Nothing For Christmas

It all started when there was a car explosion while the B-shift paramedics of Station 51 were too close for comfort. Thankfully, they wouldn't be out of commission for too long, but they were going to miss their scheduled shifts on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was decided that A-shift would cover for them on Christmas Eve while C-shift would cover Christmas Day rather than calling in paramedics from other stations off of their holidays. Roy got the call letting him know on December 23rd, just before heading out for what should have been his last day of work until after Christmas.

Roy wasn't naive enough to imagine that Joanne wouldn't be irritated when their Christmas plans would have to be altered without warning. What he hadn't figured on was that she was far beyond irritated. She was livid. And the focus of all of her fury wasn't the unfortunate circumstances or even the fickle whims of fate. No, her anger was firmly centered on her stunned husband. Every word landed like a blow he had no way to soften or evade. The last part that she yelled nearly ripped his heart out.

"You are absolutely not going to ruin another Christmas for me and our children. I'm going to take them to my mother's. We'll be back on New Years Day. If you aren't scheduled then as well."

The tirade ended with her slamming their bedroom door. Roy hoped that the kids hadn't heard too much of the yelling, but he knew better when he caught sight of their faces. He didn't know how to apologize. He wasn't even sure he should try. He settled for gathering them to him, hugging them tightly and kissing them, making sure he could keep his voice steady before finally speaking.

"You guys know I love you, right? I wish I could be with you, but since I can't, I hope you both have fun at your grandmother's house. I'll call you on Christmas morning and you can tell me what all Santa brought you, okay?"

Chris gave a small smirk and rolled his eyes just a little at the mention of Santa Claus, but didn't ruin it for his little sister. They both returned their father's hugs and kisses, then went to the window and waved as they watched him head out to work.

Johnny knew something was wrong the second he caught his first glimpse of Roy. And Roy knew that he knew just from noticing the way Johnny's smile fell. Heading over to his concerned partner, Roy managed a weak smile and laid his hand on Johnny's shoulder.

"Please? Do us both a favor and don't ask, okay? I really don't feel up to talking about it right now, Junior."

"Sure. Whatever you want, pally."

The weak smile got a little brighter at that and that was as close to a real smile as anyone saw out of Roy that entire shift.

Roy drove home when it was over to get a little rest before the Christmas Eve shift. His house looked abandoned. No voices. No lights. He started to reach for the light switch when his eyes fell on the Christmas tree. He stopped in mid-motion. The presents that had been piled under the tree were all gone. Every single one - even the ones that the kids had made and put under the tree for him. Seeing them gone was worse than a slap.

Closing the door, Roy didn't bother turning the lights on. He wasn't hungry anymore. Instead, he just made his way up to his bedroom only to find that Joanne had stripped the bed the way that she usually did when they were going to be gone away from the house for more than a day or two. Sighing, Roy grabbed up a pillow and a blanket, heading downstairs with them to sleep on the couch.

If someone had asked Johnny yesterday, he would have told them that he couldn't remember the last time he'd seen his partner so miserable. As Roy came in on Christmas Eve, he was even lower. Johnny couldn't stand it any longer and gently prodded his best friend about what was wrong. It was as if he'd poked a hole in a full water balloon. Once Roy started talking, it all came gushing out. He didn't even notice that some of the other firemen were around and within hearing range.

Truthfully, Johnny didn't notice them either. His full attention was centered on his hurting friend and partner.

"Roy? Why don't you come and spend Christmas Day at my place? I'd really enjoy some company."

"That's real nice of you to offer, Johnny. But -"

"Hey, pally - you don't have to decide right now. Just, you know, think about it, okay?"

Smiling a little, Roy finally looked up into his eyes.

"Okay."

It was a busy evening. While it stank for those involved that people were needing their help on Christmas Eve, at least none of the calls had involved anything extremely serious. Roy was grateful that it was keeping his mind occupied so that he wasn't thinking about anything outside of work. It was about an hour before the end of the shift when the call came in that none of them had wanted to hear. A fire had started in a block of residential apartments.

Arriving on scene, Johnny and Roy quickly climbed into their gear. There was bound to be a search for any residents that might not have made it out. Just as they were starting over to the Captain for orders, a frantic woman came rushing up to them. Her words were a jumble of English and Spanish, but they made out the reason for her panic easily enough. Her son and daughter were still inside. Quickly getting the number of her apartment from her, they passed over the information to the Captain who immediately gave permission for the search to begin.

The pair quickly made their way to the fourth floor apartment. The smoke was rising from the fires burning below, but none of the flames had made it that level yet. They knew time wasn't on their side though. Fortunately, the apartment door wasn't locked so they didn't have to waste time breaking in.

Johnny quickly found the boy due to hearing his coughing. He had apparently collapsed on his way to the door. He was still conscious, but having some trouble breathing.

