GETTING SERIOUS

by ardavenport

"Gage, can you step into the office for a minute?"

On his way from the squad to Station Fifty-One's dayroom, Fireman-Paramedic John Gage whirled around at the sound of Captain Stanley's voice.

"Sure, Cap."

Hank Stanley did not particularly care for talks like these. And there was definitely something wrong with the psyche of anyone who did. But it was part of being a Captain. He sat down at his desk.

"Close the door, will ya?"

Gage froze for a fraction of a second, his expression instantly turning wary before he whirled around to close the door.

"Sure, Cap." His smile looked a little forced when he turned back.

"Have a seat." I'm not going to bite your head off, ya twit.

Gage dragged the wooden chair over and sat.

"So, how's the victim doing from the last run?"

"Oh, fine, Cap." Immediately, he became animated again. "Well, he's got a broken kneecap and a lot of bruises, but the docs said he should recover just fine."

Stanley nodded. "Well, that's good to hear." He had gotten off lucky after the workers in a machine shop had tried to move a heavy stamping machine without disconnecting it from the power, a ridiculously stupid move that led to the accident that required a call to the fire department for help. "It got a little close for a minute back there." He glanced at the bruise on Gage's right forearm.

"A little when he got hung up there. But I was able to get him free and pull him out." He finished with a cocky grin.

"Is there any reason why you couldn't move up the blocks that were right there before sticking your arm in there to get him loose?"

Gage's grin faltered. "Well, we had to get him out right away. He was bleeding and, uh . . . "

Stanley finally saw in his eyes that he was figuring out what his Captain was getting at.

"It would have taken only a second. And if that machinery had slipped, it wouldn't have just landed on his leg, it would have crushed your arm. And I don't think the doctors at Rampart would have been able to fix that up."

"Uuuh, . . . . . I guess, . . . . I mean, Cap, I was just, . . . .uuuh, . . . . what I meant to do was, . . . .uuuh, . . . . I, uh, I guess, I just didn't think about it. Cap."

"And this isn't the first time you've been careless lately. You hurt your ribs a couple weeks ago climbing that ladder."

"Oh, well, Cap, the rungs on that ladder were really slippery."

Stanley raised his brows at that excuse. "Yeah, I noticed that Roy didn't have any problem with it when he went up after you. He just went up a little slower. And if that had been a real person up there instead of some kid's prank dummy, you would have just slowed down the rescue."

Letting Gage squirm for a few seconds, the Captain sat back in his own chair.

"Now, I can't swear that I wouldn't have done exactly the same thing that you did. Stick my hand in there without thinking. It's perfectly natural to want to get right in there." He grasped forward with his hand. "And that's when accidents happen."

"Yeah, Cap." Tense, but attentive, Gage sat with his hands in his lap.

"Now, I don't want you to be second guessing yourself all the time, especially on a run." Sitting forward again, elbows on the arms of his own chair, he spread his hands. "We wouldn't get anything done if we did that. Right?"

"Right, Cap."

"On the other hand, you're not second guessing yourself by making yourself aware of the safer options available to you at the moment. Am I right?'

"Right, Cap."

"Good. Because I want you to think about that when we're doing ladder drills this afternoon. That's when you should be thinking about these kinds of things. When we're training. When you've got time to weigh all the options. If you do that now, you're a lot more likely to see the safer option right in front of you in the middle of a crisis when you don't have time to think before acting.

I don't want to fill out any more accident reports on you, especially when it could be prevented."

Gage at least looked like he was thinking about it.

"Well, that's all I wanted to say. I'm going to tell everyone else the same thing for the drills, but after this morning I thought you might benefit from a little preview."

Gage nodded. "I appreciate that, Cap."

"Good." He turned his chair back toward his desk. "It's your turn to cook lunch today, isn't it?"

"Uh, no, it's Roy's turn. I told him I'd help peel the potatoes." He pushed his chair back and got up.

"Good. Leave the door open."

Gage left.

Stanley exhaled. Would it work? Probably. Maybe.

John Gage was a good man, a good firefighter. But his eagerness could get him killed, or worse permanently disabled. He talked about doing other things besides being a paramedic, but nothing had ever come of any of his grand plans. Captain Stanley doubted that he had any idea what else he would do if being a paramedic were taken away from him. If coming down hard on him in training would head off that possibility, Stanley would happily nail him to the wall.

He opened a packet of department memos and started reading.