This is an answer to a Diary Challenge by Robin Nehr

By Sherry Powers

Diary entry of Roy Michael DeSoto

May 21, 1973 - - - 2:45 p.m.

I've kept a diary for a little over a year now...ever since I started working with Johnny and every day I have something new to add to it. Whether it's one of his crazy schemes or because he and Chet have gotten into it over one thing or another, but life is never boring with Johnny around.

Well, today's entry isn't because of something that he's pulled me into or because him and Chet have went at each other all day long, although I'd give anything if it was, but it's because he's sick...very sick.

It all started a few days ago when we got a call for a twenty-five year old young lady who was showing all the signs and symptoms of having the flu, head and chest pain, chills, fever and nausea. We transported her to Rampart then went about our daily routine but we were still worried about her.

Johnny and I had got back to the station and I had called Dixie to see if there was anything new on Jenny's condition. She told me they had found out that it wasn't the flu but some type of virus.

When I went out into the bay, Johnny had the O2 tank out, testing it. I told him what I had found out, that Jenny seemed to be going down hill and he said that it must be bad to be sick and not know what from. Little did we know that would soon apply to him.

We got a call of a little boy with vertigo who was trapped up in a tree house. We went, got him down and took him into Rampart and Johnny seemed to be doing fine. But we then found out that Tim Duntley, a firefighter from Station 60, who had also responded to the call on Jenny, had come down with the virus. We started to get a little nervous.

The next call we got was for a sick child. When we rolled up on scene and Johnny told dispatch that we had arrived, I could hear it in his voice that he seemed kinda tired, and we were also asked to go to Rampart for a check up. This was maybe an hour after the call for Jenny.

Vince came out of the house and told us that everything was fine, that she had swallowed a package of birth control pills but that the family doctor was there so we weren't needed.

After we left and were headed for Rampart, I told Johnny I wondered what this was all about. I know he was trying to make a joke and lighten my mood when he said that it might be about two paramedics who might have the plague. But, I didn't think it was funny and Johnny really didn't either, after he said it.

I've known for a while that Johnny really hates needles, I'm not real fond of them myself but that partner of mine is worse than me. When we got to Rampart and Dr. Morton brought over the needles and told us that he wanted blood samples, I could see Johnny eyeing that thing and doing his best to get out of it...didn't work though, so we gave blood samples.

On our way back to the station is when it finally hit us about where Jenny might have gotten her fever...at least we were hopin' we were right. When we got back, we went into the kitchen and I called and spoke with Dr. Morton and told him our hunch...her monkey and we found out how Tim was doing, and it wasn't good news.

After I hung up the phone and sat down at the table, I told Johnny that Duntley had been placed on the critical list. That's when he stunned me with some news...he had played with the monkey just like Tim had and that's when I really began to worry...and so did he.

I tried to put it out of my mind, at least for the time being. I went into Cap's office to work on the log and that's when we got another run and I also saw that Johnny wasn't feeling very well at all. This was about an hour and a half later.

We then got a call for a man trapped on a scaffold, a possible heart attack. It was decided that Johnny would go down and bring up the victim. When he was getting ready to go down, I saw him stop for a second and put his hands over his eyes, as if he'd had a dizzy spell. I now wish that I had said something to him and gone down myself to do the rescue, but I didn't.

When Johnny got down to the victim, I could tell from the way he was acting that we would probably be rescuing him to. I yelled down and asked him if he was alright and in his usual Gage way, he said he was. Chet, Marco and Bob Allen from 210, was manning Johnny's line. Cap and I were watching and when we saw him pass out and fall from the scaffold, I nearly panicked.

After they secured Johnny's line and got on mine, I went down to help my partner and the heart victim. Getting a closer look at the first victim, I knew he was already gone, he was in full cardiac arrest but with his friend up top, the men had to start working on him anyway.

I went down and unhooked Johnny's belt and the guys slowly pulled him up to safety. As I watched, I got to thinking that Johnny could die from this. After they pulled me back up, I went over and started helping with the heart patient. I could hear the panic in Johnny's voice when he told me that he thought he had...I just stopped him and told him to take it easy.

Getting to Rampart brought us even more bad news. Dr. Brackett had also come down with the virus and wasn't doing much better than Johnny was. And Tim was the worse, he was on his way out, as Dixie told me when I asked about my three friends. But we were lucky that no one else had come down with it...at least not yet.

When Dix took me in to see Johnny, I saw how diaphoretic and restless he was and his temperature had gone up to 105 degrees. That's when the phone rang and Early motioned for me to answer it and I got the news that I didn't wanna hear...Tim Duntley had just died.

When I told Early, Dixie and Sally the news, they were all stunned but the look I saw on Johnny's face was one of terror, he knew that it could also happen to him but he also knew that they were trying their best to save both him and Dr. Brackett.

Dr. Early asked me to go find Dr. Morton and when I went out in the hall, he was standing there with Mattie Duntley. I told her how sorry I was about Tim and she asked me not to let anyone else die. I was hoping that no one else would but both Johnny and Brackett were right on death's door while Jenny seemed to be getting better.

While I was waiting to go back in to see Johnny, I saw the mother of the young boy with the vertigo and she told me that her son was better and the operation might cure him. I was glad about that, at least we had a little good news.

That's when Dixie came and told me that both Johnny and Dr. Brackett was fading and that my partner was waiting for me out in the squad. I wanted to tell her, no, my partner was lying in a hospital bed, slowly ding from some killer virus. But as Dixie walked away, I only whispered, my temporary partner, at least I hoped so.

Finally, Jenny told Dr. Early about her choreographer, he had also had the same virus but quickly recovered from it. But by the time she told him, Johnny and Dr. Brackett had already slipped into comas.

But they were able to find a serum to work on the virus and now both of my friends are on the road to recovery and they're planning to put Johnny out in a room either tomorrow or the next day. Wouldn't it be something if he and Brackett ended up being room mates?

Well, Johnny's starting to wake up so I'll close for now. More tomorrow.

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