The Boot

Chapter Twenty Four

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.

Nurse Dixie McCall slipped into the room as Tom's Captain and crew mates were leaving. "It's a good thing you boys are leaving. I thought I was going to have to kick you out. We do have rules about how many visitors are allowed in a room at a time." She smiled affectionately at the group of firemen.

"Yes ma'am. We were just leaving." Captain McKonnike chuckled as she breezed past.

Dixie stopped and turned to the Captain while placing her hands on her hips. "Like I said, it's a good thing. You boys be safe."

"Hey Dixie, when are you going to accept my offer for dinner and a movie?" The man with Stone on his coat asked.

"I've told you before Stoney, I do not date firemen" She turned to him and batted her long dark eyelashes with a teasing glimmer in her bright blue eyes, "Or rescue men. Now scoot!" She waited for the group of men to finish filing out of the room before moving over beside Tom's bed and reaching for his wrist. "Hi Tom."

"Hey Dixie."

"Looks like they got you all settled. Can I get you anything?" She lowered his arm back to the bed and adjusted the pillow beneath his newly casted leg before grabbing the chart from the end of the bed to make a few notes.

"Nah, I'm good. How's the boy?"

"He's fine. A few scrapes and bruises and a little too much smoke, but we gave him a breathing treatment and sent him home with his parents." She smiled. "How in the world did he end up with a few scratches and you get a broken leg?"

Tom shifted in the bed and chuckled.

Johnny's curiosity had him listening to the conversation as well. From what he had already heard he knew Tom rode in a rescue squad like Tony and Joe from Station 10.

"Well you know how it is Dix. The kid snuck into an old abandoned house with his friends. They thought they could make it their fort, but somehow the camping lantern they were using for light got tipped over. Those crazy kids tried to put the fire out. They were throwing old blankets on it trying to smoother it out only that just fed the flames. Then they panicked and tried to leave, but the fire had circled around behind them and blocked their exit." He ran his hand over his face. "I gotta tell ya Dix, we could've lost them all. Anyways Stoney and I went in and pulled two of them out, but we couldn't find the last one. He had gotten separated from the others. Stoney took the two boys outside while I went back to find Tobey. One of the linemen went with me. We finally found the kid hiding in a closet."

"In a closet?" Dixie asked.

"Yeah can you believe it? Like fire wouldn't find you in a closet, crazy kids." Tom blew a breath between his teeth. "So I get the kid out of the closet and pass him to the lineman. We were on our way out when the roof fell in and caught me in the leg."

Dixie patted Tom's shoulder, "It could have been so much worse."

"Just knowing that kid is home with his parents makes it all worth it." Tom smiled broadly.

"Gives you a good feeling to be able to help people doesn't it?" Dixie winked at Tom and returned his smile. "Do you ever miss fighting fires?"

"Not the dumpster fires." Tom teased. "Oh we still get to fight fires when there is no one to pull out. I used to love to fight the beast, but the thrill of the rescue is way better than any feelings I had about manning the hose."

"I guess I can understand that. Get some rest." Dixie turned toward Johnny's bed and smiled when she saw him awake. "Hey there sweetie." She crossed the room. Johnny gave her a small smile. "How are you feeling?"

Johnny gave her a one shoulder shrug. His stomach growled causing his cheeks to redden. "A little hungry…I guess."

Dixie smiled broadly with a twinkle in her eyes. "That's the best news I've heard all day. My momma used to always say if a sick person says they're hungry then they aren't near as sick anymore." She absently brushed his bangs to the side making the redness in his cheeks spread to the rest of his face and neck. "It should be near dinner, but I could get you something now."

"No…no that's okay. I can wait," he said softly. Dixie fussed with his covers trying to make him comfortable. "Thanks."

"Hey Tom," Dixie turned toward the man in the other bed. "Have you met Johnny?"

Tom looked over and shook his head. "No, I don't believe so."

"Well Tom Dwyer this is Johnny Gage. Johnny, this is Tom." Dixie made the introductions.

