Childhood Disease

By

Numb3rsfan

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: Angst, H/C and maybe some language here and there.

Author's Notes: Some ideas have been taken from the Cloud 10 film "Miracle of the Cards."

Disclaimer: As usual, I own no part of Emergency and I own no part of "Miracle of the Cards."

Summary: A childhood disease comes back with a vengeance; threatening Johnny's career and his life.

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Chapter One: Unwell

Today was like any other day for the men at Station 51…except for the fact that it was so slow!

They had maybe four runs all shift, so naturally they had all of their assigned tasks done and were now all mingling outside.

Johnny and Roy were playing a friendly game of catch, Marco and Chet were playing basketball and Mike was sitting down on a bench working on his cup stacking.

Cup Stacking was soon to be a national sport; besides that there was a tournament in two days and Mike had entered in.

Cap was watching his men goof around. He watched Johnny purposely throw the baseball over Roy's head to watch it bounce off of the fence and come back to Roy; he also watched Marco shoot what would have been a three pointer before Chet knocked him down…and yet the ball still went through the hoop; and then Cap watched Mike perform the Cycle in the blink of an eye.

At the side of the fire station's backyard, Roy bent down and picked up the baseball from where it had come to a stop after it had hit the fence.

Sighing, Roy pitched it back to his partner; making sure to throw it over Johnny's head.

Johnny tracked the baseball with his eyes as he moved backwards to try and catch it.

As he did he had no idea that he was moving towards the left…until he bumped in to Marco and Chet, sending all three of them to the ground while the baseball hit the ground and rolled to a stop at Cap's feet.

"Geez Gage! Walk in a straight line will you?" Chet grumbled as he shoved Johnny a little bit.

"Sorry." Johnny replied as he stood up and brushed himself off before retrieving the baseball and chucking it back to Roy.

As Cap watched this scene unfold he was reminded that this wasn't the first time he had witnessed Johnny's inability to walk in a straight line.

Earlier that day he had seen Johnny drag a length of hose to the right as he was trying to follow Roy in to a burning house.

Cap had attributed this to smoke inhalation because Johnny hadn't been wearing his mask properly, but now he wasn't so sure.

Thirty minutes later Mike was putting his cups away, Chet and Marco had wrapped up their game of basketball, and Johnny and Roy were removing their gloves.

As one they all headed inside for a glass of water.

Getting their drinks, Chet and Roy settled down on the couch, Cap went to his office, Marco and Mike settled down at the table and Johnny left the room.

Once out of sight he raised a hand to his head and grimaced as he crossed to the dorm.

Going over to his bed Johnny sat down and reached under his bed to where he kept a few little odds and ends, such as Q-tips handy.

Taking out a Q-tip Johnny proceeded to clean his ears, however just as he started, he immediately jerked the Q-tip out and dropped it before placing his hand over his ear in a protective manner.

The pain was enormous and was bad enough that Johnny whimpered a little for a minute or two before he slowly removed his hand.

It was then that he realized that his ear felt really clogged up…like it usually did when he had a cold, but it was only that one ear…for now.

Feeling tired, Johnny yawned and settled out on his bed before shutting his eyes and falling asleep.

He had only meant to get twenty minutes shut eye but by the time Roy came to wake him up, it was dark out.

"Johnny. It's dinner time. C'mon Stoker made spaghetti." Roy said, knowing that Mike Stoker's spaghetti was one of his and Johnny's favorites.

Opening his eyes Johnny sat up and was still for a moment as he took stock of how he felt.

With an inward smile he realized that his ear didn't hurt anymore…nor did it feel all clogged up.

"Right behind you, partner." Johnny said as he stood up and hurriedly followed Roy to the day room where everyone else was seated at the table and digging in to their dinner.

Sitting down at his place at the table, Johnny helped himself to a good sized portion of the spaghetti before chowing down.

He ate like a starved man, never coming up for air until his plate was clean, and even so he was the last man to finish up his dinner.

By this time Cap, Marco, Mike and Chet were all seated in front of the television while Roy was stuck with the dishes.

