An E!aster Story of Sorts
By Audrey W.
The lights suddenly came on in the dorm room and were immediately followed by the voice of LA Dispatch.
“Station 51, unknown type rescue, 3222 West Camille Street, three two two two West Camille Street, cross street Thirty-second Avenue, time out 22:35.”
Paramedics John Gage and Roy DeSoto, along with the rest of A-Shift, tossed back the covers on their beds and were on their feet in a matter of seconds. The men quickly stepped into their boots and turnout pants that were set up on the floor, ready to be donned. Once the pants were up and secured by suspenders, the crew members trotted out into the apparatus bay and toward their engine and squad, respectively.
Captain Hank Stanley acknowledged the call at the radio in the dorm, then followed behind his men.
Soon the two trucks were on the street, lights and sirens in use.
~*~*~
The location turned out to be a small bar that seemed to be quite busy. Despite the fact it was almost officially Easter Sunday, the parking lot was nearly full to capacity and the sound of rowdy music and voices carried out from the interior of the building.
A police officer who’d been at the scene just a few moments longer than the new arrivals stepped away from two patrons to fill the firemen in.
“I know you aren’t going to believe this, but they said a bunny is down inside.”
“A bunny?” The captain asked.
“That’s what they’re claiming.” He glanced over his left shoulder at the two. “Of course, they aren’t the most sober at the moment. I guess the management is busy with what’s going on inside and these guys volunteered to wait out here for us.”
“Okay, we’ll see what we’ve got. Mike, you, Chet and Marco wait here. I’ll let you know if we need additional help. John, Roy, grab what you think you may need and let’s go.”
The paramedics immediately did as directed and trotted toward the entrance just behind the police officer and the captain. The two inebriated men decided they would rather stay outside and watch the emergency lights on the trucks rotate, illuminating the normally white building with red flashes.
~*~*~
“A bunny down the night before Easter,” John quietly commented to Roy. “Whataya wanna make a bet some guy dressed up in a rabbit suit had too much to drink an’ is laid out on the floor.”
“If I was a betting man. . .for real,” Roy added, referring to a time John and the others put pressure on him to take his fun picking winning race horses to a level of putting money on them. He didn’t do so well once there was more at stake. “I’d put money on it.”
~*~*~
But Roy was surprised and John was shocked to see that the bunny down wasn’t in a rabbit suit at all. In fact it wasn’t even a man. Instead, they were taken to the side of a small stage, where a very voluptuous blonde wearing a white one-piece skirted swimsuit-type outfit and rabbit-eared head band was laid out on the floor near the bottom of the few steps that led up to it.
The male and female patrons that were concerned stepped back to make room for the paramedics to work. Just the manager, one of the waitresses and a female friend of the bunny remained closer to John, Roy, the captain and officer.
The friend was also scantly clad in the same kind of outfit, only yellow, and she had yellow feathers on a headband in her brown hair.
“What happened?” Roy asked as he set down the biophone and drug box before kneeling beside her.
John had the oxygen near him as he also knelt beside the victim opposite his partner and began to assess her condition.
The feathered friend explained with, “We were dancing on stage . . .you know, just groovin’ to the music. . .it’s our version of our Easter show. . .you know, for adults. Bunny started to feel kind of dizzy, so she was going to sit down over there.” She pointed toward an empty chair against the wall. “But as soon as she got to the bottom of the steps, she just dropped! Passed out.”
“Her name’s Bunny?”
The lady looked at the police officer, who was in the process of taking down the information on his notepad.
“Yes. She was born on Easter Sunday so her parents named her that.”
“What’s her middle name?”
“She doesn’t have one.”
"Last name?"
"Perkins."
“And your name is. . .?” He was waiting for her to say either ‘Birdy’ or ‘Chicky’, based on her attire. But the officer was wrong on the name.
“Blair.”
In the meantime, Roy set up the biophone to contact a doctor and give the victim’s vitals while Johnny applied oxygen to the still woozy Bunny.
“Rampart, this is squad 51.”
“Go ahead, 51,” came a quick reply from Brackett.
