Unpleasant Reunions

By Wanda Hargrove

Roy and Joanne DeSoto were enjoying a quiet night together after getting the kids off to bed. They were snuggling together on the couch. Suddenly a scream pierced the night that caused the both of them to jump.

"What was that?" asked Joanne.

"I don't know," answered Roy, as he got to his feet.

He walked into the foyer and heard a hard pounding on his front door. As he opened the door, he found his next door neighbor, Theresa, who they all called Tess, standing there. He noticed a touch of swelling to her right eye and a small trickle of blood running from the corner of her mouth where she'd been punched.

"Tess!" Roy exclaimed, "What happened?"

"I don't know why he did what he did," she sobbed. "Howard seemed fine when he came home from work. Then the next thing I knew, he was arguing with me about every little thing and then he started hitting me." She completely broke down in tears.

Roy ushered her into his house and led her over to the couch. Joanne, who had seen their neighbor, had already gone upstairs and brought back with her the first-aid kit.

"You just sit yourself down, and let Roy take a look at that eye." Joanne soothed. "You know he's one of the best paramedics the fire department has." She stated with a wink at her husband.

Roy was examining her face when Howard Jensen, Tess' husband, burst into the house.

"Tess!" he screamed at his terrified wife, "get home now! As for you, DeSoto!" Just for Roy trying to be a good neighbor he found himself sitting in the floor, and his eye hurt. Howard had just decked him.

As Roy walked into the Apparatus Bay after changing into his uniform, Chet noticed his black eye as he greeted him. "Hey, Roy, how many rounds did you go?" quipped Chet.

"I don't want to talk about it," Roy snapped sourly.

Chet turned his head, "Hey, Johnny, I think we've got a customer for you."

Johnny looked up from where he was going through all the supplies, rearranging them all, since Brice had put it all to his order the shift before. He took one look at Roy, "WOW! That must hurt." He turned to look for a place to have Roy sit down, and decided that the running board on the Engine would be fine. "Go on sit down over there, and I'll take a quick look at it."

"I'm fine," said Roy, slapping at Johnny's hands. "You don't need to mother me. I checked it myself this morning."

Captain Stanley, hearing all the commotion coming from the Apparatus Bay, stuck his head out of his office. "Roy," commented Stanley, "If you don't mind I would prefer having a second opinion."

Roy rolled his eyes and sat down where Johnny had indicated.

Johnny came over and knelt down beside Roy. As he was examining the eye, he asked. "Did Joanne get a little upset about something last night?" Johnny noticed that Roy was starting to get angry. "Sorry, partner," John said, "you know me. . . I just had to ask." Johnny was lightly pressing on the area of the black eye, and Roy winced and shot his partner a dirty look.

"What happened?" asked Johnny as he pushed himself back into a squat next to his partner.

"There was a domestic problem with our neighbors. The husband went off on his wife and she came over for help. Then he showed up, and gave me a black eye for trying to be neighborly."

Johnny whistled through his teeth quietly. "That must have been awful. I hope the kids didn't see it."

"Thanks to small miracles the kids were already asleep, but Joanne saw the whole thing."

It was beginning to be another routine day for the men at Station 51. A couple of garbage fires, and a cat stuck up a tree. Roy and John were sitting at the table drinking coffee and discussing what happened over at Roy's house the night before.

"You know," said Roy, suddenly thoughtful. "I would have never expected that Howard Jensen would be so violent. He's usually so good with kids."

John perked up at the name. Howard Jensen, he thought to himself. "Hang on a minute, Roy," he said as he stopped Roy's conversation. He went and got out his old high school yearbook and took it back into the common room. Then he opened it and found Howard Jensen's picture. "Could this be the guy?" he asked while passing the yearbook over to Roy.

Roy examined the picture. It was of the Football Coach from the high school Johnny had graduated from. Roy studied the picture closely. It was of a man with a few gray streaks running through his hair. "That's the man," he exclaimed. Then he started thinking back to a run both he and Johnny had responded to, just last week. It was at one of the local high schools. The football coach had suddenly gone berserk when one of his players didn't listen to him, and he had practically beaten the boy to death. Then he remembered something else; that the guy had been shooting daggers at Johnny with his eyes.

Now Johnny was upset. He knew that Tess, who had been his best female friend and confidant in school, had married Howard. If he had used her as a punching bag like Roy said he did, then she may be in even bigger trouble than she knew.

Roy was absently thumbing through the pictures when he found a picture of John, and then he noticed on the same page there was a picture of Tess also. He read what she had written under her picture, Thanks for being my bestest best friend ever! Love Tess P.S. Howard and I are getting married two days after graduation. Don't tell my parents.