Tom sat up straighter in his bed. "Hey you're that kid that graduated at the top of the last class at the academy. Aren't you riding with Scotty over at Ten's?"

Johnny looked over at Tom with an open mouth and a look of disbelief on his face. "Ye…yeah."

"What the heck happened to you?"

"He pulled one of the other men from his station out of some water and ended up with pneumonia." Dixie told with pride in her new friend.

"Hey I heard about that. It was Jim's brother Cody, right?" Tom seemed to know all about the whole thing. "That was some fast thinking. Tony said you just jumped in after him and didn't come back until you had him; pulled him up from the depths not even breathing. Man, that was a really brave thing to do."

Johnny couldn't believe that everyone seemed to be so impressed by his actions when he still felt so responsible for Cody being in the water in the first place, but Jim and Cody had expressed their thanks too. Maybe he really had done good. "I was just doing what anybody would."

Dixie glanced up from the notes she had been making in Johnny's chart and smiled at his modesty.

"Don't kid yourself Gage. Most guys would just call for the rescue squad. You're jumping in that water without hesitation, man that's rare." Tom fell back against the pillow on his bed and squeezed his eyes shut.

"Tom?" Dixie saw his grimace and moved back to his bedside.

"I'm okay Dixie, this leg is just paining me some. I forgot how much a broken bone can ache."

Dixie patted his shoulder. "Well I think we can help with that. Dr. Brackett left instructions for a pain reliever, but it'll make you sleep. Do you want it now or after dinner?"

"After dinner; we missed lunch and I'm starved." Tom smiled. "I'll just try to remember to be still until then. Besides now that it's casted it'll get better anyway."

"Okay. Let your nurse know if you change your mind. Now that I know you boys are doing all right, I need to get back downstairs." She glanced back at both men before slipping out the door. Johnny had closed his eyes again. She guessed that he would soon be back to sleep. He was still weak from the pneumonia. Tom had flipped the channel on the TV and found "The Family Affair" on. Every other channel had soap operas at this time in the late afternoon. She could hear Mr. French telling Buffy and Jody something about washing up for lunch. Tom had noticed that Johnny's eyes were closed and turned the volume low on the TV. She smiled as she let the door slide closed.

After Dixie left the room came the quiet. The soft murmur of the TV lulled both men into relaxation.

Johnny felt himself drifting again. The achiness in his joints and tightness in his chest had dissipated somewhat, but he felt exhausted nonetheless. The light above his bed remained directed at the ceiling, but the one over the next bed seemed to be glaring in his eyes. He turned away from the offending light and waited for sleep to claim him. He knew he should try to stay awake and talk to Tom, but the thought vanished fleetingly as he pulled the blanket snuggly against his cheek.

In the recesses of his mind a memory took hold of his dreams.

He was twelve again. Huddled in the corner of the room at the reservation clinic; his father lay unconscious on the table. Doctors and nurses kept touching him and poking him with needles. They were hurting him and Johnny wanted them to stop. "Please stop hurting him. Please…just leave him alone." He pulled at the man he thought to be in charge. The man shook him off and yelled to the nurse to get him under control. She came over and pulled Johnny away from the man. He could feel her hands on his arms. He remembered her smile. She had a pretty smile. The kind that lured everyone into thinking she was good, but a lot of things can hide behind a smile, bad things. People can smile at you and all the time they can be thinking bad things, planning bad things. So many people in his life had smiled at him only to hurt him later. Smiles can lie. They can make you feel safe, happy and at ease with the person flashing it at you, but behind the fake smile they are really planning against you, tricking you. The pretty nurse had tricked him with her smile. She led him away from his father and jabbed a needle into his arm. She had sent him into the fog and that fog only lifted long enough for him to learn that his father had died and now he was alone in the world. He fought the sedative, but it always sent him back into the fog.

