained as he rose from his chair and walked over to the phone. On the fourth ring he grabbed the receiver and lifted it to his ear. "Hello."

"Hey Tony."

"Scotty! Man where the heck are you? This game is getting good." Tony kept his eyes on the TV as he talked on the phone. "Did you see that?" He asked the other guys in the room. "So are you still coming over? We're at half time. You can still catch the second half."

"Listen Tony, I'm sorry I didn't get over there. I got tied up." Scotty ran his hand over his face and tried to stifle a yawn. Hanging around a hospital all day had made him tired.

"What hot young babe kept you?" Tony laughed.

"No man, it's nothing like that. I'm over at Rampart and…"

"Rampart! What happened? Are you all right?" Tony motioned to Gotchalk to turn down the volume on the TV. He, Jeff and Bill moved closer to Tony to find out what was going on. "Scotty's at Rampart." Tony whispered to them.

"I'm fine. Uh actually I came with Cap."

"CAP! What happened to Cap?" Tony's eyes were wide and his mouth hung open in disbelief.

"Tony…" Scotty sighed. "Slow down would ya…let me talk. I'm here with Cap, because he was called down here about Gage."

"Johnny, our new boot? What happened to him?" Tony put his hand over the phone speaker and whispered to the others again. "He's there with Johnny."

"Well you know yesterday…the nail. He had to take the bus to get home. He walked a long way in the rain. Some guy tried to take his wallet…"

Tony cut in again. "Gage got mugged. Man that kid has some bad luck."

"Johnny got mugged?" Jeff asked.

"Is he okay?" Bill asked. "I mean he just started at the station and uh...I like working with him on the engine. He's gonna be a good firefighter." Bill rattled off.

"Wait guys let's not jump to conclusions. Let Tony find out." Gotchalk was the voice of reason. He looked at Tony. "Well?"

"No Tony…Tony!" Scotty yelled into the phone.

"Yeah…yeah Scotty, I'm here. I'm listening." Tony rolled his eyes. He wanted Scotty to hurry and get to the point.

"He didn't get mugged. He talked his way out of it." Scotty chuckled. "He talked the guy into going down to Jimbo's diner. You remember James Boyd. He's that retired police officer who opened a diner. Anyway, Johnny slipped out the back while Jimbo fed the guy."

"He didn't get mugged." Tony mouthed to the others. "So what does all this have to do with Rampart?"

"Well after diving in to pull Cody out, then working in all that rain, and finally having to walk home in it after Co…someone put that nail in his tire, he got sick. He's real sick. Doc thinks he may have pneumonia." Scotty rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was getting a headache. Maybe he would ask at the nurse's desk if he could get an aspirin. "If I find out who…"

Tony whispered to the others. "Gage is really sick, pneumonia." He waited for Scotty to continue. When he didn't Tony decided to tell him about their planned meeting with Jim at seven. "We're meeting Jim down at McGill's around seven. Do you want to come with us. We were going to try to talk to him about Cody."

"McGill's? maybe. I want to stay here and find out if they let Johnny go home or not. Cap and I rode together. The kid took a cab to get here. We may need to give him a lift home…if they let him out of here. So you guys think it was Cody?"

"I don't know Scotty, but if it wasn't him, then I don't know who it could have been."

"Okay Tony, if I get out of here in time I'll be there. Listen I gotta go. I want to get back in there and try to find out how Johnny's doing. He was pretty upset earlier. He thought the police had come for him."

"The police? Why would the police be looking for him?" Tony mouthed the words 'the police' to his friends.

"It's a long story, but I will tell you it was a huge misunderstanding." Looking over at the nurse's station, Scotty saw Dixie turn to head back to Johnny's treatment room. "I gotta go."

"Okay Scotty, thanks for calling." Tony hung up the phone and immediately picked it up again. He dialed Gary Cooper's number. "Hey Gary, listen I'm calling to let everyone know that Gage is in the hospital."

Gary repeated the word, "Hospital?"

"Yeah, seems he got pneumonia from diving in after Cody the other day. Me and some of the guys are heading down there to find out what's going on. Do you want to meet us?"

"Sure, I'll call some of the other guys from our shift. Is he gonna be okay?" Gary asked.

"Scotty didn't know. We're heading over there to find out." Tony hung up the phone.

In the next fifteen minutes most of the men from Johnny's shift at Station 10 had assembled in the small waiting area to the ER at Rampart.

