A Dark and Stormy Night

                         By Chetspet

 

 

 

It was a dark and stormy night at Station 51a shift and the crew had been kept busy. Evidence of this was  a half eaten PB&J sandwich sitting on the table and no one remembered whose it was, so the garbage got it.

Roy tried to relax in between calls by reading the newspaper, while Johnny was trying to find his favorite black leather belt he had left in his locker.

Mike was looking for a cardboard box for his baseball card collection and Marco was skimming his recipes.

Chet was off somewhere and the others figured he was either badgering John or planning the phantom’s next scheme.

Suddenly they heard a bang and John yelling, “Roy, come here, Kelly fell off a step ladder and is unconscious.”

“What was he doing?” asked Cap worriedly, looking at the stepladder lying on top of Chet.

“Well, cap, I think he was rigging up a prank for me.”

Roy and the rest of the crew had arrived and John and Roy gingerly lifted the stepladder off Chet. There was quite a bit of blood behind his head and his eyes were dilated.

John took his blood pressure while Roy called it in.

“Rampart, Squad 51 calling in a still code I from Station 51.”

“Go ahead, 51,” Dr. Morton answered, “Who is the code I?”

Roy replied, “Code I is fireman Chet Kelly, who fell approximately 5 feet off a step ladder hitting his head and is now unconscious. Pupils equally dilated and fixed, Occipital region with laceration and draining copious amount of blood. Stand by for vitals.

“B/P is 85/42, pulse 136 and respirations 8 and shallow. Breathing is unimpaired at this time. Responsive to painful and deep touch at this time.”

“Ok, 51. Start IV of D5RL at 100cc/hr. Is there any drainage from the ears or nose?”

“Negative, Rampart. IV started.”

“OK, place him on O2 at 3L/min for safety and comfort and transport ASAP.”

“Ok, ambulance here. ETA 10 minutes. Oxygen in place via nasal cannula. Patient still has not become conscious.”

John rode in while Roy took the squad. The captain had stood the whole station down and they were on their way to the station in Mike’s station wagon.

On the way to the hospital, Chet began waking up.

“What happened? Gage? Did I get hurt or something?”

“Chet, welcome back. Do you remember the last thing you were doing?”

“Yeah, I was on the step ladder cleaning out the top shelf of my locker. Guess I fell huh?”

“Yeah, you were cleaning, I bet. But, yeah you did fall and got yourself a lovely laceration on the back of your head. Come on, man, I know you were rigging one of the phantom’s traps for me!”

Chet laughed and said, “No, Gage, I really wasn’t. I had misplaced one of my badges again and was looking for it, really.”

By this time, they were at the hospital and John helped wheel a now fully cognizant Chet Kelly into treatment room 3 where Dr. Morton and Dixie waited.

It turned out that Chet had a concussion and would be spending the night. Plus he needed 10 stitches for the gash in his headl.

All in all, it was not too bad, now if only Chet can convince his crewmates that he was really looking for the extra badge.

THE END

 

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Stormy Challenge Page

 

*Ross's challenge:

Use these five items in an E! story of 2,000 words, or less:
a step ladder
a black, leather belt
a cardboard box
a newspaper
and, a half-eaten PB&J sandwich

Also the story has to start with the words, 'It was a dark and stormy night'.