Limelight Blooper
by Terribv
Johnny
fastened the blood pressure cuff around the patient's arm and was adjusting the
stethoscope whenhe glanced over at Roy.
"You wanna grab her pulse. I never did get it," he mumbled.
Roy reached for the young woman's wrist. She was hyperventilating and he'd
given her a paper bag to breathe into in an effort to calm her down. He'd seen
Johnny attempt to get her pulse before but those three crazy kids had been
distracting to say the least, which was probably why Johnny hadn't been able to
get the pulse.
Roy immediately felt the strong pulse beating beneath his fingertips and he
looked down at his watch to time it. What the hell, he thought, as he did a
double take. His watch was gone, but he continued to stare at his naked arm.
The girl was still breathing into the bag and he hoped she hadn't noticed. His
mind was racing as he tried to remember the last time he had the watch on. He
almost never took it off and he remembered having it on when they got this call
at the hospital. He remembered because he glanced at it to check the time when
they got into the squad.
Roy finally released his hold on her wrist but he unconsciously reached for the
other and looked for his watch again. It still wasn't there. He counted the
beats while trying to track the amount of time in his head. Not a very
professional way to get a pulse but his only other option was to ask Johnny to
take it again and that would mean listening to him yap about the missing watch
the rest of the day. For the second time, he released her arm and looked up at
her as she continued her breathing.
"BP's 140/90," Johnny told him.
Roy gave a slight nod of his head. "Pulse 140. Respirations 35," he added. He
picked up his pen and notepad that he'd taken out earlier and jotted down the
information. At least he still knew where they were, he thought to himself.
"Are you feelin' better now," Johnny asked their patient and his voice brought
Roy out of his reverie.
"I think you're gonna be fine, Ma'am," he chimed in. "I don't see any
problems." Roy looked at the girl and saw her shake her head. "Uh, would it be
okay if we just took you to the hospital..I mean would you like to go to the
hospital just to check yourself out," he asked. He was pretty sure Brackett
would want her brought in anyway and if Morton was on, there was no question.
Besides, she looked like she needed a break from the hellions that had greeted
them.
As he looked at her, he heard her agreeing and breathed a sigh of relief. She
was babbling on about the kids and how quiet it was now that they were outside
or something like that but Roy's mind had drifted back to his missing watch. He
didn't think the patient had realized that he couldn't have gotten an accurate
pulse without it or even that he wasn't wearing one. Johnny certainly hadn't
noticed but those kids had been driving him nuts since he'd jumped out of the
squad. Roy heard his partner agreeing with the girl about how quiet it was and
then watched as Johnny panicked and made a beeline for the front door to see
just why it was so quiet.
Roy stifled a chuckle as he heard Johnny hollering outside. Turning to the
biophone, he made contact with Rampart. The line wasn't picked up right away
and Roy patted down his pockets feeling for the watch. Just as he heard Dixie
come on the line, his hand made contact with the missing object. He looked down
as he spoke.
"Rampart, this is squad 51," he announced. He smiled as he saw the watch
hanging half inside, half outside of his pants pocket. How the hell did it get
there, he thought as he turned so that his back was entirely to the patient. As
he relayed the information to Rampart on the patient's condition, he gently
lifted the watch out of the pocket and secured it firmly on his wrist. Somehow
the catch must have come undone, he thought. "Uh, Rampart, stand by for another
set of vitals," he said into the phone. He wanted to make sure that he
presented accurate information to the
hospital and now that the woman's condition had calmed, it was a good time to
re-evaluate her condition anyway, he told himself.
"Standing by, 51," he heard Brackett's voice answer. Roy went about
getting the new set of vitals and felt his own sense of panic subsiding now that
he could do his job efficiently. He knew he'd beat himself up later on for not
just coming clean with Johnny about his watch being missing but for now, all was
well.
Once he had the updated information and had relayed it to the hospital, Brackett
asked him to bring her in just as Roy had suspected he would and in fact, had
already offered to the patient. He had just closed the line to Rampart down
when Johnny returned with the three crazy kids and the ambulance attendants. He
had to hide his smile as Johnny continued to rant at the kids. Truth be told,
they were pretty rambunctious, and he wouldn't have tolerated that behavior out
of his own two, but they were kids and he was more used to the unruliness than
Johnny was, but he was more amused than anything else.
"Cut it out," Johnny said for what seemed like the hundredth time as the
attendants and Roy got the babysitter loaded onto the stretcher for transport.
Roy was never so glad to see Vince before in his life. "Hi fellas," the
policeman said as he came into the room, "can I be of any help to you?"
"You sure can," Roy heard Johnny saying and, for once, he had to agree with
him. Roy just wanted to get this rescue over with. Three unruly kids, a
missing watch, the dog running into the sliding glass door, and the who knows
what that went on out in front of the house that had Johnny hollering so much
made this one rescue that Roy would just as soon forget. Trouble was he highly
doubted he would ever forget it. And he damn
sure wouldn't let himself be caught on a rescue without his watch again. He was
definitely gonna have to get that band checked out.
