Rescues Like This
by Icabu
Roy DeSoto backed the sturdy Dodge squad into an Emergency Vehicles Only slot outside Rampart’s Emergency Department. Glancing to his right, he saw the ambulance that Johnny rode in with their victim. Roy stared at it and sighed heavily. He’d been doing this job long enough to know that some calls clung no matter how hard he tried to shake them off. He closed his eyes for a few seconds. Children.
Rubbing his hands over his face, Roy silently thanked his partner. He rested his forehead against the steering wheel, his knuckles white as frustration tightened his grip. And fear. Fear for the six-year-old girl lying broken at the bottom of the steps; fear for her three-year-old brother that had tripped running behind her, sending her tumbling down those steps as they ran to greet their daddy. Johnny had seen the similarity between the victim and Roy’s own children and took the lead.
It wasn’t that Roy couldn’t do the job. It was just so that he didn’t have to; didn’t have to stare into the eyes of the blond-haired girl that didn’t feel her obviously broken leg; that girl, in the Minnie Mouse nightgown, that could only move one of her arms; so he didn’t have to visualize his daughter in her place.
As Johnny, fingers as gentle as a breeze, felt down the girl’s spine, Roy had seen the muscles in his partner’s shoulders stiffen. Roy couldn’t help knowing what Johnny had discovered – the odd bump along the spine, already swelling, misshapen. The parents didn’t appear to catch the slight sign, but it was as clear as a billboard to Roy. His stomach hadn’t unclenched since that moment.
Johnny stayed crouched over the girl, keeping her eyes on him and shielding the others in the room. Dutifully, Johnny took vitals and wrote them in his notepad and handed it to Roy. In a soft voice, Johnny requested a collar, backboard and leg splint. Roy took the biophone and called Rampart from the squad, sparing the family the gory details. The doctors would give them that news once they knew exactly what the diagnosis was. The ambulance had arrived as Roy gathered the necessary supplies. He told them about the injury and requested a cloud-soft ride. The attendants had nodded their heads, faces grim.
For once, Roy nearly prayed for a victim to scream in pain as Johnny set the girl’s broken leg into the splint. Johnny’s hands were as gentle as if he were handling priceless crystal even though the girl didn’t feel the pain.
The young brother’s statement that his sister was getting a big Band-Aid when Johnny carefully slipped the collar around her neck nearly broke Roy’s heart. Their mother held the boy and said that was because she had a big boo-boo. Roy’s soul ached for the family. He was encouraged that the parents did not appear to be blaming the boy for the accident. The mother held her son tightly and had kissed his skinned knee from his fall. Roy wished kisses would work for her daughter.
Roy helped Johnny roll her onto the backboard. Johnny held her limp arm against her side. The quiet groan she made as they worked gave Roy a hint of encouragement until her gaze caught his. The fear in them chilled Roy to his bones. One brief glance unnerved Roy, shook his core. Johnny had been looking into those eyes for nearly ten minutes now and he still held a smile on his face and spoke quiet, kind words. Roy’s stomach threatened to revolt.
With the fading screech of the ambulance’s siren, Johnny and their young victim were gone. Roy quickly picked up the remnants of their visit. He left the father, now holding his son, and followed the ambulance’s path. It was now Roy’s turn to rescue Johnny. He would face that same fear in Johnny’s eyes and do his best to ease it – as Johnny had for their victim.
Roy stepped out of the squad, the radio clasped in his right hand. Reaching across, he tapped the squad’s door shut. Behind the truck, he paused. Sometimes he felt god-like riding the squad. And then there were rescues like this.