"It's too smoky in here, Johnny. Go ahead and get him clear. I'll keep looking for his sister."

Much as Johnny hated to leave Roy, the young boy was his priority. Lifting him up to carry him out, Johnny made his way back down the stairs and out the door as quickly as he could safely manage. To his relief, he saw that another paramedic team was onsite and had set up a triage area. That meant he'd be able to turn the boy over to them and head back in to help Roy.

He had just laid the boy down in the triage area when Johnny ended up on his rear there himself as an explosion rocked the area. All of the assembled firefighters paused for a split second. An explosion of that magnitude wasn't anything that should have come from an apartment building. A quick glance back to the apartments gave Johnny a sick feeling. The entrance he'd come out of just minutes before was now fully engulfed in flames.

Inside on the fourth floor Roy had been knocked off of his feet by the blast and he had landed hard against a counter on his way to the floor. The pain in his side was one that he'd unfortunately felt before. He figured he had to have a least one or two cracked ribs, possibly even broken. There was no time to worry about that though. An explosion was never good news and it felt like it had originated below him. That meant that the structure could be unsound now and might be in danger of collapsing,

Urgently calling out, Roy pressed on. Recalling that the mother was bilingual, he decided to try a phrase that he'd asked Marco to teach him along with English. Maybe the girl was scared and hiding.

"No tengas miedo, por favor. I just want to help you."

There was no response for a minute, but then he saw a closet door move and heard a cough. That cough seemed like the sweetest thing he'd ever heard. Roy quickly gave the young girl some breaths from his mask as he keyed his walkie-talkie. His eyes were on her the whole time. She looked to be just a little younger than his own daughter.

"Captain. I found the girl. Do we still have an exit through the door?"

"Negative. Can you get to a window? We can get a ladder up to you."

"Affirmative on the window. Keep everyone back and I'll break it open. You'll need to send someone up to help the girl down."

The Captain frowned slightly at the way that was phrased.

"DeSoto - are you injured?"

"Also affirmative, but I am still ambulatory."

"Acknowledged. All clear and standing by."

Roy was starting to get choked on the smoke himself and the coughing didn't feel good on his bad ribs. Moving over to the girl, he told her to take a couple of deep breaths and then pass him the mask. Once he had it, he tried to saturate his lungs as much as he could with a few deep breaths despite the discomfort it caused. As he handed the mask back to her, Roy spotted a stuffed animal and grabbed it up to hand to her as well. She clutched onto it and gave him a small smile. He returned the smile as he shut the main door into the room and stuffed one of her blankets against the bottom of the door. The last thing he wanted was for the air coming in from the broken window to feed the fire.

Once he was finished, he made use of a wooden chair to break out the window, using the protection of his turnout jacket to help clear out the remaining glass. Once he was satisfied, he went back to the girl, who immediately offered him the mask again. He took her with him back to the window, talking to her as they went between coughs. Roy wasn't sure how much, if any English, she spoke, but he hoped the tone of his face would help to reassure her and keep her calm as they continued to pass the mask back and forth between them. He told her about his own little girl who was just a little older than her.

Hearing a noise, Roy looked out of the window and was relieved beyond words to see the ladder. The noise he had heard was one of the firemen climbing up to take charge of the girl.

Roy assisted the girl through the window, then bent over to pick up his air bottle so that he could get the straps back into position.

Already pacing, Johnny was watching as the fireman and girl were nearing the bottom of the ladder. Then another explosion ripped through the building. Instinctively the girl and fireman both clung to the shuddering ladder for dear life. Once it and they both stopped shaking, they made it the rest of the way down.

Flames were now shooting out of the third floor windows and Johnny's heart was pounding when he couldn't catch sight of Roy. Impatiently he looked to the Captain, eyes begging to be allowed to head up the ladder and look for his partner. The Captain hesitated, then nodded as he motioned for some of the men to get out the life net. He hoped they wouldn't have to use it,

"Make it fast, Gage. One more of those and the whole building is likely to go."

"Right, Cap."

Johnny wasn't sure whether to be pleased or scared when he got to the window. Roy was within sight, but he was lying far too still for Johnny's comfort. Quickly, he went in and ripped off a glove. A minute later, Johnny took a shaky breath when he found Roy's pulse and gave silent thanks to his ancestors. While alive, it was obvious that his friend wasn't going to make it out under his own power.

Quickly, Johnny took a firm hold of Roy's turnout jacket and drug him to the window. Carefully climbing out around his injured partner, he wished there was time to get a stokes up to the window, but with something unknown having already caused two explosions, he was going to have to risk causing further injury. They had to get out of the building and they had to get out now.

