Tree Houses are for the Birds

These good fellows don't belong to me but I promise when I'm done to pick um up, dust um off and return them safely home.

"We can never be certain of our courage until we have faced danger." Francois de la Rochefoucauld.


Chapter 4

"Roy."'

"Yea?"

"Promise me one thing."

Roy was almost afraid to ask, "Ok what?"

"If I get married one day and ever even THINK about acting that way, just shoot me ok? Put me out of my misery, especially if I don't even realize how miserable I am." Johnny just shook his head but his eyes reflected a sincere and heartfelt plea to his friend. Roy could see that this day was really getting to him.

"Trust me Junior if you act anything like that they will need another squad to rescue you. From ME!" Roy laughed and that brought out a smile from Johnny.

"Do you think it made any difference to have Vince there?"

"Don't think so, they never even acknowledged he was around."

"I was afraid of that. Hopefully that was our last call to that house. I can't take many more. Those crazy people are gonna kill me before it's over with."

Roy felt a cold chill go through his body.


Johnny decided to avoid the dayroom when they pulled back in to the station. Between the bandage on his head and now the one that wrapped around his forearm he knew he was a prime target for Chet. His muscles ached, his ribs hurt and his head was pounding at this point.

"I'm gonna grab a shower Roy," he called out as Roy headed to the dayroom.

"Ok, but don't get that arm wet."

Of course not, why could a shower be something simple? "I won't," he simply answered.

Roy went straight for the fridge and started to pour himself a glass of milk. Something smelled wonderful. "What's for dinner Mike?" he asked.

"Spaghetti."

Roy didn't want to sound unappreciative but couldn't help his answer. "You're kidding."

"No. Doesn't sound good for tonight?" Mike was curious; usually Johnny and Roy loved his spaghetti.

"Oh, no it sounds good to me. Johnny, I don't know. He's still trying to get the spaghetti noodles out of his hair from 2 calls ago." Roy knew that Mike wouldn't understand. Honestly they had been out so much today neither one of them had any time along the way to update the engine crew on what had happened so far.

Roy sat down with his glass of milk and pulled out the paper. Leaning back he began reading up on today's headlines.


Roy knew when Johnny came in even though he didn't say anything to Roy.

"Man Mike, what smells so good?" Johnny asked.

"Spaghetti. It's almost ready." Mike waited for the same disappointed response but was pleasantly surprise when Johnny smiled at the menu.

Roy looked over and was glad that Mike's dinner choice didn't dampen the mood of Johnny. Chet was sitting on the couch petting Henry when he noticed Johnny's newest bandage.

"Geeze Johnny, you going for a shift record on injuries?"

"Mind your own business Chet," Johnny quipped back.

"I mean if your really gonna go all out this shift we could start a betting pool," Chet never knew when to stop with his pigeon.

"Well Chet, you might want to start a betting pool on yourself tonight," Johnny just smiled.

Chet sat back and thought about it. He knew one prank was still waiting to be found so he wasn't sure what Johnny was talking about. Or did he find it?

"Maybe you just need to retreat to the safety of your tree house Johnny boy. Yep, safe and sound from the danger's slithering below."

"Oh I don't have a tree house yet Chet. And I'm pretty sure that nothing that lives on the ground scares me up a tree. How about you?" Soon Chester B, soon.

"Nope, I'm good. Like I said, these feet stay on the ground when possible." He was loving the chase.

Mike interrupted them, "Dinner's ready."


Thankfully the station stayed quiet through dinner. After cleaning up Roy and Johnny moved out to the Squad for a quick check on some maintaince issues that they had avoided all day.

"Let's just get this done so we can go to bed," Johnny whined.


Back to Present Time:

The alarm sounded in the station. "Squad 51, woman down, 418 214th Street, 4-1-8 214th, cross street Main…………"

"Oww!" Johnny yelled as he jumped straight up from under the squad, banging his head on the running board.

"You ok?" Roy called out with a small chuckle was under his breath. Closing the squad's hood he went over to Johnny's side of the truck to check on his ailing partner. It had been a rough day for the young paramedic. Johnny was rubbing the top of head while mumbling under his breath. Roy bent down to him and again asked more slowly, "Are you ok?"

"Yea, I'm fine," he was already brushing Roy away, waving his hand in the air. Mother hen! "Said, I'm fine".

"Ok, then quit playing around and lets go." Roy turned and headed back to the driver's side of the truck and jumped in, waiting for the slip of paper from his Captain.

Johnny sat sit just for a moment before jumping up and climbing into the passenger side of the squad. He looked over to his senior partner, "Playing around?" Who's playing around? He thought. He took the noted from Roy and mentally noted the address in his head. "I can't believe it this is the 4th run today out there, what is their problem?"

418 was becoming a number to induce nightmares into even the strongest of paramedics. Call after call was the story of the day for this house. Roy looked over at his partner and actually understood why Johnny was so frustrated about another call to this house. Rescuing this couple was becoming a regular occurrence and annoying even to him. Even though he was the first one to frequently remind Johnny that answering all calls for help was their job, no matter how crazy the call turned out to be.

"What's so funny?" Johnny asked looking over to see his partner grinning from ear to ear.

"Oh just thinking about some of the wild calls we've been on." Johnny had to smile at that too but then his thoughts turned back to this couple they were heading towards. This couple was kinda like the 'fighting therapy' couple that about killed each other, now those were some crazy calls. But Johnny hadn't been able to figure these two out yet and he was getting more and more nervous with each call.

As they headed back to the house they heard the call of their Captain sending them backup.

