By Shari Edwards
copyright 1999

She reached over and gently kissed Johnny, rousing him from sleep. “Time to get up, sleepyhead or you are going to be late”. Johnny yawned and reached, pulling her closer. She gave into temptation and snuggled down next to him sighing, “I wish we could stay here all day….but duty calls” as she turned, pulling the sheet with her to get up. “Hey, that’s mean!”, Johnny yelled as the cold air hit him. Then he lay back and watched her, smiling and thinking “Man, how did I get so lucky…”

***

Johnny arrived at work early, whistling happily as he changed. Even Cap noticed the change in the normally late paramedic.

“I wonder what’s going on…he hasn’t been late for a shift for over a month” Cap wondered as he walked by the empty locker room but for one paramedic.

About that time, Roy came rushing in. “Man, traffic is really wild today!”

“About time, partner,” greeted Johnny, “I thought I was going to be doing this shift on my own,” he joked.

Roy glanced over at his partner, who was grinning and sitting on the bench, completely dressed and relaxed.

“How was your weekend?” Johnny asked.

“Pretty good,” Roy answered. “But from the expression on your face, it looks like yours was better than mine,” he said grinning. Privately, he thought, “I don’t know who she is but she is definitely good for you, Junior. I haven’t seen you this happy or this relaxed for as long as I’ve known you.”

Roy finished dressing as the rest of the crew arrived. “Hey, Johnny,” Chet chortled, “I had a date with the new nurse over at Rampart, you know, the one that turned you down a couple months ago,” he rubbed in with a smirk on his face.

“Wow, Chester, she finally took pity on you, did she?” Johnny shot back at him. Marco and Mike grinned at each other.

Johnny just got up and exited the locker room, smiling. Just then the tones sounded sending the station to the scene of a motor vehicle accident, ending whatever chance Chet had for a comeback.

Johnny and Roy arrived on the scene of the accident, followed closely by the engine. “Man, this looks bad,” Johnny commented taking in the scene which involved two vehicles, one of which was upside down alongside the roadway. Roy pulled the squad to a stop and both men exited and began grabbing their equipment.

Vince rushed over as soon as he saw the two paramedics.

“What do we have, Vince?” questioned Roy.

Vince explained with some disgust in his voice, “The driver of the vehicle over there was drunk and decided to take the off-ramp to get onto the freeway and hit this other vehicle nearly head on. The driver of that vehicle,” he indicated the vehicle sitting on its top, “apparently tried to swerve to avoid the accident and rolled.” He indicated the three blankets covering the side of the road. “Neither the mother nor her little girl made it,” he finished with a catch in his voice.

Johnny glanced up at him and then over at Roy. Neither had seen the normally stoic police officer so upset before. Roy asked, “What about the driver of the other vehicle?”

Vince just shook his head, “Can you believe it? Nothing that looks too serious, complains only of some pain in his wrist. That’s why we had you guys called out.”

Johnny looked over at the blankets along the roadway. As the paramedics made their way over to the injured man, Johnny asked “Vince, I thought you said there were only two victims” indicating the three blankets.

Vince swallowed hard, “When the mother was thrown from the vehicle, she hit the guardrail and…,” he couldn’t finish as the scene which met him upon arrival at the scene flashed in his mind again. Both paramedics grimaced and nodded in understanding, having been present at enough gruesome scenes over the course of their career to understand what happened when she hit the guardrail.

They reached the injured driver who was blubbering almost incoherently and hanging onto Chet’s turnout coat. “I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, you gotta believe me, I really didn’t,” as he looked frantically around at the firemen and police officers. “You believe me dontcha?” he sobbed.

Roy and Johnny proceeded to access and treat the injured man. It appeared that he suffered no more than sprained wrist but as a precaution they were instructed to transport. They loaded him in the ambulance for the ride to Rampart. Roy volunteered to ride with him, noticing that while Johnny maintained his professionalism while treating the victim, he could tell that his partner’s patience was wearing thin with the man’s whining about how he was going to lose his job and what his wife was going to say. “Hell, my own patience is wearing thin with this jerk,” Roy thought as he rode in the back of the ambulance. This was one patient he was glad to turn over to Dr. Morton at the doors of Rampart.

