Chapter 16

2025

Older Johnny and Roy sat with Chet at the table going over the list of parts that Sam needed to make a second engine in 1975. They got ninety percent of the parts made and were gathering other supplies.

Johnny wondered. "Once Sam gets the other side of this wormhole nailed down, what happens?"

Roy assumed. "We can send Chet home, bring Sam back and close it down."

Chet cocked his head in thought. "But if she can't close it down? There would be a space ship engine in my time in the bay."

"I don't know what she does then." Roy confessed.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

Johnny stood up. "I wonder who that is?" he pondered and made his way to the front door. He was most surprised upon opening the door.

"Ponch! Jon." he found two familiar faces. "What are you guys doing here?"

The two former patrol officers were now much older and a bit heavier. Ponch asked. "You need any help with security, Johnny? We know all about that engine." Both men were in civilian clothing.

"How?" he wondered.

"You told us about it back in 1975." he informed. "Gave us instructions to come here in 2025. Here we are!" he motioned.

"Well, come on in!" he led the two officer inside.

Jon Baker and Frank "Ponch" Poncerello stepped inside the old fire station. Johnny led them to the kitchen.

"Guess who's here." he called to Chet and Roy.

Roy's eyes light up. "Hey! The Calvary!" He understood that much like with fireman, police will answer the call to duty even long after retirement.

Chet sat beside himself for a moment as his eyes landed on his old friends from the police department. The faces were much older and wrinkled. The hair was gray and silver. Both men were a bit heavier. He knew both were men in their seventies and he wasn't sure how much help the pair could be.

"Ponch! Jon!" he was a still a bit shaken up as his friends had aged fifty years.

Jon Baker walked over with a grin. "Boy Chet. Are you a sight for sore eyes." He gave the man a hug. "Miss ya." he told him.

Chet stood feeling awkward. He patted his back. "Missed you too." he squeaked.

Ponch hugged Chet next. "My turn."

Chet patted his shoulder as well. "I'm okay." he felt awkward.

Roy asked. "You two are our security, huh?"

"We are." Jon insisted.

"Hope you brought something to defend us with?" he mentioned.

Jon opened his jacket to reveal the pistol he had concealed. "We both are armed, Roy."

Chet asked. "You think we really need to be armed?"

"Yes!" Ponch insisted. "You are sitting on an engine that other nations and a few billionaires would kill for. You need security."

Jon explained. "Just like the old days when there was an MVA and fire needed police to secure the scene to keep bystanders out. Same thing."

Chet gave a nod. "I'll let Sam know we got security."

1975

Station 51 and Rescue 51 were dispatched to another motor vehicle accident. Upon arriving on scene the carnage was evident. Two cars were drag racing at a high rate of speed and caused a crash with another car that was merging onto the highway. The impact was so great the car was cracked in half and rolled onto its side.

Sam's heart dropped into her stomach upon seeing the mess before them. A white car had front end damage as it hit the red car that was in half. A black car was pulled over ahead and screaming was heard.

Roy looked at Sam and gave instruction. "You are our go'fer. You just bring us equipment. Got it, Sam."

She nodded. "Holy! I never seen a accident this bad before."

"Just stick with us and stay focused on me and Johnny." he told her. He knew the scene was going to be bloody and disturbing.

The paramedics emerged with Sam in tow. One victim lay on the ground by the side of the road. A female with a massive cut through her middle by the seat belt. She was alive and responding but in a critical condition. Firefighters and bystanders were tending to her needs.

Roy and Johnny made their way to the red car. Sam followed wishing she could just block out of the scene around her. As they arrived they found an older man on scene as he was already assessing the two victims in the red car. He shook his head. "They are both gone." he told Roy and Johnny.

Roy recognized the gray haired man. He was the new county medical examiner. "Dr. Quincey." Roy noted.

"I'm Dr. Quincey." he confirmed. "I was on my way to the office when I came across the accident. I'm the new M.E.."

Roy nodded. "I know who you are. Both are gone, Quince?"

"Both." he replied surprised by Roy calling him Quince for only his friends called him such and he just met Roy and was sure he had not met him before.

Johnny recalled the accident. "This is the one caused by the brother and sister who were drag racing. She went to prison for manslaughter."

Roy agreed. "I remember this. It's bad."

The medical examiner heard the odd talk and found it strange to say the least but let it go.

