A/N: Hello hello hello and welcome. Here is chapter five- in which Rampart is ambushed by firefighters, Johnny acts like a little kid, and Roy has a nightmare- and chapter six is one the way out of my brain and should be here soon. Just wanted to let y'all know (in case I haven't told you before) that knowing people are actually reading this thing makes my day. Thanks! Enjoy, and as usual, please review. ^-^

As Johnny had promised, starting at about ten the rest of 51's A-Shift trickled in one after the other, filling up the small room until one very irate head nurse noticed and banished them all to the cafeteria with threats to come back no more than three at a time. Suitably chastened, they herded themselves down the hall and clustered around a table.

"How is she?" Chet asked nervously.

"Well, she's breathing on her own, and that's a good sign," Roy told them, "but she's been running a fever for the last few hours that's been getting worse. They're going to keep monitoring her for now but there's nothing we can really do." There was a collective aura of frustration. These men were firefighters, accustomed to going in and taking down a problem head on. Being unable to do anything grated on them, and on Roy most of all.

He had seen many things over his time in the fire service, especially once he'd become a paramedic. He'd seen men and women with severe injuries, including head wounds, but this- this was something else. None of those other injuries had been his little girl. It had been all he could do and more to keep himself together when they'd walked into that room and he saw Jenny lying there.

Somehow, his additional paramedic's knowledge only made it worse. Unlike most parents in his situation, Roy knew in excruciating detail what his daughter was going through and what the ramifications might be if- no, when- she woke up. He knew that there was a definite possibility that Jenny would wake up with brain damage, paralysis, or any other combination of things. But he also knew that her simply waking up at all would be a victory.

His little girl was a fighter. And he knew that- but that didn't drain any of the tension from his shoulders. His shift mates made a few attempts at small talk, the end result of which was Johnny and Chet trying to see who could come up with the most creative joke about each other's respective heritages. It was a little half-hearted, but they were doing it simply to try and lighten the atmosphere, hoping that it would distract Jenny's parents at least for a moment.

Plus, it had to be said, it was a good stress reliever for them just to make fun of each other for a while. There was a reason they did it so often at the station, after all. Johnny was in the middle of explaining how you tell an Irishman's drunk when Dr. Early entered the cafeteria.

"What's happened, Doc?" Roy asked the older man, shooting upright out of his seat.

"Nothing yet, Roy, I just came in for the coffee."

"Really?" Chet asked jokingly. "I'd leave to get away from the coffee."

"Well, you take what you can get," Early responded gamely. "Unless you want to go up to floor six; they're the only ones who can make a decent cup. And I'm far too lazy to climb two flights of stairs." He smiled at the gathered firemen. "I imagine the receptionist was becoming quite confused when all of you showed up one after the other."

"Yeah, you could say that," Cap replied. "We all showed up in a line. After Mike and Chet, we didn't even have to ask where to go." His thick eyebrows practically tied themselves in knots. "Look, doc, I don't want to ask awkward questions but I'm no doctor; what exactly is an epidural hematoma?"

"Well," Dr. Early replied, "basically what happens is some sort of blow to the head causes a tear in the artery, which then begins to bleed into the space between her skull and the material that covers her nervous system. When we operated we had to drain the blood out and repair the artery. Now we just have to wait for her to wake up."

"But once she does wake up," Johnny broke in, "what can we do then?"

"You can be there for her," Dr. Early replied. "You can keep on encouraging her. Past that, it depends on herself and her level of injury."

"Do you have any idea how much damage the hematoma did?" Roy asked quietly. Dr. Early shook his head.

"We can't know until she wakes up. But you can't kill yourself worrying over what might happen. Take it piece by piece and go at her speed." A nurse hurried into the cafeteria and called to Dr. Early. They spoke quietly before the nurse nodded and left.

"What was that about?" Johnny asked, dark eyes flicking back and forth from Early to Roy and Joanne.

"Jenny's fever has increased again; it's up to 103.2 degrees. Roy, Joanne, we need your permission to administer ibuprofen to her." Both adults nodded quickly.

"Go ahead, do whatever you need to," Roy answered breathlessly. It seemed as though their worst fears were coming to pass. Jenny wasn't getting better, she was getting worse. The air was tense in the cafeteria. No one knew what to say to Roy or to Joanne; after all, what do you tell parents when their child's life is in danger? 'She'll be fine', or 'everything's going to be okay'? They couldn't guarantee that, not even a little bit.

So they sat in somber silence, knowing that all they could do was wait. It was another two hours before there was any news, when Dr. Early told them that it appeared their combination of ibuprofen and cooling pads had managed to get Jenny's fever back under control for now. "It hasn't gone down any, but the good news is that it's not going up." Roy gave a weak smile.

"I never thought 'good news' could be such a relative term until now." Dr. Early gave him his trademark sympathetic smile.

