To my readers, I'm sorry some of you feel that this story seems MaryJane-ish. I would ask that you think about the time frame in which this takes place. It was more common to brush sexual abuse under the carpet rather then getting counseling. Please also remember that Elizabeth did receive counseling after here attempts at suicide and since I'm writing this story from Johnny's point of view I haven't made it clear that Elizabeth is continuing to get counseling. Also Johnny is not rally spending that much time with Elizabeth so he shouldn't be to overly stressed about her choices in life. As for Elizabeth's fear of men I know of women who have not gone through as much as she has and choose not to respect men or want men in their life. As for The harshness of Elizabeth's experience with sexual abuse, I do know some one who has had a life with several instances with sexual abuse thou out her life and has never had counseling. (Thou this story my resembles her life, it is a work of fiction and is not a representation of her life.) The fact I wish to point out is that people like Elizabeth do exist in this world and it would be nice to have someone like Johnny to simply be nice to her and take the time to talk and help out a little.

I also want to point out that Johnny has made it clear that he is only a friend and has no other interests in Elisabeth. From the Episode where Roy spends the night at Johnny's apartment and experiences several interruptions from neighbors wanting his advice and help and how willing Johnny is to help each one and not be upset about their late night intrusions. This is why I felt comfortable publishing this story on Fan Fiction. So if there are readers who don't like the story you are welcome to stop reading.

Chapter 9

"Give Me a Break"

Johnny rushed into the locker room, as he had only a few minutes to get dressed in his uniform. He grabbed his locker door and pulled it open, the instant the door come open Johnny heard the twang of Chet stringed water launcher and tried to turn away only to be pelted with a shower of tiny Styrofoam balls, the kind found in the big bean chairs.

Johnny quickly proceeded with changing into his uniform and then ran out for roll call. As he stood in line he could hear snickers, this made him nervous and he watched Cap out of the corner of his eye as he stood facing forward.

Cap was looking down at his clip board as he said, "Glad you could join us Gage." Then he raised his head to divvy out cleaning assignments but as he took in the sight before him and let out a snicker he couldn't hold back. "Gage could you tell me where you found your snow storm?"

This was followed by several new sinkers. Johnny whipped his head around to look at his coworkers causing a few of the white pill balls to dislodge from his head and float to the ground. He felt his face heat up with embarrassment as he watched the balls fall.

Cap cleared his throat and the men stopped there snickering. Roy you have the dorms, Mike you're cooking today, Marco and Chet you have the hoses' and Johnny you have the latrine today. Oh and Chet you need to help Johnny clean up in the locker room, dismissed.

Roy turned to look at Johnny and reached up and picked at something in his hair, "You need to go look at yourself in the mirror." He commented with a smile. "Come on Chet," Johnny grabbed Chet by the arm and pulled him towards the locker room with Marco, Mike and Roy fallowing behind. The first thing Johnny did was look in the mirror. He had to admit all the tiny white balls clinging to his dark hair were amusing. He pulled out a comb from his back pocket and combed the balls out of his hair then he turned to his locker and found the tiny balls spread out all around his locker and spreading more with the movement from everyone in the room.

"Okay, you guys leave," Johnny pointed to Roy, Marco and Mike. "Chet make your self useful and go get the broom and dust pan." As the others left the room the little balls began floating further away from the area around his locker. He also could see the little balls clinging to all the surfaces around his locker. Shaking his head he opened his locker and worked at brushing the balls out of his locker. But with limited success, the little balls were full of static electricity and as Johnny brushed at them they ether clung to his hand or floated away and clung to some thing else. He looked up at his smoky the bear poster and saw that balls were even clinging there too, he reached up and brushed at the balls on the poster causing a brown paper sack to fall from behind it and hit the floor. He picked it up and went to throw it into the locker but stopped and used it to brush out the most of the balls from his locker then he left it on the bottom the locker and slowly closed his locker so as not to stir the balls any more.

It took him and Chet twenty minutes to clean up most of the tiny balls and even at that they knew there was still some clinging around but they had retrieved most of them.

That afternoon the station was called out to a family suffering from food poisoning. As they pulled up to the house Johnny saw the father standing in front of his home one quick look told Johnny that he was not very steady on his feet. He quickly hopped out of the squad and hurried over to him, "I think you had better sit down," he counseled the man as he took a hold of his arm to steady him and help him to a sitting position.

"My family," he groaned as he pointed towards the house.

