By Ross
Dixie McCall heard two sets of footsteps approaching her Nurses’ Station and glanced up from her medical charts, to see who was coming.
It was her two favorite firemen.
The corners of her mouth started to turn upward.
But then she caught the two paramedic’s long faces, and her own instantly filled with concern. “Bad one?”
“It wasn’t good,” Johnny Gage solemnly said. “Young kid. Victim of a hit and run. We don’t know if we got to him in time…”
Dixie gazed sympathetically at her forlorn friends and determined that she would try to bolster their sagging spirits. “Hey, you guys remember Terra Ferguson?”
Roy’s gloomy countenance immediately brightened. “The lady with the twins who got into the Comet cleanser. Right?”
“Right!” the RN replied. She put her paperwork down and pulled some photographs from a cubbyhole below the counter. “Seems the twins just turned two. She sent us some pictures of their birthday party.”
DeSoto eagerly accepted the stack of 4x4 photographs she proffered to them and he and his partner began looking through them.
“Ahhh…the terrible twos,” Gage surmised and couldn’t help but grin and giggle at the amusing photographs.
The two babies had managed to stick cake everywhere—but in their mouths.
A grief-stricken woman exited Exam Three. She saw her nephew’s rescuers leaning against the counter at the ER’s nearest Nurses’ Station, looking at pictures and having a high old time. Her watering eyes flashed with anger and she went stomping up to them. “Not that it matters to you,” she snidely remarked to the dark-haired one, who had accompanied the injured boy in the ambulance, “but Nathan just died!”
The amused looks immediately disappeared from the two paramedics’ faces.
“I’m…sorry to hear that,” J. GAGE, PARAMEDIC quietly said.
“Johnny and I are both real sorry,” R. DESOTO, PARAMEDIC sadly assured her.
Nathan’s auntie looked extremely skeptical. “Yeah. I could see how ‘broken up’ you were,” she sarcastically said and motioned to the pictures the pair had just been enjoying.
The forlorn looks returned to the two firemen’s faces. They passed Dixie back her photos and sadly walked away.
The dead boy’s aunt turned to the remaining ER nurse, looking completely disgusted. “How does someone, like that, ever get involved in his line of work, in the first place?”
Dixie completed counting to ten and then locked gazes with the poor, misguided woman. “I may get fired for saying this. But, right now, I really don’t give a damn.” She paused, to quickly count to ten, again. “Those two guys have got to be two of the most ‘caring’ paramedics there are! Sometimes, I’m afraid they care too much.” She blinked the tears from her angry blue eyes. “The average person only has to cope with one or two tragedies—in their entire lifetime. Those two have to deal with three, or more—every day. They can’t let their true feelings show. If they went around moping and mourning and feeling depressed all the time, they wouldn’t be able to go out there and help people. But, even though they may not always show it, I assure you, the pain is still there… gnawing away at their insides.” The agitated RN paused to blink her vision clear once more. “Believe me, they pay a high price for it, too. And it certainly doesn’t make matters any easier for them when people, like you, accuse them of not caring. So please, do me—and them—a great big favor. Don’t make their job any rougher than it already is. You just don’t know what it’s like for them. You just don’t understa—” the upset nurse’s voice cracked with emotion and she immediately began taking her leave. “Now, if you’ll excuse me…” Dixie disappeared down the hall, in the direction of the Doctors’ Lounge.
Nathan’s aunt just continued to stand there in front of the abandoned counter at the Nurses’ Station, looking lost in thought.
Later that afternoon, at LA County’s Fire Station 51…
Captain Hank Stanley entered the Station’s sleeping quarters in search of his missing crewman. He found his youngest paramedic sitting on his bunk, moping and mourning and looking more than a little depressed. “John! You’ve got a visitor, pal…” That said, the fire officer did an about face and exited the dorm.
Gage slowly lifted his hanging head and watched as Nathan’s aunt entered the room and stepped right up to his bunk. “Have you come to lodge a formal complaint?” he quietly inquired.
“Actually, I’ve come to apologize,” the woman quickly countered, and stood there looking—and feeling—more than a little…ashamed.
John stared disbelievingly back at her.
“I am so-o sorry,” she sincerely said. “I-I just didn’t realize what you men have to cope with. I hope you’ll forgive me…”
The fireman heaved an audible sigh of relief and got stiffly to his feet. “I’m just glad that you finally believe me. I really do care about what happened to Nathan, and I am so-o sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry for your loss, too. I only hope you won’t dwell on it for too long. We need you to go back about your business…of saving lives.” The remorseful lady timidly extended her trembling right hand.
Gage flashed Nathan’s aunt a grateful smile and offered her a hug, instead.
The woman returned his smile and eagerly took the ‘caring’ young rescuer up on his offer.
The End
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