Once he was solidly on the ladder, he reached back through to pull Roy out. While he didn't like seeing the wince of pain on his friend's face, the fact that he finally got a response of any sort was a good sign. Johnny had almost got him completely out when another explosion threw Roy out the rest of the way. The concussive force knocked Johnny off the ladder as well and their fellow firemen watched horrified as two of their own fell.

Down below, the firemen with the life net quickly braced themselves. Roy hit the net first with Johnny landing almost directly on top of him. Not the ideal scenario, but far better than impacting on the unforgiving ground. It was obvious that Roy was in a bad way and Johnny was stunned himself, so the pair were quickly taken over to the triage area.

While it had seemed far longer for those who had been watching and waiting on the ground, not a lot of time had actually passed since the rescue men had first entered the building. Both of the children were nearby receiving oxygen to help ease their breathing while waiting for the ambulance to arrive with their mother beside them. When she saw the condition of the two men that had she had asked to save her children, she crossed herself and began to whisper a prayer for them both. She also understood completely when the first ambulance to arrive was used to take the two paramedics to the hospital. Her children, thank God, were not in as serious condition as they were. Another ambulance was already on the way, so they wouldn't be far behind.

Johnny knew he likely had a concussion along with bruising, but that didn't concern him at all. The lack of even so much as a groan from Roy since the last explosion that had him worried during the ride to the hospital. And from the expression on the face of the paramedic riding in with them, he wasn't the only one concerned.

Dixie looked up as the gurneys came down the hall, then she was on her feet. She hadn't known the injured firemen coming in were Roy and Johnny. She couldn't help but feel almost like family with the pair after having gone through so much with them. And just one look at Johnny's face told her that Roy was the one is the worst condition on this occasion. She directed them to seperate treatment rooms then went into Roy's room herself.

Roy's stillness and continuing lack of response even when his ribcage was being examined was not good. The x-ray machine was sent for and Dixie headed to the phones to try and contact Roy's wife. When there wasn't an answer, she went back in to both check on Johnny and to find out if he possibly knew how to get in touch with Joanne.

Dr Early was just finishing his exam of Johnny. He wanted to see a set of x-rays to rule out any cracks, but the young paramedic seemed to have come out of the experience battered and bruised, but with his only serious injury being a concussion. Though he was going to end up spending at least overnight in the hospital for observation and to help him out with pain management. Just because nothing was life threatening didn't mean Johnny wasn't in a lot of pain.

Coming in, Dixie gave him a smile and moved over to take hold of Johnny's left hand as it currently didn't have any tube or leads in it.

"Rough Christmas, tiger?"

A quirked smile flashed briefly.

"You could say that. How's Roy?"

"That was something I wanted to ask you about. I couldn't reach Joanne on the phone. Do you have any idea how we might be able to reach her?"

It only took a second for it to sink in that Dixie had gone around his question.

"That bad, huh? Dix? Can we speak? Privately?"

Dixie shooed the other nurse out of the room then pulled a stool over next to Johnny.

"Sounds like a long story is in the works."

"Yeh. In a way, I feel bad having to tell this, but you've told us before that a patient's mental state can make a big difference in how well they do, right?"

"Right... oh no. You mean there's a problem between Roy and his wife?"

"Well, not so much a problem on Roy's end unless you hold being a fireman against him. You know we were covering B-shift last night?"

"That's right. You know, I'd been wondering where Captain Stanley was. He's usually under my feet checking to see how you guys are if any of your crew has been injured."

"Well, apparently Joanne bit Roy's head off when she found out we were going to have to work Christmas Eve. He wouldn't tell me about it at first, but it was bothering him so bad that he finally told me all about it. he said that she told him that she wasn't going to let him ruin another Christmas and packed herself and the kids off to her mom's house. Even took away the presents the kids had made for Roy. She won't be back until New Years."

There was a solid frown on Dixie's face. Support of family and friends could sometimes make all the difference.

"Well, hopefully she's gotten over being angry about Christmas enough to be there for Roy. Do you have any idea how to reach her mother?"

"Nope. Just as a warning if you do find her number? Ask to speak to Joanne directly. Her mother doesn't like Roy."

Rubbing her forehead, Dixie sighed.

"Just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?"

She didn't voice it, but she wondered how a sweet guy like Roy ended up in a situation where the people that should be his support network were chipping away at the foundations instead of strengthening them. Johnny's voice brought her back from her morose thoughts.

"He's in a coma, isn't he?"

Reaching up, she brushed some of Johnny's hair off of his forehead.

"Yes, John, he is."

"How are the kids we found?"

"They're both going to be just fine. They're going to be kept overnight for observation, but you two managed to take all the lumps for them."

"Good. Roy will be glad to hear that. It hits him hard when kids are involved."

"Oh, like you take it in stride?"

"Alright, alright. It hits both of us hard when kids are involved."

"Get some rest, John. They'll be in to take your x-rays as soon as they've finished with Roy."