Chapter 7: Curiouser and Curiouser

Johnny was opening and closing cabinet doors in the station kitchen. "Do we have any paprika?" he called out for anyone listening. Chet, Mike, and Roy all looked at him like he was speaking a foreign language. Marco, who spoke that language, answered.

"Yeah. It's in the cabinet over the refrigerator."

Johnny gave him a look that said 'why would it be over the refrigerator' and opened the cabinet door to look. "Damn," he said, putting jar back, "it's smoked. I need sweet." He jotted a note on a piece of paper while ignoring the strange looks he was getting from his shift mates. Then he slapped Roy on the shoulder and said, "C'mon, partner. Gotta hit the store now if I'm gonna have time to make this."

"Make what?" Roy asked as he followed his mercurial partner out the door.

"Ah ha!" Johnny replied cryptically. As he slid behind the steering wheel of the squad he called into the office, "Cap! We're making a grocery run."

Captain Stanley's voice floated out of the room, "Just stay available."

Having seen Johnny take the driver's side, Roy reluctantly went around to the passenger seat. It's wasn't that he didn't trust Johnny's driving, he just preferred to be in control of whatever vehicle he was riding in. Roy liked to chalk it up to too much time in a ladder truck jump seat before becoming a paramedic. But if you asked his wife, or Johnny, they would tell you that Roy just was a bit of a control freak.

Turning to face his partner as they drove out of the station, Roy fixed Johnny with as steely eyed a look as he could muster. "Just what are we shopping for?"

Roy's look was lost on the driver as he concentrated on the road. But a grin spread across his face. Roy thought he looked like the cat that ate the canary. However, no answer was forthcoming. Roy shifted his body a little more to face Johnny, in hopes of letting his partner know that he was serious in wanting the information. John wasn't taking the bait. He glanced quickly at his frustrated friend and merely grinned bigger.

The six minute drive to Ralph's was done in bizarre silence.

"Now, Roy," Johnny tried to explain, "if I told you what I was making then it wouldn't be a surprise."

Roy was looking at the strange ingredients that John had collected in his cart. The pork loin and the apple made sense. Then Johnny added some red cabbage, something that looked like a swollen scallion, and a brown, turnip looking thing he called a celery root. When he put in the cornstarch and the brown sugar Roy gave up trying to guess and went straight to badgering.

When badgering didn't work, Roy tried a 20 Questions thing. "So, you said you were making something special. Right? Is this something you read in a magazine?"

Johnny just pursed his lips and pushed the cart up as the line to the cash register moved. Roy took that as a 'no'.

"Is it something your mom used to make?" That got him a vaguely non-committal hum that could be construed as a positive response. Roy chose to take it as such and kept going. "Something you used to have when you were a kid?" Another hum. "You're making some kind of traditional Indian food," Roy ventured warily.

That earned him another set of pursed lips and a glare under crossed eyebrows. "Roy, knock it off. I ain't tellin' ya. You'll just have to see with the rest of the guys. Now help me unload this stuff."

Roy pulled up his full height and feigned indignation. "I see," he said as Johnny started to move items from the cart to the conveyor, "you won't let me in on the big secret, but you still want me to help you with its ingredients."

Grinning at him again, Johnny simply said, "That's what partners are for. Partner."

"Roy," Johnny said while putting his bag down on the counter of the station's kitchen, "just gimme one of the big onions, the sweet onion, and the celery root. The rest you can put in the fridge."

Roy set his bag down on the kitchen table in front of said fridge. As he was handing over the asked for items, Chet Kelly sidled up to the brown paper bag and took a peek inside. "What is that? Red cabbage and a green apple? What the hell are you serving us, Gage?"

The older paramedic snatched the bag away from the linesman's prying eyeballs, saying sullenly, "Domn't bother. He isn't talking."

Not to be deterred, Kelly sauntered over to Gage and peered at what he was pulling out of his grocery bag. "Cornstarch, brown sugar? What is this?" He looked at the label on the package of meat, "pork loin?"

"Get outta here," Johnny said irritably as he shoved Chet out of his way. "It's gonna taste great!"

"What's gonna taste great," Cap asked as he walked into the dayroom. He saw his paramedics unpacking their groceries and his junior linesman annoying them, as usual. Kelly looked to be recovering from just being pushed away. Hank watched as Chet put his hands in his pockets and turned to walk towards him.

"I dunno, Cap. Johnny's got some kinda red cabbage and pork loin thing he's gonna try to make us eat." Kelly looked up at his captain expecting a look of confusion or revulsion to be forming there. Instead, Captain Stanley face broke into a big grin and he clapped his hands and rubbed them together.

"Hey! Yeah, Gage? Are you making…" But Hank Stanley never got to finish his enthusiastic question. His younger paramedic-cum-chef snapped his head around to spear his superior with a look that screamed "shutupnowohpleasedon'ttell". Hank closed his mouth without uttering another word. He grinned bigger at his begging subordinate and raised his eyebrows in a silent "yum" to the man, then spun on one foot and headed back to his office.

Chet tried to follow, he was dying to know what that was all about, but his shorter legs couldn't beat his captain's long stride. He called after but was only met with the sound of the office door closing.

They watched in bewilderment and fascination as Johnny turned on an oven then put a big skillet on the stove. He seemed to know what he was doing when started seasoning the pork loin. They expected him to put the pork into the oven, but instead he plopped it in the skillet and started frying it.

They got bored watching Johnny just stand at the stove, quietly humming to himself. Marco realized that he was just browning the meat and explained to the guys that it would indeed be going into the oven. As they all wandered off, Johnny smiled to himself.

The tones dropped for the squad just as Johnny was putting the roasting pan with the pork, and chopped and cooked carrots, onions and celery root, into the oven. He quick set the oven timer and jogged out to the squad. As he slid into his seat, he called out to Marco on top of the hose bed, "Don't let them touch anything!"

TBC

A/N: I didn't mean for this chapter to take so long to finish. I lost my mojo for a while. But it's back, and I'm writing again. Yay!