One Wide….
The call had come in from dispatch for Station 51 for a man down. Dispatch explained that the caller had said to use forcible entry. They guys had no idea what they'd find; and they weren't prepared for the rescue that lay ahead.
After gaining entry to the apartment, they rushed to the back where they heard the vague sound of a male moaning and a muffled female voice. They entered the bedroom and were shocked to find the bedroom in disarray. The waterbed had been stripped of its linens and the lamp on the bedside table had broken as it crashed to the floor. Searching for the sound of the moans, the group was shocked at what they found. In the small space between the waterbed and the wall was a man and a woman; covered by a sheet with the man lying on top of the woman. It was fairly easy to determine what they had been doing but just how they ended up stuck in the space between the wall and the bed was still a mystery.
Cap was the first to speak, "Folks are you hurt?"
"I threw out my back" said the man in obvious pain. "I can't move."
Chet fought the urge to laugh at the images playing in his mind.
"I'm having trouble breathing" came the whisper of the woman from beneath the injured man.
"I'll get the oxygen" said Roy.
The men stood around trying to figure out the best way to get them out of the predicament they were in and decided that the only way to move the bed was to remove the water first. Cap ordered Mike to get the red hose from the engine and they'd use it to remove the water. Chet crawled through the window to the outside as the others began connecting the hose to the bed and beginning the process of syphoning out the water. Roy had placed a nasal cannula on the woman to aid her breathing while John got Rampart on the biophone.
"Rampart, this is squad 51. How do you read?"
"We read you loud and clear 51" said Dr. Kelly Brackett
"Rampart, we have two victims; one male and one female both in their mid-30's. The male victim is complaining of severe pain in his lower back that has left him unable to move. The female is complaining of shortness of breath and is now on O2"
"Johnny, what are the vitals?" asked Dr. Brackett.
"Uh, we haven't extricated them yet, Rampart and we're unable to obtain vitals until we do." Johnny hoped Dr. Brackett wouldn't press for more information; but as was usually the case, he did.
"51 how are the victims entrapped?"
Chet was standing near the window watching the water flow out of the hose and grinning to himself. Yea Gage, tell him how they got entrapped, he thought.
"Well, Doc" Johnny began. "They are pinned in a small area?" Please just drop it, Doc, he thought.
"How tight, Johnny?" Brackett continued.
Chet was almost laughing at this point while listening to the conversation.
"Well, Doc…it's, uh, one wide and two deep."
Chet lost all control then. He pulled his helmet down over his face to make sure Cap didn't see him laughing and slid down the wall of the house into a crouching position. Oh Gage, that's great, he mused.
Back in Johnny's hospital room, Chet was doubled over laughing at the thought. They had eventually been able to remove the water from the waterbed and then move the bedframe to gain access to the embarrassed couple. Once her husband had been removed, the woman was able to breathe again and required no further treatment. Her husband was not so lucky as he'd suffered a back injury.
"Man, we never did find out if they broke that lamp after he threw out his back or while he was in the process of throwing out his back" Chet laughed. "I'm just glad the phone was on the nightstand so they could call for help."
"I just wish I could have seen the look on Brackett's face when Johnny gave him that answer." Marco laughed.
"Yea, nobody can say something as stupid as Gage." Chided Chet.
"Chet would you shut up!" came the slurred speech of John.
"Hey Pal, you're awake" said Hank patting John's shoulder.
"Who can sleep with you jerks in here making fun of me," he said with a grin.
Roy breathed a huge sigh of relief. If Johnny and Chet were going at it, then Johnny was definitely on the road to recovery. "Glad to have you back, Junior" he whispered to no one in particular. Life at Station 51 would soon be back to normal.