"LA, respond a police unit to Squad 51's scene."

"51. Police already dispatched by another caller."

"LA. Engine 51 responding to Squad 51's rescue."

"10-4 51."

Johnny and Roy looked at each other. "Cap's really uptight about this call," Johnny said.

"Who can blame him. Look at how many times we've wound up in the ER over these two and now someone else has called the police on them?"

"I know, I know. You're not getting any complaints from me."

They arrived on scene first. Johnny felt really bad about this trip, it was something deep inside he couldn't explain. He just prayed to get out of the house without needing stitches. They were surprised this time to find someone waiting for them in the driveway. Roy pulled up with an older lady waving her arms frantically at them.

"You gotta help them."

Roy tried to calm the woman, "Where are they?"

"I heard him yelling at her from my yard. I live next door," she pointed to the house across the fence. "Please help them. I think he did it this time."

Johnny's eyes got bigger, "Did what Mame?"

She paused and looked very serious, "He's gone crazy."

Johnny had to consciously remind himself to NOT roll his eyes. Gone? They were gone a long time ago.

Roy asked calmly, "Where are they?"

"Oh lordy, they're in the back yard," she was back to being frantic.

Roy patted her arm, "We'll take care of it from here Mame. Try and calm down ok?"

"I've tried so hard to help them," she continued to talk as they worked their way around the side of the house to the gate. "I've even shared some of my home remedies with um. They seemed better until the last couple of days."'

Roy mentally noted the 'home remedies' part but at this point they had come through the gate. What they saw stopped both of them in their tracks. They just looked at each other. Sitting on the porch steps was Mark, looking up into one of the tall trees. The one with the tree house. Both men followed his gaze but couldn't figure out what he was looking at.

Roy approached the quiet man. "Mr. Kilgore?" Getting no response he tried again, "Mark?"

The man looked up at Roy, "Amy's in the tree house and she won't come back down. She won't even answer me anymore."

"Did you have another fight?" Johnny asked, not sure what they were needing to do at this point.

"She got upset and climbed up."

Roy was concerned, knowing how they acted when the other was hurt. "Was she injured when she climbed up?"

"No, not then." Roy looked at Johnny. What was that suppose to mean?

"What do you mean? Is she hurt now?"

"I don't know." He looked at Roy again, "I'm not in the tree house with her." Mark looked at them like they were both crazy.

Roy was getting frustrated now. If she was hurt he needed to know. "Mark. Exactly what happened to your wife?"

"She fell," he simply stated. "Can you make her come back down now?"

"Fell? Where? Where is she?" Roy just wanted to shake the man but knew he couldn't. Cap would kill me over the paperwork.

He looked at them, "I told you, in the tree house."

Feeling like they weren't going to get anywhere with him they both looked up. It was a huge old tee house with a large 2 foot deck around the outside. They could also see stairs going up to what must have been another part of the tree house at some point, like a second level. Neither man could see anything through the open trap door.

Roy thought, they don't have kids, why do they have a tree house? Instead he asked, "Is that tree house stable?"

"I don't know it was here when we bought the house. See it had 2 levels, she was on the second one when it fell."

"Part of the tree house has broken?" Johnny felt a little panicked now. They couldn't see her at all, but he could see where the boards had broken. "Are you telling me she fell from those upper boards to the bottom part there?" Johnny asked, pointing up.

Mark shook his head, "Yea. It just fell. Can you make her come down now?"

Johnny ignored the man, "Roy, that's gotta be 15 feet at least."

Roy nodded in agreement. She had fallen hard and now wasn't answering. He was very glad to hear the distant sound of sirens.

"I'll get the ropes and belts," Johnny said as he ran back to the squad.

When he got there Vince was pulling up, "Hey Johnny, back out here again?"

"Yea, she's in the tree house out back." He continued to gather needed supplies. Vince headed around to the back where Roy was calling out to her.

"Amy? Can you hear me? It's Roy DeSoto from the fire department." Nothing, not a movement seen. Not a sound heard.

"What can I do to help ya Roy?" Vince asked.

Roy was heading to the base of the tree. He knew that everything about that structure looked and felt unstable. But he also knew they had to get up there and get her. It was a gnawing in his gut that told them they better hurry it up. Looking back at the gate he saw no way to get a ladder truck into the back yard.

"The engine is on the way; let them know we need supplies once we get up there." Roy said as Johnny handed him a rope and security belt. "Also, can you talk to the neighbor lady; she said something about giving them some kind of home remedy. See if you can find out what it is."

"Sure thing Roy." Vince said as he headed towards the patio.

Johnny and Roy got their belts secured and put ropes over their shoulders. Looking at the base of the tree Roy went up first. About the 5th wooden ladder step snapped and Roy almost came down onto of Johnny.

"You ok?" Johnny asked anxiously.

"Yea, I'm good. You know there's nothing like a little tree climbing late in the evening," he flashed a weary smile back at Johnny. Johnny just smiled; he knew how much Roy hated climbing rescues.

They made it up to the top step, to the trap door. Roy put his head through the opening. Man, didn't the person who made this know that adults might need to get in here too? It was a tight fit. Ok fine. No dessert for you anymore Roy ole buddy. His first site was a pile of wooden rubble but he could see part of Amy's arm sticking out from it.

Johnny came up behind him, "We're not gonna get a stokes through that." Johnny surmised out loud. Looking up they could see where she had fallen from. It looked like another trap door that lead to a second set of ladder steps heading towards a watch tower of some sort.

The house groaned.