Disclaimer: The characters from Emergency! do not belong to me. They belong to Universal and Mark VII. Just having a little fun with them.
WHEN MISFORTUNE VISITS
By: Vanessa Sgroi
Deborah Marie Raymond sat at the red light at the intersection of Loveland and Barrett. Humming to a bouncy tune on the radio, she checked her lipstick in the rearview mirror. The deep burgundy color perfectly matched the new dress she was wearing. The soft jersey knit material hugged her new-found curves and made her feel outrageously sexy. Deborah giggled at her wayward thoughts. She was on her way to a date at Paisley’s Café, and she was giddy. This was her third date with a fireman out of Station 51, and she liked him a lot. Deborah thought he just might like her too. For once, she had high hopes for a relationship.
The light turned green, and the brunette accelerated through the intersection. At the next light, she made a right turn onto Pleasant Point Drive. If she remembered correctly, the restaurant was just a few blocks down on the left. Deborah sighed as the next light turned yellow and quickly to red. Glancing at her watch, she was relieved to see she still had ten or so minutes to spare. After a couple of minutes, the light finally turned green, and she stepped on the gas. She never saw the car that ran the light and hit her.
* * *
“Mmm . . .” Deborah moaned.
What’s that awful noise?
She struggled to open her eyes, finally succeeding after a few attempts. Deborah blinked several times to try and clear her blurry vision. It only partially helped.
At first she thought the blaring noise she heard was her alarm going off and started to raise her hand to shut it off. She yelped at the pain in her wrist when she moved her arm. That pain seemed to awaken others as Deborah became aware of the throbbing in her head and side. It was then that it clicked into place that the noise she heard was a car horn and that there’d been some sort of accident.
Deborah tried to move to get out of the car, but movement increased the pounding in her head. It took her a second to realize that getting out would be impossible anyway because her legs were caught up under the dash. With a groan, she closed her eyes. A pounding at the window jerked them open again.
“Lady! Lady, you okay?”
Deborah squinted, trying to bring the person speaking into focus.
“Hey, lady, I can’t get the door open.”
She wanted to tell him it wouldn’t matter but suddenly couldn’t summon the energy to do so.
“Don’t worry—I called the fire department. They’re on the way.”
Deborah nodded, or thought she did as suddenly the world faded away.
* * *
“Ma’am? Ma’am, can you hear me?”
Deborah heard the voice calling out and pried her eyes open. She squinted out the window.
“Y-y-yes.”
“Listen, I’m John Gage with the fire department. We’re gonna get you out of there. Just take it easy.”
Deborah started to nod then thought better of it when her head protested.
Johnny and Roy both tried getting the car’s doors open but were unsuccessful.
“Roy, it looks like she’s wedged in there pretty tight. Let’s pop the back window so I can get in there.”
DeSoto nodded and briefly conferred with Captain Stanley.
With practiced efficiency Lopez, Stanley, and DeSoto soon had the back window out. Johnny shimmied through the window and into the front seat. The victim slowly turned her head to look at him. He quietly admonished her to stay still.
“Hey there, I’m Johnny—a paramedic with the fire department. What’s your name?”
“Umm . . . D-Deborah.”
“Nice to meet you, Deborah. Can you tell me where you hurt?”
“Uh . . . my head.”
“Just your head?”
“N-no. My arm hurts. And my side.”
“Right or left?”
“Left.”
Gage surveyed the crumpled dash and saw that her legs were wedged awkwardly underneath.
“How about your legs? Do your legs hurt at all?”
“No, no I don’t think so.”
“Can you wiggle your toes?”
She was quiet for a second before replying, “Yes. They feel a little tingly though.”
“Okay, Deborah, I’m gonna get some vitals on you and then we’ll be getting you outta here.”
Deborah felt the paramedic’s fingers press lightly on her neck and then his palm rested briefly just above her abdomen. The sound of a blood pressure cuff inflating filled the confined space moments later.
She heard the dark-haired man calling to her vitals to someone outside the car. Out of nowhere, she felt tears trickling down her cheeks.
“Hey now—none of that. You’re gonna be fine.”
She felt Johnny gently wipe away the tears.
**C’mon Deborah Marie, stop being stupid.** Her internal scolding didn’t help much.
“Listen, my buddies outside are going to work on getting you out. It’ll be a little loud, but don’t worry, you and I are gonna huddle here under this blanket while they do all the work, okay?”
A deeper darkness fell over Deb as the yellow blanket descended. Though not typically claustrophobic, she instantly felt her nerves tighten and a shard of panic set in. Against her will, a whimper escaped past her lips.
Warm fingers clasped hers.
“Ssh. It’s okay.”
His touch soothed her, and she calmed somewhat even though she jumped when a loud noise began outside the car.
While the firemen worked to get her out of her ruined vehicle, Deborah tried to concentrate on something else. Something good. All that came to mind, however, was how good the warm fingers felt enclosing hers. After what seemed like hours to her, the noise stopped, and a few minutes later the pressure on her legs was lifted away.
“Deborah, how ya doin’?”
“O-okay.”
“Are your toes still tingling?”
“No. No, I think they’re better.”
“All right. It’s time to get you outta here. As a precaution we’re gonna use a C-collar and put you on a backboard. So don’t be scared, all right?”
The confining blanket was removed, and Deborah’s attention was drawn to her left by movement. She squinted up to see a good looking blond man above her. He had pretty blue eyes. He began to carefully examine her arm and then her side.
“Deborah, this is my partner, Roy.”
DeSoto smiled a greeting. “All right, Deborah, I’m going to get a splint on this arm before we move you out of here.”
