What’s It Worth?

By Terribv

Roy DeSoto backed the squad into the engine bay at station 51 and cut the motor but neither paramedic attempted to exit the vehicle. John Gage was slumped down on the passenger side with his eyes closed and Roy soon followed suit laying his head back and closing his eyes as well.

“Hey Roy,” Johnny said without opening his eyes or even turning to look at Roy, “remind me why I do this again.” His voice sounded tired as if it almost wasn’t worth the effort to say the words.

Roy turned his head ever so slightly and cocked one eye open to look at his partner. He wasn’t sure if Gage was being serious or not. Deciding that it was too much trouble right now to try to analyze his partner, Roy closed his eye again and decided to wing it. “For the money. Just like me,” he deadpanned.

John just snorted and silence reigned in the cab of the squad for a few minutes.

Johnny crossed his arms over his chest and shifted to lean his head against the door frame. “I’m so hungry but I don’t think I can move,” he said not really expecting an answer which was good thing because he didn’t get one.

Why AM I doing this, he thought to himself. It certainly wasn’t for the money. Los Angeles County Fire Department Paramedics hadn’t received an increase in pay. The only thing they received an increase in was the number of calls that they were dispatched on. Johnny’s stomach growled reminding him that he hadn’t eaten anything but a half a sandwich and candy bar since lunch and that was more than ten hours ago. It growled again and Johnny muttered, “shut up”.

“Huh? I didn’t say anything,” a weary DeSoto answered.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Johnny replied.

“Oh,” Roy said wondering who Johnny would have been talking to if not him.

The tones sounded and they both shot up in their seats but relaxed again when they realized that they weren’t theirs.

“Hey Roy,”

“Yeah?”

“What time is it?”

“I don’t know. Check your watch.”

“Can’t. Too tired.”

Roy begrudgingly opened his eyes and looked at his own watch wondering why he was doing it if Johnny wanted to know the time. But he did it anyway.

“11:30.”

“Kay….thanks.”

Roy put his hand on the handle of the door in an attempt to open it but he knew that if he did so, they would get a call. It had been like that all day; one run after another. They were always very busy but he couldn’t remember the last time that they hadn’t been back to the station for the whole day.

“You gonna do it,” Johnny asked looking at his hand.

“Thinking about it. We can’t stay here all night.”

“Crazy day, huh,” Johnny replied with a shake of his head

“Yeah.”

“I bet Kelly’s in there snoozing away already,” Johnny grumbled. “Makes me wonder why I left.”

Great, Roy thought, he was serious before. He wasn’t in the mood for a sparring match right now but something about Johnny’s tone worried him.

“It’s getting better, Johnny,” was all he said.

“I know but there still aren’t near enough of us to cover all of Los Angeles County,” he pouted.

“It takes time.”

Johnny nodded without replying and Roy looked over at him. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he replied with a small half smile. “I was just thinking about that last guy. Even with all of this equipment, we couldn’t do anything for him. Did ya see his wife? I felt terrible. I mean here she was thinking we were gonna save her husband and I could see we were losing him.”

“She just waited too long to call, Johnny. There wasn’t anything that we could have done differently.”

“Oh I know that, Roy. I just felt like all we did was give her false hope. Like I was a fake or something.”

Roy sat up a little straighter and really looked at Johnny. Was he really questioning his worth?

“Johnny, you’re not a fake. None of us are. We do the best we can under the most difficult conditions. Sometimes it’s not enough. It’s unfortunate but sometimes it’s out of our hands.”

Johnny looked over and saw Roy staring at him intently. “I know that. I just said I felt like a fake, to her I mean. I know what we do is important. If I hadn’t thought so, I wouldn’t have let you talk me into it.”

“Talk you into it,” Roy questioned. “Talk you into what?”

“The paramedics.”

“You came to me, remember?”

“Yeah I remember, I came to you to ask questions and you talked me into signing those papers,” he replied evenly.

“Nobody forced your hand.”

“But you gave me your pen,” Johnny said shooting Roy a smile.

“You asked to borrow it.”

“Yeah, I guess I did,” Johnny said remembering.

“Come on, Johnny,” Roy said shaking his head, “let’s get out of here.” He didn’t think he would ever figure out what went on inside his partner’s head and what’s more he didn’t know if he wanted to. Roy yanked on the handle and pushed the door open. He got out of the squad and looked back at Johnny.

“You coming?”

Johnny waited but the tones never went off so he got out as well.

As the two men rummaged through the contents of the refrigerator trying to find something edible, the tones went off and they hurried back to the squad. Since Cap had been in the dorm presumably sleeping, Roy acknowledged the call to dispatch before jumping in. He looked over at Johnny as he handed him the call slip and the two partners exchanged a hearty smile.

“Duty calls,” Roy replied.

“I knew we shouldn’t have gotten out,” Johnny grumbled as they pulled out of the station.

Stories by Terribv Guest Dispatchers