Happy early update Friday! Thanks for being so understanding about the slight delay...hopefully you'll keep being understanding because the next few weeks promise to be SUPER busy. Love and cookies to my reviewers!
Ready to head back to the guys and see what they're up to?
Chapter 5:
"Squad 51, woman unconscious, probable drug overdose, 949 Perry Avenue. Nine-four-nine Perry Avenue, cross street Hamilton. Time out, 08:32."
The tiny house on Perry wasn't exactly what might be described as a friendly place. Like the Frobisher's mansion, it stood dangerously close to the fire zone. There were only a few other houses in sight, but they looked totally deserted and the paramedics weren't sure that this wasn't a permanent state.
Gear in hand, the partners waded through the dry, weedy front yard and Johnny pounded on the door, which was in need of a good paint job. No one answered, but the door swung open to reveal a small, dusty foyer.
"Fire Department, anyone home?" Roy called out.
They listened for a moment before a soft groan pulled them inside. "Sounds like someone's in here," Johnny said, leading the way down the narrow hallway to a diminutive back bedroom.
A skinny girl with pale blonde hair lay stretched out on the bare bed in the middle of the room, clad in just a night gown. She moaned softly as the two paramedics entered the room. "Dom?" she rasped.
"Miss," Roy said gently, "we're paramedics with the Los Angeles Fire Department."
She tried to sit up, but collapsed back onto the bed, "Wha- where's Dom? I don't feel so good."
"Why don't you lie down so my partner and I can see if there's something we can do to make you feel better?" Roy said, pulling out the BP cuff while John set up the bio-phone.
"I want Dom! He…he said he was comin' right back," the girl mumbled groggily, "Where am I?"
Johnny turned to the bio-phone after checking the girl's respiration and pulse. "Rampart, this is Squad 51, how do you read?"
While John waited for an answer, Roy talked softly to their patient and took her BP. "Can you tell me what your name is?"
She opened her eyes a bit wider; looking at Roy like this was a stupid question. "Joy. Joy Caletti. Where's Dom?"
"Do you know what kind of drugs you took, Joy?"
"I want Dom."
"Was it a prescription?" Both of her arms were unmarked as well as her feet. "Did you take pills?"
Joy's eyes slowly drifted closed until the paramedic gently touched her arm and repeated his question. She thought for a minute before she answered, "Yes."
"What did they look like?"
"Pretty. But I don't feel so pretty now," her frail body relaxed into the bed, and Roy started to recheck her vitals.
Across the room, Johnny was talking quietly with Rampart. "This is Rampart, unit calling please repeat," Dr. Morton's voice came over the bio phone.
"Rampart, this is Squad 51, we have a woman, approximately 22 years of age, suffering from an apparent drug overdose. She was semi-conscious on our arrival but is now unconscious. Pulse is forty-eight Her respirations are eight and labored, standby for BP."
John glanced over at his partner. "Eighty over sixty," Roy said grimly.
"BP is eighty over sixty, Rampart," Johnny relayed.
"Do you have any idea what kind of drugs she took, 51? And how much?"
Johnny glanced at Roy who shook his head. While Johnny had been talking with Rampart, Roy had done a thorough search of the room, finding nothing aside from a pile of discarded various pieces of clothing and a pair of women's high heels.
"That's a negative, Rampart."
There was a pause on the line before Morton spoke again. "Alright 51, start her on oxygen and an IV with normal saline. Recheck her vitals, too. "
"Oxygen and IV with normal saline, 10-4 Rampart."
Johnny set up the IV while Roy checked the vitals, which remained the same. As they finished up their retrospective jobs, the sound of an ambulance siren could be heard coming up the road.
"Vitals unchanged, Rampart, ambulance has just arrived and we are bringing her in. ETA," John glanced at his watch, "twenty minutes."
"10-4, 51."
"I'll go with her," Roy said, taking the bio-phone and drug box from Johnny. His partner nodded and they walked out with the stretcher. John helped get the oxygen and IV set up in the ambulance before slamming the doors. The girl looked so pale he could hardly tell her skin from the pillow beneath her head. He watched the vehicle drive down the road before heading back to the squad. He tried to be optimistic, but the sinking feeling in his gut told him all he needed to know about her chances.
In treatment six, Madame Tajemnica, lay as still as death, a gauzy black spot in the bright white room. The nurse was feeling ill at ease as she took vitals – which were perfectly normal. Madame Tajemnica's eyes were wide-open, dark, unseeing orbs that set her teeth on edge. When the door of the exam room opened, she came very near to jumping.
"What do we have?" Dr. Early asked, glancing at the nurse before turning back to Dixie who had summoned him.
"She's part of the circus entourage in the waiting room. She was burning incense and when I went to tell her to cut it out, she just dropped at my feet."
"Do we know any of her medical history?" Dr. Early asked, checking both of the Madame's open eyes.
"Nothing that would be helpful," Dixie muttered, refusing to share the contortionist's theory that 'The Spirits' had something to do with the fortuneteller's illness.
"Hmm," the doctor said noncommittally, touching Madame Tajemnica's slightly clammy skin. "What are her vitals?"
Before he could get an answer, Madame Tajemnica's eyes drifted shut for a second before she shot up like someone had pinched her, "I must go."
"Ma'am, please, you need to lie down. You are very sick-"
"Bah! I am fine." she pushed Doctor Early away from her and sat up. "It is not me that needs help. There is another."
"But-"
"No. She is here now and she will need my place," the old fortuneteller declared, pushing the nurse out of the way with surprising force.
Spryly getting up, the fortuneteller brushed away the doctor's protests. She opened up the door just as Roy walked past with his patient Joy, Dr. Bracket, and two nurses. "Poor little koteczek," Madame Tajemnica tsked.
Dr. Brackett looked up, "Joe, we're running short on space, is there anyway-?"
"Yes, yes. I am well," Madame Tajemnica said, pushing the door open for the stretcher, "Come, come."
Brackett shot a confused look at Dr. Early, who just shrugged in reply. The dark haired doctor brushed past the fortuneteller, already focusing on his patient and shouting out orders. He didn't pay much attention to the oddly-attired woman, but hours later he would look back and remember her words.
"Oh, so young. Such a tragedy."
Badabing. Look for an update near you at a date TBA.
Reviews make me want to write faster.
S