Time was a blur for Deborah as the paramedics extracted her from the vehicle as quickly and carefully as they could and then strapped her to the backboard. Despite their skillful maneuvering, her head, side, and arm were all throbbing mightily by the time they finished. She barely felt the sting as the dark-haired paramedic started an IV as instructed by the hospital.
As they were preparing to load her into the ambulance, Deborah caught a glimpse of Gage’s helmet as he handed it to his partner and she gasped. Immediately, the paramedic looked at her in concern.
“Deborah, what’s wrong? Are you feeling worse?”
“No. Nothing. I’m sorry. I just . . . I just remembered where I was heading when this happened.”
Nodding, Johnny patted her hand without saying anything.
“I saw the number on your helmet. Do you guys know Mark McCallan?”
The paramedics both nodded, but it was Gage who spoke.
“Yeah. Yeah, Mark—he’s the new guy on C-shift. Nice guy.”
“Believe it or not, I was on my way to a date with him.”
“Really? Well, Deborah, a pretty girl like you—I’m sure you’ll have a lot more with him.” Johnny winked as he said this.
Deborah managed a small smile at his comment and could only hope he was right. As the doors closed on the ambulance, she closed her eyes and fought against the throb to bring to mind a picture of Mark.
* * *
Later, in the hospital treatment room, Johnny bid Deborah goodbye after assuring her she was in good hands with a Dr. Brackett. His expression was so sincere that she didn’t doubt him for a moment. What she was really hoping for was a nice dose of painkiller and soon. In the meantime, she dutifully answered the doctor’s questions and grimaced through the poking and prodding.
She looked at the nurse Johnny had introduced as Dixie and sighed.
“I suppose the dress is a total loss, huh?”
Dixie raised an eyebrow at the odd question, but smiled.
“Oh, I dunno. It doesn’t look too bad. Why?”
“It’s silly. I . . . I was on my way to a date when the accident happened. I was hoping it would knock Mark’s socks off. But now he’ll never see it.”
Dixie’s smile grew and a sparkle lit her eyes.
“Listen, after we get you settled in a room, I’ll see what I can do with it, okay?”
“Really?”
“Yes, really.” Dixie paused as the x-ray technician entered the room, “Now, let’s let him get a few pictures. Dr. Brackett and I will be back when he’s done.”
* * *
Much later, Deborah was finally resting comfortably in a room. She was slated to spend the night due to a concussion. A broken wrist and two cracked ribs rounded out her injuries. All in all though, she knew she was a lucky woman.
The room door opened admitting Dixie, who was dressed in street clothes.
“Deborah, how’re you doing?”
“Better now, thank you.”
“Good. I just wanted to check on you before I head home. I’ll be back in the morning before you’re discharged. You get some rest.”
Deborah nodded carefully, not wanting to re-awaken her headache and closed her eyes.
* * *
The next morning dawned bright and warm. Dr. Brackett had agreed she could go home when he did his morning rounds, and Deborah was dressed and sitting on the edge of the hospital bed in anticipation. Her breakfast sat untouched next to her as she sat staring at her untied gym shoes. Obviously her sister, who’d brought her clothes earlier, hadn’t given a thought to how Deborah was going to tie them with her left arm in a cast. Of course, Cynthia was her usual self-absorbed self and didn’t even stick around long enough to help. Deborah decided it was simply easier to call a cab once her discharge papers were signed rather than depend on Cynthia to come back.
She was still contemplating her dilemma when Dixie walked through the door.
“I see you’re ready to get out of here.”
Happy to see a friendly face, Deborah smiled. “Well, almost,” she wiggled her feet and her shoestrings danced. “I guess my sister didn’t give this much thought.”
Sitting a bag down on the chair next to the bed, Dixie said, “Here, let me do those up for you.” She quickly tied both sneakers. When she was done, she reached for the bag and handed it to Deborah.
“Look what I have for you.”
Inside the bag was Deborah’s burgundy dress, neatly washed and folded.
“You mean it was okay?”
“Yep. I took it home and looked it over. There was a couple of small bloodstains from the cut on your forehead, but a good laundering took care of that.”
“Oh, Dixie, I can’t thank you enough!”
“Actually you can. You can eat your breakfast so you can get out of here.”
Deborah looked at her plate with mild distaste. “I’m not much for oatmeal.”
“Dr. Brackett won’t let you go until you eat.”
“Oh all right. I can handle it if it gets me outta here,” she said with a laugh.
“Good girl.” Dixie bid her goodbye and left.
Deborah managed to eat half the oatmeal and her fruit when the door opened again. Thinking it might be the nurse again, she looked up and her mouth dropped open in surprise.
“Mark!”
“Hey, Deb. Johnny called me and told me what happened. I wanted to come last night, but he told me I should wait. How are you?”
“I . . . I’m okay. A concussion, broken wrist, and two cracked ribs is all.”
The handsome paramedic smiled a little gravely. “It’s enough.”
“Yeah. Yeah, it is.”
“I brought these for you.” From behind his back he produced a bouquet of flowers.
“Oh, Mark, they’re gorgeous! Thank you! Thank you so much.”
“Think they’ll tide you over for a couple of days until we can finally go on that third date?”
“You mean you still want to go out with me?”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
Heat climbed into Deborah’s cheeks. “Never mind.”
“Can I take you home this morning?”
“Um . . . yes, yes I would like that.”
“Good. Have you been officially discharged yet?”
“Not yet. I’m just waiting for Dr. Brackett to sign the papers.”
“I’ll go see if I can find him, and I’ll grab a wheelchair. We’ll have you outta here in no time.”
As the door closed behind him, Deborah found herself smiling. If she’d had any doubts about Mark before, they were gone now.
The future was looking brighter, even if she did have to replace her totaled car. Suddenly that wasn’t such a daunting process as happiness hummed through body.
* * * The End * * *
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