Sam stood back for she didn't wish to see the mangled bodies in the red car. She heard the teenage driver of the black car screaming threats. Sam walked back towards the wounded woman the firemen and ambulance medics were trying to treat. She spied a young women with dark hair about eighteen years of age. She was screaming about the victims in the red car, claiming it was their fault and her friend on the ground better not die or she would kill the driver of the red car, who was now deceased.

Roy and Johnny soon descended on the injured women on the side of the road as she needed the most help.

The teen driver was still screaming and Sam was about ready to lose her temper.

"That bitch pulled out in front of us. She better not be alive or I'm gonna kill her." the sister who drove the black car sounded.

Sam walked up to her and looked her dead in the eye. "You fucking bitch. If I were you. I would shut the fuck up right now."

She gasped. "You are not really a fireman, bitch." She then walked past Sam and tried to get closer to the injured passenger on the ground that Roy and Johnny were trying to save.

Sam shook her head once and decided there was no way she was letting her get close. She grabbed the arm of the teen driver. "You stay back."

"Let me go or I will hit you, bitch." she stated. "That's my friend."

"You stay back." she growled at the obnoxious teen driver who caused the accident in the first place.

"You're not a real fireman." she huffed and then pushed Sam back.

Sam smirked. "You're right. I'm not." She then lost control and swung at the obnoxious driver. She hit her square in the jaw and she fell backwards.

"Oh, I'm gonna beat your ass." the driver stated and then after Sam swinging both fist and trying to kick her.

Sam stood in her gear which protected her from the flying fist and kicks. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" she asked.

Two police officers spied Sam being attacked. They came to her rescue. California Highway Patrol Officers, Ponch and Jon ran to aid Sam as they did not see Sam punch the obnoxious driver.

"Whoa, whoa…" Ponch huffed as he and his partner dragged the teen driver off Sam and cuffed her as she fought back.

"Get off me you pigs." she huffed.

Sam rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, you don't hit a fireman." Ponch stated.

"She hit me." the driver insisted as she was face down.

Ponch looked up at Sam as Jon secured the driver. "That true?"

Sam lied. "I never touched her. I just told her to stay away from the wounded lady on the ground."

"You bitch." the driver huffed.

Sam waited for a moment. Jon and Ponch got the driver to her feet. She glared at Sam.

Sam calmly replied. "I'm not a bitch. I'm the bitch. Better figure out the difference."

"Fuck you!" she screamed.

Sam suggested. "I think you guys might want to check her for drugs. This isn't normal."

"We will." Jon stated. "You sure you are okay?"

"I'm fine." she nodded.

Ponch told the driver. "You are just racking up the charges today, missy. On top of drag racing and causing this accident, felony assault on a fireman too."

"She hit me." she huffed.

Sam shrugged. "You never hit someone in uniform. That's stupid."

"Bitch." she huffed again.

"Convict." she smirked. She had no sympathy for the teen driver at all as she blamed the innocent passengers that were killed.

"Come on." Jon led the driver away.

Ponch looked at her. "You are feisty one."

"She was threatening the deceased driver and blaming them for the accident." she told her. "She pissed me off."

"Did you?" he hinted.

She shrugged. "Would it matter?"

He paused knowing she may indeed have hit the other woman. "Won't matter to me." He then flashed a smile. "If the fireman thing doesn't work out, you can always become a cop."

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"That comeback from when she called you a bitch is classic." he informed. He walked by her to assist his partner as he noticed the driver was still being difficult.

Sam walked over to the scene. Roy climbed in the back of the ambulance with the critical patient. Sam helped Johnny gather the equipment and secure it.

Johnny asked. "What happened?"

"I told that woman off." she informed. "I lost my cool. She was blaming the guy she killed."

"She did that the whole trial." he told her. "This accident I do remember. That woman got fifteen years. She was drag racing her brother, he was a minor. They were going nearly 140 miles per hour when he hit the red car. I remember going to the trial. She had a bad attitude through the whole thing and blamed the two she killed."

"She tried to get in a fight with me. The two cops saw it. I guess she racked up another charge when she tried to beat me up. Which was stupid. I'm wearing turnout gear and didn't feel a thing. This is like wearing armor." she noted.

Johnny paused. "She tried to hit you and got charged?"

"I hit her first but the cops didn't see that." she confessed. "I just lost it." she felt bad. Not for hitting her but for losing control.

"Don't tell anyone." Johnny advised. "She deserved it but…let's not tell anyone."

"My lips are sealed." she promised.