Rampart General Emergency Receiving thirty minutes later…

John followed one of 36’s paramedics, and their broken-jaw victim’s stretcher, into Treatment Four. He passed the patient’s IV bag off to one of the nurses and then stepped out of the way.

Capadelli transferred the patient’s oxygen flow over to the hospital’s. “Need me for anything more, Doc?”

The Doc’ shook his head.

The medic from 36’s gathered up the portable O2 cylinder and began heading for the door.

“See yah, Neil. Thanks, hey?”

“I hope you’ll be seein’ me,” Capadelli replied. “Take care of that eye, John,” he added with a wave.

Dr. Tyler caught the departing fireman’s comment and glanced at the remaining paramedic.

John Gage was standing with his back against the wall holding an ice pack over his right eye.

“What happened to you?”

“The same thing that happened to him,” Gage glumly replied. “Only, mine happened in a different spot,” he bitterly added and lowered the ice pack.

“Sheesh!” Tyler exclaimed. “You’re gonna have yourself a real beaut’! I can tell from here that is gonna require a trip to X-Ray. Steffie, find this guy a wheelchair.”

Steffanie nodded and left the room.

The fireman’s frown deepened. “I could just walk over there.”

“I don’t want you walking anywhere until after I examine you.”

The nurse came backing into the room with the requested wheelchair and John reluctantly placed his behind into it.

“Take him to X-Ray…I’ll phone the order over…and then put him in Three,” the doctor further requested. “I should be there in just a bit.”

“Yes, Dr.”

________________________________________________

Treatment Room Three…One hour…One complete skull series…One very thorough eye exam and several neuro exams later…

“What’s the verdict, Doc?” Roy lightly inquired. “Will he ever be able to wink again?”

“No signs of a concussion…No fractures to the socket…No damage to the eye, itself. The cheekbone seems to have absorbed most of the impact. It’s very badly bruised,” Tyler informed the fireman seated on the exam table. “Your partner is going to have one hell of a shiner!” he further informed the fireman standing at his side.

“Yeah. I know,” Roy solemnly acknowledged. “And, I’d be the one wearing it, if it wasn’t for him. Thanks, partner!”

“Don’t thank me. We’d probably both be candidates for traction if the cavalry hadn’t a’ shown up. Barney should a’ called the police BEFORE calling us.”

“No need,” his partner sarcastically parroted. “They had no trouble there.”

Gage gave his friend a look that told him he appreciated the sarcasm.

Tyler glanced at his watch. “You guys got a little under four hours to go. You want me to send you home? Or clear you for duty?”

“I’d like to finish out the shift.”

“Done. Keep applying the ice. If the swelling doesn’t go down in a few hours, or if it gets worse, you get back in here.” Tyler turned to leave but then paused to pass along one last bit of advice. “You should a’ ducked.” With that, and a sympathetic smile, the doctor disappeared.

“I should a’ whacked him over the head with the backboard,” Gage only half-jokingly grumbled back. “That’s what I should a’ done.”

Seeing how miserable his already miserable-feeling friend felt, DeSoto was inclined to agree.

_______________________________________________

Station 51’s rec’ room…forty-five minutes later…

John dropped his pillow and blanket onto their leather sofa and set the bottom half of his bunkers up on the floor beside it. He had tried sleeping in the dorm, but every time his arm or his pillow would connect with his bruised cheekbone, he would emit an involuntary groan…and his groaning was disturbing the other guys’ sleep. He back-tracked over to the doorway and snatched Henry’s leash from off its hook. He connected the leash to Henry’s collar and then used it to drag their couch hog of a dog off of the sofa and over to his doggy bed. He draped the leash’s wrist loop over the knob on the door to the alley and made sure Henry’s food and water dishes were full. He gave the unhappy looking hound’s head a few consoling pats before crossing back over to the couch and sprawling out on its cushions.

Henry tossed his head back and cut loose with a mournful howl—an extremely LOUD mournful howl, “AAAARRRRUUUUUUUUUUUGH!”

Gage sprang up off the sofa and went dashing back into the kitchen. Sheesh! Henry’s howling was worse than his groaning. He freed the leash from the doorknob. “Okay. You win. We’ll share.” John dropped the leash and went racing back over to the couch before Henry had the chance to hog all its cushions.

____________________________________________

At 0700 hours, the Station’s wake up tones sounded.

Slowly, the dorm began to empty, the only sound being the swishing of its former occupants’ bunker pants as they trudged across the garage en route to their kitchen and some much needed coffee. A bottle-neck began to form in the Day Room’s doorway.

“Anybody seen Johnny?” Roy inquired as he came stepping up.

Marco pressed a finger to his lips, “Shhhh.” He then used the same finger to point into the rec’ room.

Roy squeezed past Mike and Chet and peered around the corner of the doorway.

His partner was sprawled out, face down, on their sofa—the left side of his face being down—and with the entire right side of his body hanging off the edge of its cushions.

Henry was sprawled out beside him with his head resting on John’s back. The dog spotted the men in the doorway and began wagging his tail. His jaws opened in a big doggy yawn which was closely followed by an even bigger stretch of his cramped, stiff legs.

That was all it took to send the already precariously perched paramedic tumbling onto the floor.

“You okay?” Roy wondered as he came running up to him.

The falling fireman had managed to land on all fours. “Yeah.” He aimed an irritated glare in the dog’s direction and was promptly licked—right on the mouth. He swiped his tightly pursed lips with the back of his hand. “Man, you are such a couch hog! Oh well. At least you don’t snore,” he added as Henry gave the left side of his face another slobbery doggy kiss.

Roy pulled his partner to his feet.

And John pulled on his bunkers.