"I know it's rough, but that is a good sign. It means she's getting better, slowly but surely. If her fever holds steady, it will be another couple of days before we try to move her but if it decreases we might be able to transfer her tomorrow."

"Where are you going to transfer her to?" Chet asked.

"The Pediatric ICU. It's up on floor seven." He was called away again, to an arriving case in the ER, and once he'd gone the remainder of Station 51 trickled out, their need for sleep catching up and overwhelming their desire to be there for their friend. Chris was beginning to get hungry, so Johnny volunteered to take him down to the big cafeteria on the first floor before Roy or Joanne could. He could tell just from Roy's posture that he and his wife needed some time to themselves.

"And I'll get you whatever you want," he said as they headed out the door.

"Even ice cream?" Chris asked excitedly.

"Of course I'll get you ice cream! I'm gonna have some myself." Roy smiled faintly at the conversation. Johnny and Chris had always gotten along like brothers- though most of the time, Chris was the older brother. As their voices faded down the hall, Joanne leaned into him with a heavy sigh. He wrapped his arms around his wife and rested his chin on her head. It was a few minutes before either of them spoke.

"She's going to live, right? Oh Roy, please tell me she's going to live."

"She will," Roy declared, sounding more confident than before. "She's a fighter, and she doesn't give up easily. She'll live." Because I don't know if I can live without her. They spent the next several minutes in the same position, neither of them knowing what to say or even how to begin saying it, until Roy had to slip out to use the bathroom. While he was gone, Chris and Johnny returned from the cafeteria, still bearing obvious signs of their adventure.

"Oh, Chris," Joanne sighed. "Go clean yourself up. You've got ice cream smudges on your nose." Chris rubbed a hand over his nose, surprised to find that his mom was right, and scurried off in search of a napkin. Johnny plopped down in the seat across from her with a lopsided grin. "And you don't look much better, John Gage. I can tell just from your upper lip what flavor of ice cream you had."

"I'm saving it for later," he retorted jokingly. "Besides, we had fun." Joanne smiled at the younger man.

"Thank you for taking him. Roy and I really needed some alone time."

"Ain't a problem, Joanne. It's not like anyone's gonna blame you for it." He gave her his most reassuring smile. "'Sides, she'll be just fine. She's tough like her daddy."

"And stubborn like her uncle," Joanne replied, smiling gratefully at the skinny man. "Thank you for being here with us Johnny. It means a lot to me, and I know it means a lot to Roy too." Johnny gave a quiet smile.

"You couldn't have kept me away. I'm gonna head on over to that ugly brown couch in the corner and try to catch a little shut-eye while things are going steady for a while." He ambled over to the aforementioned couch (which really was a spectacularly hideous shade of brown) and flopped down on the end cushion like a tired puppy. Soon enough there was a little ball of Johnny dozing away, arm draped over his eyes. At the same time, Roy got back from the bathroom and eyed his partner with a grin.

"I don't know how a man that tall can curl up into such a tiny little size." He reclaimed the vacant seat that the two men had been silently dueling over and yawned himself. "Although I must admit he has a good idea going there. All of us could use more sleep then we got." It was a little after two o' clock, and the stress of the last couple of hours mixed with the small amount of sleep he'd gotten that night were making it more than a little difficult for him to keep his eyes open very long.

"Well, he left most of the couch open. You could take the other part if you want to." He was seriously starting to think that was a good idea. When, a couple of minutes later, he found his head snapping back upright after drooping forward he realized that he couldn't fight it anymore. He joined his partner on the couch and was asleep within minutes. He slept solidly for half an hour before the dreams- or rather the nightmares- started up.

He found himself completely paralyzed but fully aware of what was going on around him. Well, this was strange, but it could be worse. At least he wasn't in a burning building or dangling off the side of a cliff. He looked around as his surroundings became more distinct and realized that he was on the road outside his house. As he watched, Jenny and Chris darted outside, eager to have their Saturday off, Joanne following them with remonstrations to 'be more careful!' Roy smiled at the familiar sight; he wanted to call out to them, but he couldn't. He was still frozen.

Then the scene changed, and he was outside a different house on a different street, and with a heart-stopping jolt he realized it was the house Jenny had been at when she was injured. As he watched, a passel of little girls poured out the front door, yelling excitedly, and then crowded into the backyard. Roy's still immobile body was pulled along after them and he could feel the fear rising in his chest. He knew what was coming. Time seemed to slow to a trickle as the kids played, dragging out Roy's agony as he fought to move.

