Part XX

At the start of the next shift, everyone was surprised to find that Chief McConakee was there. Everyone, that is, except for Captain Stanley. It didn't take much to figure out what was going on when the two of them went into the office and called for Thomas to come in with them.

The others went about doing their usual chores and tried to keep their minds off of what might be going on behind the doors, though all of them were assuming that the Chief was just getting some details from Thomas. Daniels from the last shift had agreed to stay over and cover in case a run came up before the Chief was finished talking with Thomas.

In the bay where they were working on cleaning up Big Red, Marco gave Mike a nudge. A man looking a bit lost had just come in. He was in uniform, so from the lost look and his age, they guessed he was probably another of the new boots. Marco wiped his hands off and went over to meet him.

"Hello, can we help you?"

The man gave Marco a hesitant smile.

"I hope so. I'm Matthew Alman. I was told to come here and wait for Chief McConakee?"

"You're in the right place. The Chief is in a meeting. Why don't I show you where you can get a cup of coffee and wait for him?"

It was another half-hour after Alman's arrival before the call went out for all of them to come to the table. It didn't escape anyone's notice that Thomas remained in the office while Chief and Cap came out.

Chief McConakee spoke to the assembled men.

"Gentlemen - I'd like for you all to meet Matthew Alman. You'll be showing him the ropes for lineman duty while he fills in for Kelly during the remainder of his recovery. He'll be moving on to replace Hawn when his transfer comes through, so train him well."

"Now, as to the other matter that I've had brought to my attention. Officially, the department frowns on all betting pools, but so long as they don't disrupt the routine of the shifts, such things on sporting events won't really be paid much attention. However, any such nonsense where someone is placing bets that concern the health and wellbeing of a fellow firefighter is not, has not been and never will be tolerated. Even less tolerated will be those individuals that not only bet, but then attempt to manipulate their fellow firefighters to make the winning of that bet more likely."

As they exchanged looks, the part of what the Chief wasn't saying hit them all at about the same time and the four sets of eyes moved straight to the closed office door. Hank was suddenly very glad that he has the one that had wondered about Thomas and even gladder that he'd kept it to himself. He could very easily have lost a man - or more - if they'd gone after Thomas themselves. Alman looked to Captain Stanley, puzzled at how the others were reacting and Hank decided it was a good time to give the new man a job.

"Alman? Take a bag with you to the locker room. Find the locker with Brent Thomas' name on it and empty everything out into the bag. Take the nametag off the locker and put it in there as well."

Chief McConakee added on to that instruction.

"And when you've finished, put the bag into the back of my car."

"Yes sir - sirs."

Once Alman was out of the room, Chief McConakee spoke again.

"I know how I'd be feeling in your shoes, men, but let me deal with this at the department level. And I apologize to all of this crew that something like this occurred in the first place. I particularly want to extend an apology to you, Gage, since I've learned that some of the betting involved you. So that you all know, I plan on seeing Firefighter Kelly later today to tender the department's apologies to him as well. That's all I have for you men, so you can consider the meeting over."

Johnny rose at that and offered the Chief his hand.

"Thank you, sir. I appreciate that and I know Chet will as well."

Roy, Mike and Marco followed suit with Mike, all shaking the Chief's hand before Roy spoke up.

"Permission to return to our duties, sir? I don't think any of us care to see him again."

No-one had to ask who was being referred to. The Chief just nodded.

"That's a fine idea, DeSoto. Dismissed, men."

As they exited, Marco overheard Johnny talking to Roy.

"Can you believe that guy? We should've known there was something up with him sooner."

"I know, Johnny. I feel the same way."

In the bay, Mike looked up as Marco gave him a light nudge with his elbow while looking over to the paramedic team. Thoughtfully Mike nodded, but a moment later, the squad was toned out for a respiratory arrest case.

When the squad pulled back in, the smell of a batch of Marco's chili filled the air. Both paramedics were splotched with mud. A passing car had swerved to rubberneck at them working on their patient and hit a mud puddle. They had been able to mostly protect the patient from the splatter, but not without getting sprayed themselves.

"Man, that smells good."

"Sure does, Johnny. Let's get into something a little less muddy and go eat."

Two lockers opened in near unison – two paramedics were nailed by water balloons in near unison.

As the two dripping wet partners looked at one another, they heard Marco's voice using a tone very much like that of an instructor.

"You see, Matt? There is this Phantom that lurks around the station. It tends to target the unwary."

Mike nodded and added in.

"The Phantom also targets those who are on guilt trips to derail them."

Roy was the one that started laughing first as he started to peel out of his sodden shirt, but Johnny's laugh wasn't far behind.

"I guess old Chester can use that as proof that the Phantom has a life of his own, Roy."

Roy neatly caught the towel Marco tossed his way.

"I guess he can at that, Junior."

Matt Alman proved to be a team player and did his best to learn everything he could from the A-Shift crew so that he could hit the ground running when he went into his permanent slot. All of the crew pitched in with giving Chet a hand, both with his physical therapy and his studying. The next engineer test was coming up and the Chief had cleared it so that Chet could take it even though he would still be out on medical leave at the time.

When the results came out, Chet's ranking had moved up to 48 – a score that all of A-Shift celebrated along with Chet, much to the confusion of the other shifts. But Chet was thrilled with that and it was a huge boost to his morale.

"Hey, if those study tricks helped me do that much better while I'm still on pain pills and doing physical therapy, they should help even more when I'm off of all of that."

On Chet's first day back after being released to full-duty status, Alman was there to welcome him back along with the rest – Hank had wanted him to be present and to share in the cake that his wife had sent to celebrate the occasion.

"Alman, you get the coffee going. I'll get the cake on the table. The rest of you lot - go get changed – we'll have roll call in five."

Once the other five had left the room, Alman heard Hank start chuckling and wondered what that was all about. A few seconds later, he got his answer when surprised exclamations came from the locker room. Heading over with Hank, they found all five crew members were soaked – including Chet, who was in the process of laughing himself breathless.

"Mop this up and dry yourselves off, you twits. And step on it or Alman and I will eat all the cake."