Johnny met Roy at the base station. Dixie handed him a cup of coffee as Roy had just finished filling her in on the additional circumstances of the run.

Johnny just shook his head, “Man, I can’t believe how these idiots can get behind the wheel, blind drunk and ruin a whole family, just like that,” he said snapping his fingers.

He slammed the coffee cup down, splashing most of it out over his hand, not even flinching as the hot coffee burned his hand. He just kept looking down as he tried to regain some control. “Johnny”, Roy started to reach for him but Dixie shook her head at him.

“Johnny,” Dixie said as she gently grabbed his other hand, “come with me and let me take a look at your hand.” She led him into a treatment room. Once they entered the room, Johnny turned and hugged Dixie muttering, “Sometimes it all seems so senseless to me.”

She returned his embrace, gently kissing him, “I know it seems that way sometimes, but you have to focus on all the people you have helped and not on the arrogant jerks who think they can still handle themselves behind the wheel after a few drinks.”

“I know, I know,” he agreed. “It’s just that I get so mad sometimes,” he said running his uninjured hand through his hair. “I can’t help thinking at times like this that I don’t know what I would do if something like this ever happened to you” he said looking troubled.

“You know, I used to think about that every day. With every Code I that I heard over the radio or with any serious scene that I knew you were at, I would always wonder what I would do without you but I decided that I can’t live my life that way. None of us knows what is going to happen or when…that’s what made me decide to tell you how I felt,” she finished with a catch in her voice.

Johnny reached over, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, “And that was the best day of my life,” he whispered as he tipped her chin up with his finger and leaned over to kiss her.

“Now, that we have that out of the way,” she laughed, slightly out of breath, “let me take a look at that hand of yours.” Johnny started to protest when they both heard a commotion out in the hallway.

They rushed to the door, and heard Roy attempting to talk to a man waving a gun around, screaming, “Where is he? Where is he?”

Roy motioned to the security guard to stay still as he attempted to calm the man down. “Where is who?” he questioned.

The hysterical man screamed, “The SOB who murdered my wife and child, that’s who. I’m gonna kill him just like he killed them,” he said waving and pointing the gun towards Roy.

Just then he turned and saw Dixie standing in the doorway slightly behind Johnny, “You, Nurse, Where is he?” he yelled pointing the gun towards Johnny. “Tell me or I’m gonna shoot everyone I see, starting with him right there…until I find him.”

Kel having heard the commotion, exited his office and walked slowly down the hall in an attempt to get behind the gunman. He came up on the security guard and told him to stay back and see if they could talk him into surrendering first.

“You, get outta the way or I’m gonna shoot you,” he yelled pointing the gun at Johnny, “and you, Nurse, get out here now and show me where that murderer is.”

Johnny shook his head, slowly advancing on the gunman, “Listen to me, you don’t want to do this. We all understand how you feel and we feel the same way about the man who did this that you do. But you gotta let the law handle it,” he said and he advanced toward the man.

This statement only seemed to infuriate the grief-crazed man even further, “YOU UNDERSTAND, YOU UNDERSTAND,” he screamed. “YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND ANYTHING, they were my life, and I have nothing left, how can you UNDERSTAND that?” he yelled. “I’m tired of talking and I’m tired of people telling me they are sorry like that policeman who came to my door. Sorry doesn’t help me and sorry didn’t help them,” he shouted.

Roy and Kel had been slowly making their way behind the man as Johnny kept him occupied. They were ready to jump him when. without warning, he lunged toward the treatment room doorway where Dixie was standing. He grabbed her pulling her up against him and pointed the gun at her temple, “Now, everyone get back,” he said coldly, his emotions completely spent, “or I will kill her right here and right now.”

“Now you,” he said motioning towards Kel “Doctor, tell me where to find the man who killed my wife and baby or I will kill this nurse,” he said as he cocked the revolver.

Just then Vince rounded the corner and the distraught husband glanced in his direction. It was the opening Roy, Kel and Johnny had been waiting for and they all lunged forward as Dixie went limp and dropped to the floor, she immediately knew what they were planning. They wrestled the man to the ground, as the sound of the revolver went off.