Wiping the spaghetti sauce from his mouth, Johnny stood up fully intending to take his plate and fork to the sink so Roy could wash and clean them as well when he stopped.

Quickly his face turned pale before he turned around to his plate which was still on the table.

Back arching, Johnny was practically flung forward as he vomited up everything that he had eaten.

Hearing this Roy whirled around and watched Johnny getting sick, and even if that wasn't bad enough, Roy saw that it was like an explosion, which was worse than just the normal vomiting.

Not even bothering to dry his hands, Roy rushed over to his partner and sat him back in his chair so that he could get a good look at him.

Johnny's face was pale, his eyes drooping.

He looked worn out for sure, and he also seemed like he was in some sort of trance because he kept staring at the far wall.

"Johnny…Johnny are you ok?" Roy asked, gently shaking his partner's shoulders.

When no reply was forthcoming, Roy looked at everyone else who had joined him at the table, more concerned for their downed friend than the game show on TV.

"Cap get an ambulance, Chet get the biophone and drug box. Mike, Marco, help me get him on to the floor." Roy ordered as he went in to paramedic mode.

Quickly Cap ran to the phone while Chet ran for the Squad. Mike and Marco by that time had helped Roy gently ease Johnny down to the floor.

"What do you think's wrong with him?" Marco asked as he watched Roy unbutton Johnny's uniform while he waited for Chet, who was just appearing through the doorway; biophone and drug box in hand.

"I have no idea." Roy replied; taking the requested items from his fireman friend.

Opening up the drug box Roy reached in the bottom and took out the stethoscope before realizing that they had placed the BP cuff in another box.

"Marco go get the BP cuff, Johnny put it in the IV box…and bring that box as well!" Roy ordered, placing the stethoscope in his ears.

"Right." Marco replied, standing up and exiting the room at a run.

Not waiting for Marco to come back, Roy began checking his friend over. He checked Johnny's pupils, listened to his heart and was now checking his temperature when Marco came back lugging the IV box in to the room.

Setting the box down beside Roy, Marco opened it up and wordlessly handed him the BP cuff which Roy took and fastened to Johnny's arm.

Two minutes later Roy jotted down the results while Mike set up the link to Rampart.

Nodding his thanks to Mike, Roy grabbed the biophone and placed it to his ear.

"Rampart Base this is Station 51, Rampart Base this is Station Five One." Roy said in to the receiver.

While he waited for a reply he looked to Mike and said, "Check his temp."

Not two seconds later Roy heard Dr. Brackett's voice coming from the built in speaker of the biophone.

"Station 51 this is Rampart. Go ahead."

"Rampart we have a 28 year old paramedic down. About 5 minutes ago he vomited like an explosion. He is now shaky and diaphoretic. Vital signs are; BP 90/100, Pulse 70, pupils are unequal Rampart. Temperature is…hold on Rampart." Roy said, breaking the connection as he looked to Mike who paled considerably.

"His temperature is 104, Roy." Mike said.

"Rampart, patient's temperature is 104." Roy relayed.

"10-4 Station 51. Start cooling measures, also start IV D5W TKO. Get him in here as fast as you can." Dr. Brackett ordered.

"10-4 Rampart. The ambulance has now arrived. ETA 7 minutes." Roy said before he put the biophone down while Captain Stanley opened the front door to allow the ambulance attendants to enter the room.

Carefully Roy stood up and gripped Johnny's shoulders, signaling to Marco to get Johnny's feet, before the two of them hoisted Johnny up and on to the gurney.

Once he was secured, Roy had the attendants blanket his partner up before he expertly started the IV which he hadn't had a chance to start before.

Once that was done Roy followed the attendants out to the ambulance before climbing in and settling back while Johnny was loaded up and the doors shut.

"Don't worry partner, we'll have you at Rampart in no time." Roy said as he glanced at his partner who now looked like he was at least more or less aware of his surroundings.

"…ungh…my head hurts…feel like I have water in my ears." Johnny mumbled with a slight shake of his head.

Roy had nothing to say to this so he didn't say anything as the ambulance lurched forward on its way to the hospital.