This could be a very sticky situation, Roy thought to himself. Especially considering how Johnny feels about Tess. He watched his partner carefully, and then he decided he should talk with Captain Stanley.

"Cap," said Roy as he stood just outside of Stanley's office.

"What's up, Roy?" said Stanley, looking up from his paper work. He saw Roy's concerned look, "Come in and sit down." Stanley motioned to one of the chairs.

He noticed that Roy closed the door behind him as well. This must be something serious, thought Stanley.

"Cap, I know you've heard that my next door neighbor gave me this black eye." Roy stopped wondering if he should go on. Finally he continued, "Well it seems that the guy was the high school football coach at Johnny's school when he graduated. Not only that, he also married Johnny's best friend right after graduation. I'm a little worried about Johnny. See, I didn't know who they were and we were talking about it, and I mentioned his name. And after Johnny showed me the guy’s picture, I found hers, and since then all Johnny has done is sit around and brood over it. I'm afraid he'll do something stupid." Roy finished with a concerned tone to his voice.

"I know how you feel, Roy," said Stanley as he put a hand on Roy's shoulder. "This is really Johnny's problem, but just be there as a friend when he needs it. For now it'd be best if we just stay out of it."

Roy nodded and said "Thanks Cap."

At 5:00 PM, the phone rang at the station. Marco answered the phone. "Lopez," he answered, listening to the voice on the other end. "Alright hang on, I'll get him." Marco ran out to the back of the station, where Roy was watching his partner. Johnny was still brooding over everything and Roy didn't want him to do anything stupid or rash. "Roy, your wife is on the phone." Marco called.

"Coming," Roy called as he headed into the common room to answer the phone. "What's the matter?" Roy asked. He could hear the fear in Joanne's voice.

"That lunatic next door is at it again. Only this time he threatened the kids." Joanne was almost in tears.

"Joanne, call the police. Call me back and tell me what happens." It's about time Howard Jensen got his just reward! Roy thought angrily as he hung up the phone.

An hour later, Joanne called back to let Roy know that Howard had been arrested for terroristic threats, and spousal abuse on his wife. As the police had been leaving with Howard in custody, he was screaming that he'd get everyone. Roy was finally able to relax knowing that Howard was now in police custody. He walked up to Johnny, who was still brooding over the whole situation between Howard and his friend Tess.

"Johnny," Roy said, while putting his had on John's shoulder.

Johnny had been so deep in thought that he never heard Roy approach him. He jumped, "What are you trying to do, Roy? Give me a heart attack?"

"Sorry," Roy said. "I came to tell you that the police arrested Howard Jensen today." Johnny looked a bit dubious to his partner, so Roy continued. "He threatened my kids today, and Joanne called so I told her to call the police and have him arrested. Seems he totally went nuts today. The police told Joanne that he'd been fired from his job, after the high school did an investigation into the incident with the beating of that football player. Then he came home, used his wife as punching bag some more before threatening my kids."

At the news of Jensen's arrest, Johnny's mood brightened only slightly. He was still upset over what Tess had had to go through. Roy understood the pain that his friend and partner was going through. Don't worry pal, I'm here for you. Thought Roy, and Johnny could see that Roy understood.

At 8:00 PM, Howard Jensen was taken from the holding cell to be fingerprinted and booked. As soon as the police officer took off the handcuffs to take his fingerprints, Jensen threw a rock solid right hook into the officer's jaw. The officer fell to the ground, while his prisoner took his gun, and ran as fast as he could to get out.

During his escape, he had shot the whole round of bullets in the gun at anyone who tried to stop him. Miraculously no one was injured. Finally he made his break to freedom; the whole time swearing to himself that he'd get that lying wife of his and her lover, Gage! Gage, you're a dead man now, thought Howard as he jumped into the nearest car on the street. The driver had no idea what was going on, but just one look at the face of this man was all the driver needed.

He quickly jumped out of the car, and Howard sped away into the night.

At 11:00 PM, Station 51 was toned out to go to a structure fire. Both Roy and Johnny drove in silence. Roy felt like he was driving in a haze, and Johnny wasn't that much better. They pulled up in front of the house and Roy looked up in dismay. It was the Jensen House.

Roy and Johnny ran back to get their turnout coats and air tanks on. Roy was praying that the fire didn't spread because it would head over to his house. Johnny was praying that he'd find Tess alive in this.

Just then Police Officer Vince Howard ran up to them. "We know the wife is still in there somewhere. Witnesses said they saw someone sneaking around the house just before the fire started. We suspect that it might be Howard Jensen since he escaped from custody about two and a half hours before this fire started. We've got an APB out on him."

