The Uniform

These good fellows don't belong to me but I promise when I'm done to pick um up, dust um off and with a kiss on the cheek return them safely home.

"Blue flowers, red thorns! Blue flowers, red thorns! Blue flowers, red thorns! Oh, this would be so much easier if I wasn't color blind." Donkey.

Chapter 1

Chet stood just outside the locker room door and waited. Patiently. Should be any minute now.

"CHETTT!"

Without hesitation he went running into the dayroom and sat down quickly at the table with his Captain looking up at him.

"Do we have a problem?" Hank asked.

"No Cap. I'm fine," Chet said with a smile as he smoothed down his uniform shirt with his hands.

Hank just grumbled.

It didn't take long for the rest of the crew to make their way into the kitchen, including a highly ill tempered dark headed medic who seemed to be squishing.

Hank looked down at his feet, "Hard to sneak up on a fire making that much noise Gage."

Johnny just growled, "Tell Chet to quit putting stuff in my shoes. Look at this, chocolate pudding and this is my last good pair. My others are still drying out from the jello last shift." He moved over to the counter and grumbled as he poured his coffee.

Mike looked at the man's shoes, "Better with whipped cream."

Johnny shot him a look but chose to remain quiet. His beef was with Chet, not Mike.

Hank hid a smile and shook his head. He learned a long time ago to not get in the middle of the phantom and his pigeon as long as things were tame in nature. "Okay fellows, meeting in 5 minutes. I have a new announcement and we need to go over the training exercise that's this afternoon.

They acknowledged their Captain with an as sundry of "Yes sir's, aye Caps and sure things" as he left the dayroom and headed to his office.

Johnny sat down next to Roy as he seemed intent on something in the paper. "What's so interesting there partner?"

Roy quickly closed the paper only hoping that Johnny didn't see what he was looking at. "Nothing, just reading the paper." He looked to see Johnny wrinkling up those brows of his. Never a good sign.

"Uh... huh," he said as he slowly slid the paper away from Roy and casually picked it up. As he flipped through the pages he tried to see what might have been so interesting but nothing jumped out at him.

Roy stood up and poured his coffee out then after washing it out he put it up in the cabinet. Glancing back he saw Johnny watching him. "What?"

"Nothing," he said as he turned back to the paper. "Just reading the paper."

Mike looked up to see Roy give an exasperated sigh. Obviously something was bothering the senior medic but everyone knew that there was only one person to get it out of him by the end of the shift.

They all looked up to see Cap come back into the room with a box. Brown and inconspicuous he held it close to him. "Okay, come on you guys. Let's get this over with." Hank dreaded doing this. The men wouldn't take it well. They were just too much creatures of habit and routine.

They all grabbed a chair and pulled it up to the chalkboard giving him their attention and brewing interest in the package.

"Alright. As you know we have a district wide training session this afternoon. But this one is going to be a little different than ones in the past." He paused to let them quit squirming in their seats. "This one is going to be huge. Headquarters is pulling in ten stations and all available squads. We're taking that old warehouse over on Harbor Drive."

They all knew the area well. They recently had been called to a fire in that area and many buildings there had been abandoned. There was plenty of room and plenty of water available for them to train with.

"We have one, um, a new piece of equipment we are required to try out for this exercise." He put the box down and opened it up but didn't show was it held.

They craned their necks trying to see what was so disconcerting in the box to their fearless leader.

"Headquarters is trying out some new uniforms. They want to change the county over to this but are meeting some opposition so far."

They were very confused now.

"I have two new shirts that will have to be worn in place of your regular uniform for this training session. They want to check it out in action, its visibility guess you might say."

"Why just two Cap? Why not just change uniforms?" Roy asked not understanding the big deal over a uniform change.

"There are plenty who are fighting the change. It's not our job to judge them or even get a vote right now. We are just wearing them for the exercise and that's all. Every station is getting the same box." He reached into his front pocket and pulled out cut straws. "Okay short draws the shirts."

The men looked at each other. Cap was acting very strange about this. Drawing straws? Were they really that bad that no one would volunteer to wear them?

"Can't we just volunteer Cap?" Marco asked.

Hank took a deep breath and put the straws down. "Okay." He pulled out the shirt and held it up. "I need two volunteers."

Johnny jumped up out of his chair practically knocking it over, all the time backing up and waving his hands, "You have to be kidding me? Are they crazy?"

Mike shook his head. Not quite as dramatic as Johnny but his displeasure was obvious on his face, "Cap, they're kidding right? They expect us to wear that?"

Hank simply put the shirt down and picked the straws back up. He chose to ignore the rumbling amongst the crowd and shoved the straws in their faces. "Just draw a damn straw."

Roy reached first, followed by Johnny, Marco, Mike and finally Chet.

"Ahh man! That's not right!" Chet complained right off the bat as he looked at his short straw. He looked at the others to see who his partner would be and grinned.

"Don't say a word Chet. I'm telling ya right now. Not a word." Johnny took the shirt from Hank and stomped to the locker room to change.

Roy chuckled to himself, "This is going to be a long day Cap."

Hank just shook his head, "You're telling me."