“That’s the kind a’ night I wish we could have every shift,” the Captain proclaimed as he came into the room carrying their open log book. “Only one call after mid—” his mouth quit working as he caught sight of Gage’s shiner. “Good grief, pal! No wonder you were groaning. Was that compliments of Barney’s Place?”

Gage nodded. “What a dive!”

__________________________________________

The locker room...less than an hour later…

The men from A-Shift were standing in front of their open lockers, changing into their street clothes.

“Why don’t you come over for breakfast?” Roy invited. “I’m sure Joann would love to see that eye.”

John flashed his companionable friend a grateful grin. “Thanks for the offer but I’ll survive. I mean, it’s not like this is the first time I’ve ever been dumped.” He gave his Smokey Bear poster a couple of affectionate taps.

Then he closed his locker and quickly took his leave.

‘Good ole Smokey…’ Roy was the only one at the Station, besides Johnny, that knew the real reason his partner kept the poster pinned up in his locker.

On occasion, the bachelor would allow himself to become emotionally involved with a girl only to end up being dumped.

Smokey’s Rules for Extinguishing a Campfire reminded Johnny to be sure to extinguish the flames of passion that he had allowed himself to ignite in his heart.

_________________________________________

6. If the ashes are too hot to touch, the fire is too hot to leave!

___________________________________________

‘Smokey’ll see him through this,’ Roy told himself. ‘He always has before.’

Then again, maybe Smokey could use a little help this time.

DeSoto decided to swing by headquarters on his way home.

__________________________________________________________

John stumbled into his bedroom, stripping along the way. He fell back onto his bed and was asleep in seconds.

__________________________________________________

Gage groaned as his front door’s buzzer sounded.

The ‘Day Sleeper’ jerked completely awake and squinted at his alarm clock. “FIVE minutes?!” he angrily declared. “A measley FIVE minutes?!”

The buzzer sounded again.

“Go away,” he sleepily ordered.

But the door disturbance did not go away.

“Oh, for cryin’ out loud!” he grumbled and finally mustered up the energy to climb back out of bed.

He yanked a robe on and then went stomping off to deal with the rude intruder.

____________________________________________________

“Can’t you read?!” he demanded as the portal was unlocked and jerked open.

“Yes,” his visitor replied. “I can read.”

Gage just stood there in shock, staring disbelievingly up at the LACFD’s Chief Engineer. “Uhhh…sorry, Sir.” He was really going to have to stop answering his door that way.

“I’m the one who’s sorry, John,” William Jenner assured him. “I didn’t intend to disturb your sleep, but this was the only way I could think of to talk to you where we wouldn’t be interrupted.” The Fire Chief flashed the off-duty paramedic a friendly smile and then stood there…waiting.

Gage gulped. “Uhhh…won’t you come in.”

Jenner did.

John closed the door and followed his surprise visitor down the hall and into his living room. “Please, sit down, Sir.”

Jenner took a seat and motioned for Gage to do the same. “There’s no need to be so formal, John. I’m not here on official F.D. business. This is purely a social call and—while I’m here—I want you to try to think of me as just another guy.”

John sank stiffly onto his sofa. ‘Like a private in the army trying to think of a five-star general as ‘just another soldier’.’ “Yes, Sir…I mean, yes…I’ll try.”

The two ‘guys’ just sat there for awhile, studying the pattern of his living room’s rug.

“Would you care for something to drink?” Gage finally inquired in an attempt to break the insufferable silence.

The Chief shook his head.

John noticed that Jenner seemed to be almost as nervous as he was and un-tensed a bit.

“John—?”

“—Yes?”

Jenner smiled. “John, I suspect you know why I’m here. I mean, it isn’t everyday a department chief drops in on you.”

“No. No. It certainly isn’t.”

“I wouldn’t be here right now if it weren’t for the fact that Stacy is almost like a daughter to me, and so, I feel I have the rights of a father in coming to you to discuss something of a personal nature. Son, I hope the fact that I’m Stacy’s uncle had nothing to do with your…”

“No. No, I’m sure that had nothing to do with our….” At least, John didn’t think it did.

Jenner exhaled an audible sigh of relief. “Would you mind telling me what did?”

The young firefighter’s face suddenly filled with an unbearable sadness. “Tell me…and we’ll both know,” he smartly replied.

“You honestly don’t know?”

“I honestly don’t. If I did, believe me, I’d go back and un-do it.”

The Chief was suddenly more than a little saddened, himself. “I see. Then your…was all her idea,” he realized.

“Why didn’t you just ask her about…it?”

“Stacy refuses to speak about…it, even with my wife, and she won’t accept my phone calls.”

“Welcome to my world.”

Jenner gave the hurting young man a look of deep sympathy and started rising stiffly to his feet. “Well, John, I’d better go so you can get back to sleep.”

John rose and escorted his unexpected guest back up to his front door.

Before exiting, Jenner turned and extended a hand. “If the two of you ever get things ‘ironed out’, I just want you to know that I’d be proud to have you for an ‘almost’ son-in-law.”

John overcame his amazement and then took and shook Stacy’s Uncle’s hand. “Thank you, Sir. I’d consider it an honor.”

The two ‘guys’ exchanged a pair of extremely sad smiles.

The Chief Engineer forced himself to cheer back up. “By the way,” he motioned to the young fireman’s black eye, “nice shiner. Is there a story behind that?”

Gage couldn’t help but grin. ‘He is just another guy…a nice guy.’ “Thanks. The story starts like this: A paramedic walks into a bar…”

Jenner matched his host’s grin.

And, with that, LACFD’s Chief Engineer took his leave.

John re-locked his front door. Then he gave his head a few shakes and returned to his waiting bed.

______________________________________________________

But sleep didn’t come to him as easily as it had the first time.

‘Stir and drown again…Stir and drown again…’

Chapter 11