Chapter 2: Surprise

Saturday, January 31st, 1981 1:45pm

The Brackett house

"Come on, Kel!" Dixie calls to her husband. "If we want to get to the Desotos' on time, we need to leave SOON."

"Coming, coming," he answers, walking out of the bedroom. Dixie straightens his collar, then stands on her toes to give him a kiss. He smooths her hair and kisses her forehead, and wraps an arm around her waist and ever-growing belly as they walk out the front door.

The DeSoto house

The house is filled with people. Joanne's a little overwhemled, but when she thinks of Dixie, and Kel, and how much they've done for Roy and the rest of his fireman family, she knows that it's worth it. Anyway, she's got lots of help. Joe Early is there, and Mike Morton. Several of Rampart's long-time nurses, the ones who still occasionally addressed Dixie as Miss McCall, are there as well. All of 51's former A-shift is there, of course. Besides Roy, they have Captain John Gage, Batallion Chief Hank Stanley, Captain Mike Stoker, Engineer Chet Kelly, and Engineer Marco Lopez. Hank and Mike's wives were there as well, ready and willing to help Joanne with whatever she needed.

"Okay, everyone!" Joanne calls to the room in general. Trying to get the full attention of 17 excited people is no easy task. "Dixie and Kel will be getting here any time. Roy, is everything set up?"

"Yep!" he replies, barely able to contain his excitement. And it's not even his party!

A couple of minute pass. Then they hear a car pull up in front of the house. Everyone, except for Joanne, runs into the kitchen to hide. The doorbell rings, and Joanne opens the door to find the two (three, really) guests of honor.

"Hi, guys!" Joanne says, a little too cheerily.

"Hey, Joanne," Kel replies. "Where's the rest of your family?"

"Kitchen," she answers. She turns, and they follow. The three of them walk towards the kitchen. Joanne opens the door, and everything is revealed.

"Surprise!" shouts everyone. Dixie is speechless, struggling to take it all in.

"This looks like a few more than just your family, Joanne," Kel says drily.

"Yeah, I suppose," she says, smiling sheepishly.

Then Dixie realizes that all of the streamers are blue and pink, and that there is a pile of gifts in baby wrapping paper sitting on the table.

"Oh, Joanne, Roy," she says, "you guys shouldn't have done this."

"We had to!" Roy exclaims. "You really thought we weren't going to make a big deal out of the fact that you're pregnant?"

"I was kinda hoping, yeah," is her reply.

"Sorry," Johnny takes over for Roy, grinning as usual. "Honestly, Dix, I thought you knew us better than that."

She rolls her eyes, but everyone sees the smile begining to form on her face.

"Alright, everyone," Hank Stanley speaks up. "Let's do this!"

Later, about 7:30

Dixie and Kel walk into their house, exausted but very happy. The shower was wonderful, and they got many baby gifts. Everyone was voicing their opinion on the sex of the baby, and they were mostly split. Dixie, for one, didn't care. Kel, on the other hand, was hoping for a daughter.

To be continued...

Thank you for reading so far! I hope you're enjoying it. I don't know how soon I will be able to post the next chapter, but I'll put it out ASAP.