The fog smothered him, enveloped him and consumed him. When they finally let him come out of the fog his life had changed. At first he found himself with a family on the reservation. They kept him for a little while, but even though he was twelve Johnny was small for his age. The couple had hoped to take him in and let him help work their ranch, but he had no desire to do their work. At first the man had thought he could beat some sense into the young half breed, but the boy didn't seem to care. The couple packed his few belongings and told him to get out.

Johnny found his way back to the ranch that had been his family home. He hid in the barn for days before the new owner's found him passed out in the hay loft. When he awoke again he was back at the clinic with the pretty nurse whose smile lied.

Then he had been placed with another couple. They lived in town and took him in to show that they were good people and didn't hold prejudice against Indians. It turned out the man was a feed dealer and only wanted to gain favor with the ranch owners on the reservation so they would buy from him; when that didn't happen the couple who had pretended behind their smiles to like him sent Johnny away.

Johnny shifted in the hospital bed and moaned. He had trouble trusting people because of the things he had been put through at such a young age. Listening to Dixie and Tom tell him he had done something good had left him wondering if he could trust them now. Those thoughts had brought up the feelings of mistrust from his youth.

The memories in his dream continued to sift past.

Now he was older and had been sent to California to live with his aunt and uncle. He had never met them, but they had been willing to take him in. California was different than his home town. Back home the people from town looked down on the Indian population. In California he was just another kid, but he had trouble understanding and accepting that. He had already learned not to trust anyone. He did well in school and usually brought home good grades. His English teacher even made him editor of the school paper, but he still didn't have many friends. At the age of sixteen Johnny had begun jogging to keep in shape. The track coach saw him one day and asked if he might be interested in joining the team. Thinking maybe he would enjoy it, he did.

Then when things finally seemed to be looking up for him life betrayed him again.

His uncle got very sick and died. His aunt had to sell their house and they moved into a low income apartment in a seedy area. She had to work two jobs to keep food on the table. Johnny went to summer school to graduate early. His aunt and uncle had taken him in. Theirs were the only smiles he had trusted. He didn't want his aunt to have to work so hard to keep him any longer, so he moved out.

Things didn't go so well for him on his own. At seventeen it was hard to find a good paying job. He'd flipped burgers, dug ditches and mowed lawns. He couldn't get anyone to let him sign a lease for a place of his own, so he used an ID he had found on the street to rent a motel room which cost too much money. After a short time he was living on the street. That's where he found out how evil can lurk behind a smile.

He shifted in the bed again. He pulled at the covers…tugging them…trying to feel safe.

His mind took him back to the alley behind Jimbo's place. The group of guys that had pretended to be his friends now only wanted what little money he'd earned cutting lawns that week. He remembered their fists slamming against his jaw. He felt the punches in his belly and the force of their feet against his ribs.

He moaned and thrashed his legs tangling them in the covers.

He felt them holding him down while one of them rifled through his clothes for his money. His eye had swollen shut and his jaw hurt, blood leaked from his split lip. He fought hard, kicking and bucking, but there were too many of them. They smiled and laughed at him as they counted the money they found, his money. Then they left him in the cold wet alley, bleeding and barely conscious.

Johnny shot up in the bed gasping.

"Hey kid, are you okay?" Tom asked.

Johnny wiped his face on the blanket he had clutched in his hands. "Yeah," he whispered. "Bad dream."

"I can relate to that. I never had 'em until I joined the department. Some of the stuff we see out there can really bring on some doozies." Tom settled again and turned up the TV volume. The evening news was just beginning.

Johnny sunk back down into the bed and stared at the ceiling wondering if it was time to learn to trust again. He had let Jimbo into his life and hadn't regretted that. He was a good friend. Johnny trusted him. He trusted his aunt. Maybe it would be okay to trust Dixie and Scotty. Maybe it was time to trust others too. In his heart he knew that was what he wanted. He wanted to be a part of a family. Jim and Cody had called him a brother in the department. He liked that. Yes, it was time to let some people in, but he wouldn't let them get too close.