Vince rushed over and expertly slapped the handcuffs on him. “You guys looking for another line of work,” he joked as he looked at the two paramedics and doctor tangled up with the suspect, who now laid sobbing on the floor, across Roy.

“No,” said Kel, as he brushed himself off as he untangled himself and got up. “I think this is something that I will leave to the professionals like you. Right now, gentlemen,” indicating the two paramedics still on the floor, “if you can help me get this man into treatment room one, I would like to examine him and possibly have a psych consult called in to help him.”

Roy grimaced, “Well, Doc, I would like to help you, but I think I’m going to have to leave it to Johnny,” he said just before slipping into unconsciousness.

“Roy,” yelled Johnny, lunging across the suspect to grab him before his head struck the floor. He scrambled over to Roy’s side as Vince pulled the suspect to his feet. Only then could they see that Roy had a bullet wound in his side.

“Damn it Roy, why didn’t you say something right away?” Kel muttered as he yelled at an orderly to bring another gurney.

“Joe,” he yelled over at Dr. Early who just arrived on the floor fresh from surgery. “Roy’s been shot, I’ll need your help in treatment two.”

They rushed him into the treatment room. Johnny tried to follow but Dixie pushed him back. “Let us do our job and I’ll let you know the minute we know anything,” she said firmly.

Johnny stood outside the treatment door, not wanting to leave but knowing he needed to call Joanne and the Cap to explain what had happened. Finally, he summoned up the strength to make the necessary phone calls. Then he sank down onto the couch in the doctor’s lounge to wait.

Fifteen minutes later Joanne rushed into the room and Johnny rose to hug her.

“Any news?” she asked searching his face for some sign as to how serious this was. What she saw did not encourage her as she noted the paleness of his face and the worried look in his eyes that he was trying unsuccessfully to hide.

Johnny hugged her and explained more of what happened than what he had been able to tell her over the phone. “That’s about all I know right now. The Doc hasn’t been back in yet,” he finished. Just then Dixie came in followed closely by Kel.

Johnny reached for Joanne’s hand as Kel began to speak and she grasped it, holding on tightly, as she steeled herself for what the doctor had to say.

Kel related the facts, “This is what we know right now. The bullet entered about here,” he said indicating on himself, “nicked a rib which deflected the bullet and exited out the back. He has no signs of any internal bleeding but he is being prepped for surgery right now to repair the wound and at the same time we are also going to make sure there is no damage internally. Joe’s with him now. Roy did regain consciousness briefly after we gave him a unit of plasma. Every indication is that he is going to be fine,” he finished. “Do you have any questions?” he asked before he turned to leave to prepare for surgery.

“Not right now Doctor. Just take good care of him for me,” said Joanne as she thanked him and brushed the tears from her face with her free hand.

She then released her vise-like grip on Johnny’s hand only then noticing the red, blistering burns on it. “Oh Johnny, what happened to your hand… I’m so sorry, you should have told me,” she said as she gently looked at his hand.

“Hey, it’s nothing just a small burn. I’m just glad I can be here for you and that Roy is going to be okay,” he dismissed her apology with a shrug of his shoulders.

Dixie came over and reached for Johnny’s arm, “That’s right, we were in the middle of looking at that when all this craziness started,” she said pulling him to his feet. “Come on, let’s go finish what we started,” she said pulling him toward the door.

“Not now, Dix, I’m fine and I want to wait with Joanne to see how Roy is after surgery,” he protested.

Joanne stood up and grabbed his other arm, “No way, don’t use me as an excuse, I’ll just go along with you to make sure you behave and let Dixie have a look at your hand,” she said as both women led him out of the room and marched him down the hall.

“Okay, Okay, I give up. I know when I’m beat,” he said grinning crookedly at them. “It’s time to surrender when I have two of the most beautiful, although stubborn women in the world gang up against me,” he said as he turned and planted a kiss on Dixie before turning and innocently whistling as he entered the treatment room ahead of them.

Dixie blushed furiously as Joanne glanced at her speculatively as she rushed into the treatment room behind Johnny.

"Hmmm…..," Joanne thought, "This could definitely be interesting!" as she followed them into the room.

Part 2