Chapter 24

Sensing John still had some unwinding to do and was slightly traumatized by the last run Hank invited the men to bring the log book to the kitchen where he managed to have a fresh pot of coffee waiting with a couple of new coffee mugs to drink it out of.

In an attempt to start with lightening things up in the station Hank asked his first question, "What on earth inspired you two to buy a fire station to life in?"

"I didn't buy it, Elise did, a little over six months ago," John answered, "It was part of a packaged land deal she worked out."

Marco and Mike moved in to take part in the conversation. It was Mike that noticed the change of address paperwork on the table after the squad left on its call and brought it to the captain's attention. They were eager for the details and quick to settle in to listen, still they could all see the melancholy look on John's face and noticed the lack of excitement in his voice.

"She managed to pick up some land she thought would work to build a horse ranch on and it included the fire station," John explained between sips of fresh coffee.

"That's not exactly the whole story," was heard from the door as everyone turned to see Chief McConnike standing in the door way. My research into the matter found that an 'E.R. Holbrook,' purchased the land meant for a sub division. As you remember the county was already getting bad press for building such a large station before the housing went in." the chief shook his head in thought, "I was going to have an office there and the builder was hoping to get some other contracts with the county so he added as many luxuries to the place as he could get away with. There are three sets of wall mounted ovens, two stoves and two automatic dishwashers, training, and meeting rooms upstairs with a kitchenette and two full bathrooms it was built to house a twelve man crew with a three truck bay and a chief's car. Well any way when the sub division couldn't happen the county really looked bad and according to rumors this said E.R. Holbrook was in the fire and rescue business herself, Of course most everyone thought she was a he with all the shrewd bargaining that took place, seems a fair offer was made for the building and the county is now building two smaller stations to take its place. Boy things really turned ugly when they learned that the quake had opened up a natural water spring. That woman is one lucky land dealer."

"You look at her history in land dealings and you'd know there isn't a whole lot of luck in it." John defended his wife. "She seems to specialize in buying land no one wants and with a little work here and a little paint there, turns around and sells it for anywhere from three to five times what she paid for it."

"So any way, what on earth are you planning to do with the three truck wide and double deep apparatus bay?" the Chief asked the same question the Captain did only with a little more excitement and wonder.

"We don't have any real plans right now," John answered still down and withdrawn, "since it's paid for we're going to move in and decide what to do from there."

"So are you going to move into the upstairs training center?" McConnike questioned, "That would be a great little apartment for a couple of newlyweds."

"No," John was quick to answer, "I don't want Elise on the second floor, the last place I want her to be is around stairs if she has a seizure."

"I guess that makes sense," McConnike nod his head in thought as a mug of coffee was set on the table before him, Mike knew how to butter up the Chief and a buttered up Chief meant a calmer captain.

"Hey you've got new mugs, I didn't think things would come through headquarters nearly that fast." McConnike commented as he lifted the cup to his lips.

"It wasn't from head quarters," Captain Stanley placed a hand on John's shoulder. "John here brought them in this morning along with some new dishes for the place."

"I thought newlyweds were supposed to get these kinds of gifts not give them," McConnike joked, "How are the plans for that reception coming?"

"I don't much know," John answered, "I'm just waiting to be told where and when to show up."

"According to the wives," Roy spoke up, "Everything is well underway and it should be a marvelous evening."

There was moment of silence as the men sipped their coffee and then Chief McConnike pulled out a chair and sat down with a formality that said business. "Alright Gage something's got you down, you and the missus have your first fight?"

"NO we didn't have a fight," John spoke defensively still reeling from the attach Chet had made against his wife that morning. "WE get along great, we're meant for each other," then everyone in the room noticed the moisture pooling up in John's eyes and gave him the silent look that had been established to mean, 'we're listening, let it out'

John gave each man around him a glance then looked down at his coffee mug and turned it on the table as he let out a few catching sighs before licking his lips and taking in a deep breath.

"This morning while I was fixing breakfast I noticed this box, it was one of the ones Rachel brought with her, it was labeled Accident Information." John continued to twist his mug on the table and not look up. He knew his friends were there to listen to him and they didn't need to see the emotions he was fighting to keep from spilling out all over the table. "I knew if there were pictures they were going to be hard to look at but, but I, I just, , she's my wife I had to see 'em."

Five men silently took in deep breaths and nod their heads in silent understanding then one Captain sat up straight and spoke, "I think if it was my wife I'd of had to look at them too. I take it the pictures; they must have been pretty bad."

John gave his captain a quick glance without lifting his head then nod his head to agree with what had been said.

"I found the radio transcripts too, and the rescue reports." John spoke again still with his head hung low. "It seems that when the ropes came undone and the car rolled, there was no one left on scene that was trained in repelling rescues. The cop on sight had a camera with a telephoto lens and looked through that, He called it a 10-85 Echo times three by what he saw through the camera lens. That's their code for a code F, it translates as victim's condition obvious fatality."

John paused again and placed his tongue at the back of his mouth and actually took a sip of coffee. "They waited for a half hour for the tow truck to arrive and then he managed to hook the bumper of the car and winch it up to the road where the mortician was waiting to take the bodies. That's when they found Elise had a pulse. The other rescue guy did too but he died enroute to the hospital."

The eyes in the room were wide with understanding but John couldn't meet any of them. The silence was thick broken with radio chatter that didn't mean anything to them at the time. No one knew what to say so no one said anything there was just silence.

Finally John bit the end of his tongue and spoke with a hint of anger in his voice. "She's worked for years to get decent on scene care for everyone in that area regardless of who they were, and when she needed help all they did was throw her in the back of a Hurst and drive recklessly to the hospital. It's a miracle she's alive. They didn't even administer the minimum amount of first aid, she had no understandable way to survive all that, but she did."