“Rampart, we have a female, approximately twenty- two years old.”
Blair gave a nod that he was correct on the age.
“She’s had one syncopal episode but is semi-alert now, vitals signs are. . .”
While Roy read off the information written in his tablet, John was busy with Bunny.
“Wha. . .what happened?” She groggily asked.
“Looks like you fainted,” he explained. “Have you eaten enough today? Had plenty of fluids?”
“Ye. . .yes.” She glanced up at the faces around her, then at her friend. “Blair. . .?”
“You just dropped! I was so scared.”
Bunny then looked at John again. “What’s wrong with me?” She questioned from under the mask over her mouth and nose, apprehension in her voice.
“Just take it easy. It’s not going to do you any good to get worked up.” He then assured, “Everything appears to be okay now. We’d just like to take you in to Rampart General Hospital to see if they can tell what brought this on and make sure everything is okay.”
“Okay. . .”
He gave a crooked reassuring smile and a nod. “Good deal, then.”
Roy was done with his informing Rampart. They were directed to just transport when the ambulance arrived. She didn't appear to need the added oxygen on her anymore so John removed it.
As she was lifted onto the stretcher a short while later, the paramedics noticed a round white fluffy tail attached to her attire. Bunny had a bunny tail.
John grinned in amusement while Roy just rolled his eyes.
~*~*~
The rest of the engine crew waited anxiously outside, still seated in their large vehicle.
They’d felt like fish in a fishbowl when the two sort of drunk guys wandered over and walked around the engine like it was a display for viewing.
“What’s it like to ride up there?” One had asked Mike.
“Well, I’m the engineer.”
“Oh. So what’s it like to ride up there?”
With a sigh, the engineer had explained, “I drive it. Those two are the ones along for a ride.” He’d motioned with his right thumb toward Chet and Marco.
But apparently it only made a difference to Mike. The two observers weren’t impressed and wandered off.
“Guess he don’t know. . .” one mumbled.
“Good job getting rid of ‘um, Mikey,” Chet commented.
“Yeah, Mike, good thinking,” Marco added.
Stoker just let it go. No need for them to know he’d been trying to give some serious information and got the results he did. He decided to change the subject.
“I wonder what’s going on inside.”
The ambulance had only been at the scene a short time and they hadn’t seen anyone come out yet.
“I just hope if it’s good stuff, if ya know what I mean, no one tells us what we missed.”
Marco had to snicker at Chet’s comment. He also had to agree.
Almost on cue the front door to the place opened and out came Captain Stanley and the police officer. Right behind them was the ambulance attendants with the victim on the stretcher. John was beside it with the biophone and drug box in hand, Roy right behind with the rest of the equipment they hadn’t used.
Chet leaned out to get a better look. “Is that a rabbit on the stretcher?” He asked as it was wheeled by.
Marco peered over him, but couldn’t see.
“Damn,” Chet griped. “I think they rescued a playboy bunny!”
“Hey, get a load of that chick,” Mike said as he peered in the side mirror.
Chet shifted his gaze and saw Blair. Mike wasn’t kidding. She was really kind of dressed like a chick.
“I can’t wait till the guys explain this one.”
~*~*~
Johnny climbed up in the back of the ambulance with Bunny. Roy gave him a quick “See ya at Rampart”, then closed the doors. After two raps to let those inside know the doors were secure, the senior paramedic watched as the ambulance pulled away.
“We’ll see you back at the station,” Captain Stanley said, then climbed up into the engine while Roy continued on to the squad.
Hank then found himself answering questions from his crew about the rescue most of the way back to their quarters.
~*~*~
“So do ya dress up like this every time around Easter?” John asked as he made conversation with Bunny on the way to Rampart.
“Not just around Easter. It’s my trademark.”
“Ah, I see. To go with your name..”
“Right.”
“So how did your friend come to dress up like a chick. . .kinda. . .with a common name like Blair?”
“Well, we couldn’t both be bunnies or it would take away from my reason for dressing up like this. So we thought, ‘what goes with a bunny?’ and we decided other than a carrot, a chick.”