"Thanks, Vince," Johnny said a little worried. He knew that if Howard was still out there somewhere, that Tess might still be in danger. Roy turned towards Captain Stanley who had just run up to his two paramedics and Vince.

"Cap, we've got a victim still inside," said Roy.

"Okay, you and John go in there and do a search for the victim." Stanley said. "Chet, Marco," called Stanley, "get a couple of inch and a halves on that fire."

Chet and Marco set to their task at hand, while Mike Stoker kept watch on the gauges of the engine. Johnny and Roy ran inside the house looking for their victim.

Roy ran upstairs and found Tess in the bedroom. The smoke wasn't so bad up here as it was downstairs. He called down to Johnny after he did a quick check and found that she was still breathing on her own, but unconscious. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulders in a fireman's carry while heading for the door.

Meanwhile, Johnny was checking the rest of the house and thought he saw movement from the kitchen area. "Hello," he called. "Fire Department, is there anyone there?" Through the smoke he saw something coming closer to him. And then he saw Howard, who was standing there with a butcher knife in his hand.

"Damn you, Gage," shouted Howard as he lunged for Johnny's throat.

Johnny back-pedaled a bit, but he tripped over something and had the wind knocked out of him. Jensen saw his chance and jumped on top of Johnny. He ripped the air mask off of Johnny's face, all the while Johnny was wrestling him to keep the knife away from his throat with both of his hands.

Roy came down the stairs and saw the struggle but he knew that the victim came first and it looked like Johnny was holding his own. Roy got the victim outside, "Vince," Roy shouted urgently. "Jensen's is in there and he's trying to kill Johnny!"

Both Captain Stanley and Vince looked at each other before they flew into the house. What they found neither of them liked.

Johnny had been holding his own, but the smoke was making it harder for him to breathe. Somehow Howard had managed to get Johnny's turnout coat open. Howard had a demonic grin on his face as he felt Johnny's grip on his arm weaken. He plunged the knife into Johnny's ribs on the right side.

Johnny gasped as he felt the knife grate against his ribs, as Howard pulled it out again. "Damn," muttered Johnny, as he hurriedly scanned the room with his eyes. He was searching for something to defend himself with against this madman. Johnny tried to shift his weight, but the older man was heavier and his insanity made him more of a threat.

All the while the smoke was getting thicker, and Howard's weight on him was getting heavier. Johnny knew that he would soon lose consciousness. He saw Howard raise the knife again, but somehow he managed to get his hand on his helmet and he swung it with as much weight that he could muster. All the while gritting his teeth against the pain that was shooting through his side. The helmet impacted with Howard's balding head, and Howard instantly fell like a rag doll. Johnny started coughing terribly and noticed that the fire was getting closer to him. Somehow, Johnny managed to slide out from underneath the man before everything went black.

"He's coming around," Johnny heard the voice of his partner say. "How do you feel?"

"That's a dumb question to ask," Johnny muttered weakly from behind the O2 mask. "My side hurts like hell." He said as he reached down and found that the wound already had a pressure dressing on it. Johnny went into a coughing fit from the smoke that he had inhaled. His coughing finally subsided and he groaned from the pain it had caused.

"Hang in there, partner," said Roy.

"How's Tess?" asked Johnny.

"Alive," said a new voice. "Thanks to Roy," said Tess jokingly.

At least she's still got a good sense of humor, thought Johnny.

There was a commotion from the driveway where the ambulance attendants were preparing to load Howard Jensen and transport him to Rampart. He jumped the nearest officer while grabbing his gun and charged at Tess, Roy and Johnny. He was so intent on getting his revenge on Tess and Johnny that he barely heard Vince shout to him to freeze and drop his weapon. Howard turned on Vince with a demonic gleam in his eye, and shouted, "I'll kill you all!" He started to squeeze the trigger on the gun. Vince fired and Howard spun and fell to the ground. Tess screamed and ran to her husband, while Roy ran over to see if he could do anything. But Howard was dead. The bullet had struck him directly in the heart.

Tess looked up at Roy and said sobbing, "He really was a good man, once."

Roy put his hand on her shoulder and said, "I'm sure he was."

Three weeks later Johnny was given the okay to go back to work. Roy had called him at home the night before because he needed a ride to work. Johnny pulled up into Roy's driveway and looked at the house next door sadly. Tess had come to visit him in the hospital and told him that she was moving back home. She hoped to make a new start and Johnny couldn't blame her since there were so many unpleasant memories here.

Reunions are nice, Johnny mused to himself as he saw Roy approaching, but unpleasant reunions I can do without.