No one knew what to say so they said nothing. When the coffee was finished and the new mugs washed and put in the cupboards Captain Stanley led his group in a hose drill and explained the layout of two new companies that were starting up in the area.

The training drill was interrupted twice for calls that involved elderly people who had fallen, one man broke his arm, a woman managed to injure both her ankles.

When the paramedics returned to the station lunch was waiting for them and the crew got into a gentle conversation on how to set up a fire station as living quarters and when they got to the apparatus bay the list of suggestions went wild and got a little out of hand. As five men made suggestions that brought laughter only two noticed a dark haired newlywed grow very quiet and slip out of the kitchen in to the apparatus bay.

Leaving three firemen to laugh Roy and Captain Stanley stepped out of the kitchen to find John leaning on the back of the squad with his head hung low and deep in thought.

"Is there something wrong that you haven't told us about?" Cap asked with the tone of a leader demanding an answer laced with the tone of a friend wanting to help.

John looked back toward the kitchen and smirked as he listened to the three firemen list off sillier and sillier ideas about living in a fire station. "You know they haven't listed anything yet that Elise and I didn't come up with last night." Without another word John moved over to the back of the fire engine and watched as his friends followed him once the three of them were there together John gave another glance at the kitchen and once he was comfortable that they couldn't hear him he sat on the tail board as Cap and Roy took the hint and sat next to him.

"Have either of you every given your wives a, well um, a urinary tract infection?" John asked and watched as two grown men began to pink up a little.

"The honeymoon curse," Roy responded before letting out a deep breath.

"Um, John, It happens to nearly everyone at one time or another but, um, my wife has always said that she didn't mind." Cap tried to ease in to the situation realizing this paramedic was not his son.

John gave his two married friends a questioning look before Hank stood up, "Roy, you're the medical expert here I'll leave our newlywed here for you to straighten out," With that he was off to his office sure there was some paperwork waiting for him there.

"That's easy for him to say, his wife hasn't had open heart surgery and isn't waiting to have brain surgery." John responded shaking his bent thumb toward the retreating Captain, "and I don't need a birds and the bees lecture or an anatomy lesson."

The embarrassing moment was brought to a grateful end by sound of the klaxons calling them to action.

Station 51 respond to Woman down 2894 Grand'Mere Ave. 2894 Grand'Mere Ave.

The only thing Johnny heard before he climbed in the squad was a woman down, but when Roy handed him the call slip he might as well have slugged him in the gut.

"Roy, that's where Eess is."

Roy worried about his partner the whole way to the assigned address. He was grateful Captain Stanley was right behind them to deal with John if need be while he took care of the patient that he hoped beyond hope was not Elise.

When they arrived at the address the paramedics grabbed their equipment to find firemen standing at their sides taking a share of the equipment from the medics.

Together they made their way to the front lobby and once they were gathered a secured door opened and a Nurse held it open for the men. "This way please, I don't know what the big deal is but her Dr. insisted that you be called."

"Can you tell us what the problem is ma'am?" Roy questioned.

"We have this new patient here today," the woman stated to explain as she led the way having no idea that she has just told the second paramedic in line just who the patient was. "She's been a royal pain since her husband just dumped her off this morning; her doctors have been anything but helpful. Well she was interfering with operations here and saying that we were over medicating our patients while trying to treat some of them herself, so one of the nurses thought she should be sedated only he looked at the wrong chart and gave her medications meant for another patient."

A locked door was opened and Elise was seen fighting the sedation and relieved to see John coming through the door.

"Like I said it is not necessary for you to be here we could certainly handle the situation ourselves but her doctors insisted that you be called."

"We need to know what medications she was given," John called out without looking back as he took hold of Elise's wrist to start counting a pulse.

"I've already told the Doctor at Rampart, A doctor Brackett said he would be waiting for your call," the woman's attitude was as dismissive as it had been with John that morning, "You know this woman should have never been sent here in the first place. We weren't given the orders to care for her properly and our hands were tied. Personally I think her husband is just trying to get rid of her,"

"Rampart this is squad 51 do you read," John held the bio-phone headset to his ear as Roy checked Elise's blood pressure and tried to calm both the patient and her husband and the same time. "You can be assured that she will not be returning to the facility would you please gather her belongings to go with her." John spoke to the woman at the door ranting.

"Well I'll have you know you do not have the authority to remove this patient from our facility." The nurse declared, "The only person who can check this patient out is her Doctor and her husband, and like I said before her husband is not interested in caring for her."

At that John handed the bio-phone to Marco as he turned around and pushed himself to his feet and stood face to face with the nurse. Pulling his wallet from his pants pocket John showed his ID.

"She will not be returning to this nightmare behind locked doors, please bring her belongings here quickly, one suitcase and one handbag with a stuffed teddy bear."

"We will need you to sign some papers Mr. Gage." The nurse shrunk from John's sight.

"Very well," John responded before turning back to his wife and helping to get the IV set up. "Cap would you please read the papers over for me and tell me what it is they want me to sign."

As Elise was being lifted onto a gurney, Captain Stanley gave a report to his dark haired paramedic. "This form is a standard release of personal property, this one is a saying you'll not hold them accountable for any treatment they've administered," Hank knew exactly what his paramedic would say next.

Taking his pen from his pocket John signed the release for personal property then handed both papers back to the head nurse, "I will not be signing the second one."

Captain Stanley took hold of the two bags and asked about the teddy bear when John looked up to see the teddy bear in the arms of another patient who was holding it tight. "Never mind Cap, I'll get her another one, it looks like that patient needs it more right now.

"Alright then," Cap spoke with command, "Both of you ride in with the patient, Marco will bring in the squad, and we'll take these things back to the station if that's all right with you."

"Sure cap."