But try as he might, he couldn't move a muscle, and soon it was that moment. He could feel his heart hammering in his chest and hear the blood rushing in his ears as he watched helplessly while Jenny clambered onto the trampoline and began to jump. "No! Stop!" He yelled as loudly as he could, but it was no use. No one could hear him. Jenny slipped, plummeting towards the edge, her head centimeters away from colliding with a sickening crack-

Suddenly, the scene changed again, and he was in a dark room, with Jenny standing in front of him. He strained against the invisible bonds until his muscles trembled from exertion, unable to do anything but watch, useless, as the tears streamed down her face while she looked right at him. She looked like she had before going into surgery. Her body was pale and lifeless, and her eyes with their uneven pupils drilled into him pleadingly. "Why didn't you save me, daddy? Why didn't you get to me fast enough?"

Roy's clear blue eyes shot open, heart still pounding like he'd run an Olympic sprint. He suppressed a gasp as his hands trembled, grasping the couch cushion like a lifeline. It was all a dream, he reminded himself, just a horrible dream. He shook like a leaf as he got his breathing and heart rate back under control and that was when he finally realized that the cafeteria was dark. Someone had turned off the lights. He sat up slowly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. Next to him, Johnny had shifted at some point and now lay facing straight up. His brown eyes blinked open when Roy moved. He yawned lazily.

"Hey buddy. D'we miss a call?" he asked sleepily. Roy smiled.

"No, Johnny, we're not at the station. We're still at the hospital, but both of us conked out for a while." He stood up, stretching the sleep out of his limbs, and spied a note on the table. It was from Joanne, saying that she and Chris had gone out to get dinner and didn't want to wake them up. Johnny got up and stretched his skinny frame as well.

"So what woke you up?"

"I had a- a dream," Roy fibbed, trying to cast his nightmare out of his mind. It was useless to try and fool Johnny, though. The man had worked with him for far too long to fall for that.

"You mean a nightmare, pally? Wanna talk about it?"

"No," Roy said shortly, not ready to dwell on what he had relived. He checked his watch and let out a yelp. "It's after five already! No wonder they went out for dinner." He abruptly realized that Johnny was giving him one of the younger man's rare somber expressions and knew that his deflection attempts were failing. He sighed. "Alright, alright, you can drop the look, junior." He took in a deep breath, suppressing a shudder at the horrifying memory.

"I was frozen in place, like I'd been paralyzed, and no matter what I did I couldn't move; and then I was at that house watching her on that trampoline and I knew she was going to fall but I couldn't do a damn thing to stop it. All I could do was stand there and watch." His voice was pained as he flashed back to the dream and beside him Johnny's look had changed from somber to sad. But he kept on; now that he'd started he knew he wouldn't be able to stop until all of it was out of his head. "But you know, Johnny, that wasn't even the worst part. The worst part was the next. I saw her, I saw her standing in front of me crying her eyes out wanting to know why I didn't get there fast enough to save her."

His voice broke as he finished his tale and his head sunk into his hands as he started to shake again. Sighing deeply, Johnny moved to his partner's side and placed his arm around Roy's shoulders.

"It was just a dream, pally. There was absolutely nothing you could have done and you know it. And besides, that dream was wrong anyways. If you'd been there nothing in the whole dang universe would've been able to stop you from getting to her." Johnny waited steadfastly for Roy to acknowledge his words. Finally, the older man sighed.

"Yeah, I know, and you're right. But it threw me, junior, it really threw me." His partner dropped a hand to his shoulder reassuringly.

"I bet it did. But it's done with now. How about you and I go and get some dinner ourselves, eh? My bottomless pit of a stomach is getting empty." Roy knew that it was as much a distraction as it was the truth, and he smiled gratefully at the other man. He didn't think he'd manage to eat anything though; his stomach was roiling from the dream and he felt for all the world like it he had swallowed a brick made of lead.

"Sounds alright to me, partner." The two men made their way down to the large cafeteria on the first floor and managed to catch Joanne and Chris on the tail end of their dinner. There wasn't much conversation at the table; Roy's head was still spinning from his nightmare, Johnny and Joanne both knew that he wasn't up to conversation, and Chris was stuck in his own thoughts, picking at his food listlessly.

Finally it was nearing evening, and they knew that they would have to go soon. Nurse Walters had specified that only one person could stay with Jenny overnight and it was decided that Roy would take the first shift, so to speak, so he said goodbye to them and headed back upstairs while they went to the parking lot. Once they were in the car, Johnny made an impulse decision. "Hey Joanne, if you don't mind I thought maybe Chris could stay with me tonight so you could have a little space."

"Can I please, mom? I wanna go backyard camping with Uncle Johnny," Chris pleaded, and knowing that it would make him feel better, Joanne agreed. They reached the house soon and Johnny stopped in the hallway with Joanne while Chris got his still-unpacked sleepover bag.

"Thanks for letting him stay with you tonight, Johnny. I think all of us need a little space right now." Johnny nodded slowly.

"You know, Joanne, I think you're absolutely right."