Chapter 10
John looked at Greg and just stood there shaking his head until the door was completely closed behind his unwanted guest.
"How could you take her away from her family at a time like this you selfish son of a bitch? She needs us to help her get through this. You've only known her for a few days she needs our support, the love and support of her family not strangers, she needs help from people who know her and understand her to decide what's best for her." Greg started yelling and pointing his finger at John.
The rest of the crew poured out into the bay to see what was going on including Chief McConnike who was still hanging around making sure that everything was in order at station 51.
"I Love her more than you ever could," Greg continued.
"Is that why you miss represented the risks of the treatment options to her sisters?" John shouted back staying close to his crew mates just in case they needed to stop him from beating the pulp out of this man.
"She needed time to recover from her head injury," Greg continued on, "Time to realize I could take care of her. She needed her family close not to be sent away to the city to be in the care of strangers."
"What about your wife and children?" John called out again; he wondered just how much this guy would reveal in the company of strangers and witnesses.
"It's not what you think, I really love Elise, She's so exciting and vibrant, Mine and Patricia's marriage is a mistake, she doesn't understand me like Elise does,"
"Yeah well Elise understands you well enough to know that if you'd leave her sister you'd also leave her once the newness wore off."
"Never!" Greg interrupted.
"And Elise would never do anything that would hurt her sister that way. She doesn't want to have anything to do with you, no matter how many drugs you pump into her." John finished his thought then with two hands on his shoulders bringing him calm and support John added, "I'm her family now, anything more you have to say can be said to her lawyer and you can expect a court order restraining you from getting anywhere near her any day now. There's already been a complaint filed with the Montana Medical Review board concerning your disregard for doctors orders and your abusive use of sedatives against medical protocols for her current medical conditions."
John's anger was growing inside him with every thought of what her brother-in-law had done to her and why. Somehow he managed to also remember that if he was going to be able to give Elise the care and support she needed he needed to stay in control, then he also remembered he didn't have to talk to this man. At that point John turned his back and walked away from his unwanted guest and into the locker room confident his crew mates would see to it that Greg couldn't follow him.
John sat in his open locker with his feet on the bench in front of him, his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. Roy followed just a minute behind and without a word planted himself on the bench at Johnny's side and just sat there giving his silent support.
Several silent minutes later the rest of the crew walked through the door in single file and circled around John. "He's gone now," Hank broke the silence, "We all walked him to his car."
"He was also informed that if he made a return appearance here at the station the police would be called." Chief McConnike informed, "Unfortunately I can't do anything about him showing up at your apartment."
"Thanks Chief, I really appreciate it." John sobered up a little and gave each of his crewmates a look of appreciation.
"Some Honeymoon," Mike commented bringing a scoff and a hint of a smile to John's face.
"When was the last time you've had anything to eat?" Cap inquired feeling sure John hadn't eaten since he came on shift.
When John took too long to answer Marco gave Chet's shoulder a swat, "Let's go warm him up something to eat." Then the crew except for Roy, Cap and the Chief made their way out of the room.
"You going to be all right there pal," Hank asked with a hand on John's shoulder.
John let out a deep breath, "yeah, it's just been a long day; in fact it's been a long week."
Cap took a hold of one of John's arms while Roy took a hold of the other one. With a gentle pull John showed some reluctance but put his feet on the floor and leaned forward for his friends to pull him to his feet. It was chief McConnike who shut his locker door as John was drug to the common room.
As soon as John was assisted into a chair, the table before him was filled with every left over his crewmates could find in the fridge. John found he was hungry enough that he didn't really mind what it was he was being offered to eat but there was far more food than he could ever dream of consuming and that was a lot of food.
With food under their noses the rest of the crew began nibbling which put John at ease since he wasn't eating in front of his friends but with them. After eating several mouthfuls of food and washing it down with half a glass of water John paused and looked at all his gathered friends.
"I honestly can't remember what I've told to whom so I think the best place to start now is for you guys to ask what ever questions you want answers to and we'll go from there." While the men were trying to decide amongst themselves what to ask and who would go first John took several more bites of food.
It was Roy who broke the silence first, "What I want to know is how your wife got the piece of helmet in her heart?"
John let out a deep breath and began the story about the ropes coming untied at an auto accident rescue and the results there of. Informing everyone in the room that there was more trials ahead when he added the part about the bigger chunk of her helmet imbedded in her skull.
"We're going to wait now for six to eight weeks while they let her get accustomed to the pace maker and get her weaned off all the drugs she's been on before they'll schedule the brain surgery." Johnny informed and this information drew Hank's mind to the letters left in his desk drawer that he needed to get into John's file, and while he was at it he needed to return the papers he had taken to the hospital earlier just in case they were needed again in the future.
"Hey, I don't think it's fair to blame the lineman for everything going wrong." Chet offered up his sensitivity.