"We'll take care of them too," Johnny reassured him as he turned to a box Marco had set down near him. He pulled out a stethoscope and blood pressure cuff as he watched Roy, Cap and Chet hurry into the home. Johnny had just finished gathering the man's vitals and was writing them down for Marco to take into the house where the bio-phone was taken when the man moaned and leaned over and threw up on the lawn some of which splashed on to Johnny. "Oh . . . Sorry," the man apologized as he swayed. Johnny grabbed his arm, "I think you had better lay down." he said as he gently pushed him down on his side.

Knowing that he would be ordered to start an IV he grabbed the needed supplies and was prepping them as Marco came hurrying out of the home with the doctors response. He quickly administered the IV and meds and then left Marco to keep an eye on the father and to get him loaded as soon as the ambulance arrived.

Once inside the home Johnny's nose was assaulted by the acrid smell of vomit, causing his own stomach to turn a little. Roy was working on one of the children, a little girl around four years old who was lying on the floor. The mother was laying on the couch and their son around eight years old in an arm chair across form her. Johnny noticed that Cap was talking to the woman reassuring her that the rest of the family was being taken care of. He hurried over to the young boy. Chet was positioned on the side of the chair talking too him. As Johnny knelt in front of the boy Chet turned to Johnny and said. "His pulse 130 and respirations are 26." Johnny grabbed a child's size cuff and began taking the boys blood pressure when the boy heaved and threw up. Johnny quickly stood and stepped back but not before the vomit hit him. He quickly swallowed back the bile that rose in his throat and took in a few deep breaths then he knelt back down and continued what he was doing.

Soon Johnny was in one ambulance with the father and his son and Roy was being loaded into a seconded ambulance with the mother and her daughter. The four remaining crew members stood as they watched the ambulances pull away. Of the four Mike was the only one who had managed to escape unscathed as he had remained outside to keep watch for the ambulances and keeping an eye on the trucks and equipment. Cap turned to Chet and told him, "take the squad to Rampart."

Chet backed the squad in at the emergency entrance and then walked in and began looking for Johnny and Roy. As he walked down the hall towards the nurses' station he noticed people stepping back away from him as he passed. When he reached the nurses desk Roy stepped out of one of the exam rooms. He was holding his arms out away from his body and walked with a gate as he looked down the front of him. Chet had to struggle to keep from laughing but another door opened and out stepped Johnny who was looking more then a little green around the gills. Behind Johnny came Dixie, "Well boys you know were the showers are. I'll get you some scrubs to change into." Then she spied Chet and the smirk on his face as he watched Roy and Johnny walk uncomfortably down the hall. "You know that is really not very funny." She told him feeling sorry for the two men.

"Are you sure, just take a look," Chet said as he pointed towards his crew mates.

Dixie was firm in her feelings until she looked down the hall and watched the two turn into the bathroom and she struggled to hold back a chuckle but Chet saw her grin and began to laugh and Dixie found her self joining in the laughter. Then she realized the odor from this last run was not dissipating as expected and she leaned over to Chet and caught a whiff of him then asked, "Do you need to shower too?"

"No, I can wait till I get back to the station."

Roy backed the squad back into the bay and the two paramedics headed for the locker room to change into clean uniforms, with Chet close behind them.

As they were getting dressed Roy saw the brown paper sack lying on the bottom of Johnny's locker and asked, "What's in the bag."

Johnny looked down at the bag and thought for a moment about where the bag had come from and why it might have been behind his poster. As it downed on him a crooked smile came to his lips as he bent over and picked the bag up and pulled the picture it held out for Roy to see.

"Oh, isn't that the woman you were going to marry?"

"Yah," Johnny chuckled, "I sure learn a lesson that time."

"What lesson was that?" Roy asked.

"Never, rush into something as important as marriage." He returned the picture back into the sack and tossed it back into his locker and continued dressing.

As Roy stood and closed his looker he turned towards Johnny as he finished buttoning his shirt. He noticed Johnny was deep in thought, "A penny for your thoughts."

"What," he asked not comprehending what Roy had asked.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Oh, Marriage." Johnny said.

"What about it?" Chet asked as he walked out of the bath room.

Johnny turned and gave Chet a glare. Then he turned back to Roy and said. "I hope to find someone to settle down with someday."

Chet snickered at Johnny and exclaimed, "It will never happen."

"Now Chet I'm sure there is someone out there for Johnny and someday he will find the right one. But it won't happen over night. You need to take the time to get to know each other." With that Roy turned to leave but as he pushed the door to step out of the room he stopped and looked back at both men and said. "You need to find and marry your best friend. If you do that you will be off to a good start."