"Where is he?" Gary asked Tony.

"I'm not sure, but I'm gonna find out." Tony walked over to the nurse's station. "Hey Cindy, how's it going?"

"Hi Tony, what brings all of you boys down here today? Did someone from your shift get hurt?" The student nurse smiled up at the blonde fireman. She knew whenever a fireman or policeman was injured or sick it seemed like all of the other firemen or policemen showed up in the waiting room. They were more dedicated to looking out for each other than most families.

"New kid, John Gage. Is he still here?" Tony glanced over his shoulder when he heard a door open. When Dr. Morton walked out giving instructions about X-rays to the technician inside the treatment room, Tony turned back to Cindy.

"He is. He sure is popular today." Cindy smiled thinking about the good looking young man in the treatment room with Dixie. She remembered Captain Jones and Scotty were in there with him. "He may have pneumonia, but I don't know if Dr. Early is going to keep him or not. He got upset about something earlier. Dr. Early had to give him something to calm him down."

"What was he upset about?"

She leaned forward and spoke in hushed tones. "Some man was asking questions about him. He had a badge. I'm not sure, but I think maybe he's in some kind of trouble."

"I don't think so, Cindy. He's a good kid." Tony didn't know if he was trying to convince Cindy or himself. He had hoped to train Johnny to take Joe's spot in the Rescue Squad, but he might not want to work that closely with him if he was trouble.

Tony heard another treatment room door open. He turned to see Captain Jones, Scotty and Jimbo coming out of the room. He could hear Dixie telling them they could come back in after Dr. Early finished his examination. "Cap!" Tony called as he walked toward the group of men. "Bye Cindy, thanks."

"Hey Tony, what are you doing here?" Captain Jones smiled to his Rescue Man.

"Well one of our crew members is here. We came down to be sure he was all right." Tony waved his hand toward the group of men assembled in the waiting area.

"Looks like the gang's all here." Captain Jones chuckled.

"Most of us." Tony responded. "What's going on with Johnny? Is he going to have to stay in the hospital?"

"Dr. Early is trying to decide that now. Come on, let's all get out of the hallway. Scotty and I can fill everyone in at once. Tony this is Jimbo."

"Hey man. Good to see you." Tony and Jimbo knew each other and shook hands as they all turned to the group of assembled men.

Johnny struggled to sit up so Dr. Early could listen to his lungs. Joe put his arm behind Johnny's back and helped him sit up. "Cough for me." He moved the cold metal disc to another spot on Johnny's back. Johnny coughed. "Okay," he moved the disc again. It felt warmer now, "again." He coughed again only this time it led to a long string of strangled coughs that made his chest hurt. Joe simply waited while holding Johnny on the exam table. His body sagged. Joe and Dixie lowered him back against the raised head of the table. He gasped for breath. "Dixie, I think we need to put him back on the oxygen." She nodded her head and turned to get the mask from the hook on the wall.

"Can I go now?" Johnny's brown eyes locked onto the doctor.

"I'm afraid not young man. We're going to have to find you a room." Joe patted Johnny's knee. "All of this excitement has made things a little more difficult; I want to keep an eye on you."

"I don't want to stay." He whispered and looked away. Joe saw the sadness that crept into the expressive brown eyes.

"We'll get you out of here as soon as we can, but you need some breathing treatments and strong antibiotics to get you over this hump my friend." Joe calmly explained.

At the word friend Johnny turned back and looked at the kind doctor. "Friend?"

"I'd like to think so." Joe stated matter of factly. "Well," he smiled, "at least I hope we will be. Everyone needs a little excitement in their life and I suspect you will be exciting to know."

Johnny chuckled a little. "Yeah, I do seem to get into some in'eresting situations." He looked back at the doctor. "I…I'd like that…the friend thing I mean."

"Okay then. How 'bout we get you settled. Then I'll be up to check on you a little later." Joe smiled again.

"All right." Johnny sighed. "But I gotta tell ya Doc." He took a shallow breath. "I hate hospitals. I've had some pretty bad experiences in hospitals and clinics." He sighed.

"We'll try not to let this one be like that."

"As long as you're my doctor. I don't think that other guy likes me much." Johnny said quietly as his eyes drifted closed again.

Dixie slipped the oxygen mask over his mouth and nose and set the flow. "I think he's asleep again." She smoothed the hair from his face. "I think I'm going to enjoy getting to know him better."