"Chet," John paused to swallow what he was eating, "If you had been there it wouldn't have happened I'm sure. But they don't have professional fire fighters they have volunteer fire fighters and where a lot of volunteer fire fighters are well trained some are not and where we use our training or review our training every shift. They may only get called out once a month if they're exceptionally busy. Where Elise is from they have a rotation of drills they do on a weekly basis but if a new person comes on the team it takes them a full year to learn all that their being taught and by then they've forgotten most of it because they never use it. Unfortunately the younger ones that come on are usually most excited about wrestling a charged hose, they think it makes them look manly." John paused and looked at Chet and his friend could see the tears in his eyes. "In this case the kid was just nineteen and a week after the accident he wrote a letter where he admitted that when they were teaching knots he didn't pay a lot of attentions because he thought he would never use them. After he handed the letter to a nurse in the emergency room he went into the elevator and shut it off between floors. While the medical staff tried to talk some sense into him over the elevator phone he took a gun to his head and pulled the trigger after he made it clear that he wanted Elise to have his heart transplanted to replace of the one he damaged."
Everyone was stunned at this story including Hank who hadn't heard that part. After he closed his eyes and bit his tongue for the length of a deep breath Hank asked. "Is there a reason they didn't give Elise the transplant?"
John scoffed and looked down at his hands as he twiddled with his fork. "Yeah lots of them, first of all the hospital there isn't equipped for such a surgery, but most of all the two weren't compatible. He didn't even have the same blood type she has. The whole thing was such a waist." John shook his head in sorrow.
"They didn't tell Elise about this did they?" Mike looked as appalled as he sounded.
"The kid's parents were quite distraught, they ended barging into Elise's ICU unit and accused her of putting him up to it," John informed still playing with his fork. "They apologized a few days later when they'd had a chance to come to grips with everything but yeah Elise was told about it, and yes it did set her back in her recovery."
"And the treatment she needed was withheld so that guy we just escorted out of here could try to convince her to become romantically involved with him?" Marco asked appropriately appalled.
"It's beginning to sound like that was part of it," John answered. "To be honest I don't know all the reasons myself but from what her sisters told me tonight, I gather they were led to believe that she really didn't stand a chance of recovery and the best thing they could do was keep her comfortable. I'm convinced the Doctor was in on it a little but I have no way of knowing why he made the choices he made. Maybe he really didn't think she had a chance."
"So," Chief McConnike chose that moment to get his question answered. "Have assault charges been filed against the person who gave you that shiner?"
John touched his eye with his hand and while turning red shook his head to the negative. "No sir, it was an accident. Elise had a seizure in the middle of the night and she accidently got me with her elbow."
"You mean you slept together!" Marco exclaimed in a state of total shock. "I mean are you really Ma—I mean not in name only."
"Yes Marco; we consummated the marriage," John answered, honestly and a little brighter red than he had been before, "We're really married in every sense of the word."
"Man Gage you take the cake," Chet was shaking his head. "You're a paramedic you're only supposed to treat the patients you don't have to marry them."
"Chet," John looked like he was getting riled, "and this goes for all of you. I married Elise because I wanted to not because I felt in any way like I had to."
"But Gage that guy said you've only known her for a few days," Chet defended his position.
"Yeah well, Greg doesn't know as much as he thinks he does," John was again all business. "Elise and I have been special friends for a little over four years now."
"I had no idea you've been seeing anyone for that long." Roy showed his surprise.
"Well, pally I don't tell you everything now do I?" Johnny answered with a sly smile. He then let out a deep breath and pushed his plate away, "thanks guys for seeing to it that I got something to eat, let me help you get these dishes done up and then I better get some sleep before I head back to the hospital. I want to be there before Elise wakes up in the morning."
"That's Okay John we can take care of the dishes, you've had enough going on today." Hank declared and started gathering up the dishes with in John's reach and handed them to Chet.
"Thanks for everything guys," John showed his appreciation and got to his feet. "Oh, Cap, I forgot to give you your keys back." John pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and Hank pulled John's set of keys out of his pocket, "I really appreciated what you did yesterday Cap, I hope no one followed you home."
"Na we made sure they knew they were following the wrong people before we headed home. A good thing too their language would have burned my kids ears." Hank placed John's keys in his hand and took the keys to his wife's car."
"So that's how John's car got here an hour before he did!" Roy finally understood and although he was still disappointed in missing his partner's wedding he understood that too.
"So who followed you Cap, was it Tom or Greg?" John inquired not sure which one to avoid the hardest.
"Both," Hank answered and John just rolled his eyes.
While the rest of the crew worked to clean up the kitchen, Cap and the Chief walked John to his car. John thanked them both and then climbed in his car placed the key in the ignition and then rested his head on the back of the seat and closed his eyes.
The Cap and the Chief returned next to the building and watched for a moment and when John didn't make a move the Chief left Hank's side and walked into the common room. "Could I get a couple of volunteers to make up an extra bunk? It looks like you're going to have a guest tonight."