“Not to mention a chick is a whole lot more attractive than a carrot. . .unless one’s really a rabbit, of course.”
She giggled slightly, which brought the paramedic to the conclusion he was accomplishing what he’d hoped. To put her at ease before they got to Rampart.
~*~*~
John followed alongside the stretcher with Bunny on it as they made their way down the corridor at the hospital. The ambulance attendants were moving it along at a rapid pace.
Dixie McCall stood at the open door of Treatment Room Two, where she directed them to go in.
The door closed freely behind them all, then John helped to transfer Bunny from the gurney to the exam table.
“She’s been able to carry on a conversation along the way. All her vitals are normal, too,” he informed Doctor Brackett.
“Okay, let’s see if we can come up with a reason for your loss of consciousness,” the doctor told his patient. His mouth twitched slightly as he gave a reassuring smile. He then addressed his nurse. “Dix, we’re going to need some blood drawn for the lab.”
“Right.”
She went to work as John asked, “Doc, you need me for anything else?”
“No, Johnny. Thanks.”
“Sure.”
The attendants had already left. The dark-haired paramedic leaned over close to Bunny’s head and quietly told her, “You’re in good hands. I’ve gotta go, but I’ll check in to see how ya are later or tomorrow, okay?”
She gave a nod, then watched as he went out the door across the room.
~*~*~
Out in the waiting area, Roy had just finished talking with Blair. He approached his partner when he saw him emerge from the treatment room.
“How is she?”
“Still lookin’ good.” When he saw Roy smirk, he added, “Her health, Roy. Her health is lookin’ good.”
“So you’re going to tell me you aren’t interested in a girl like that or a chick like Blair?”
“Ha, believe me, Roy. These girls are not my type. Nooo waaay.” He made sure to emphasize the word ‘not’ to get the message across he was very firm on his statement. Nothing could go well with girls that dressed up as bunnies and chicks on a regular basis.
~*~*~
Near the end of their shift in the morning, the paramedics were dispatched out for an injured child. A young boy had fallen out of a tree during an Easter egg hunt.
Once they had him in a doctor’s care at Rampart, they decided to see if anyone had an update on Bunny. Maybe she’d even gone home.
Dixie and Brackett had just come into work a short time before John and Roy got there. It was the first time they’d seen them since bringing Bunny in.
“Any word on Bunny?” Roy asked when the foursome met up at the base station. Another doctor was with the boy they’d brought in, so Brackett wasn’t needed there.
“I was going to call you last night, but figured it was too late.”
“So?” John wondered. “What’dya find out?” He glanced at Roy a second, before returning his gaze to the doctor and nurse.
Brackett folded his arms across his chest. “Well, it seems unlike the Easter Bunny, our Miss Bunny isn’t carrying colored eggs around with her. Rather one fertilized egg.”
“She’s pregnant?”
“That’s right, Roy.”
“So how did she take the news?” John asked. “I mean, being single an’ all.”
“She couldn’t wait to tell the father. He was on his way in when we left last night. I’d already okayed her release.”
“She sure didn’t look pregnant in that outfit,” Roy stated.
“I’d say that’s because, going by what she told me, she’s due right around Thanksgiving. So she's not very far along.”
“Thanksgiving. . .” John pondered. “Hey, I wonder if she’ll name the kid Turkey if she has it on that day. You know since her mom named her Bunny on Easter.”
“Let’s hope not,” Roy said. “Or the kid’s liable to get the stuffing beat out of it with a name like that,” he teased.
The others grinned, Johnny snickering, at the comment.
“Well, c’mon, let’s go. You’ve got your own little ones to get home to,” Gage reminded.
After a few exchanges of ‘See yas’ and ‘Happy Easter’, the two paramedics were on their way, both glad that the ‘Easter Bunny’ they’d come to know after a very short time was going to be just fine.
This just came to mind about two days ago, when I thought about a lady dressed in a skimpy bunny outfit and Johnny seeing her. The story didn't go as I planned, 'the guys' had other ideas. :o)
Happy Easter!
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