The Number One Rule

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.

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die." Ecclesiastes 3:1.

Chapter 1

"Johnny it just happens sometimes," Roy tried to console his partner.

"I know." Johnny looked out the squad side window. He really didn't want to talk about it.

Roy knew that when he was ready he would bring it up again on his own. One thing he had learned was that Johnny had to process things in his own time, his own manner. It had been a terrible rescue for the whole 51 crew, no one escaped from the heartbreak.

They headed back to the station, in silence, for a while.

"How can anyone do that?" He turned back towards Roy. "I don't think I will ever get that out of my mind. That child," he paused, making sure he had control of his voice. "No child should ever be treated that way."

"I know Johnny. Unfortunately we see some horrific things but thankfully not often." Roy knew this would eat Johnny up alive if he didn't get it out of his system. "Look, all we can do is our best. And we did. It was just that, by the time we go there, he had already been beaten to badly."

"I know," Johnny whispered. He tried to block the image from his mind but even with his eyes open he still saw the lifeless body.

Roy shook his head. No amount of reasoning could take the pain away, he knew that. The little boy lost today, the heart attack victim last shift that waited too late to call for help. Roy knew they must have worked that code for more than an hour, first at the home then at the hospital. Even Chet came back this shift with sore shoulders from the prolonged compressions. He silently shook his head. That man had left behind a family, wife and 3 children. He remembered going up to them, telling them that he was dead. It weighed heavy with him. He couldn't bear to tell Johnny that some rescues never got easier. That often the death would hit him like the first time, for a long time to come.

"Squad 51, standby."

Both men tensed up as the tones sounded. Please let it be something simple, Roy thought.

"Station 51. Woman down…………….."

Johnny pointed ahead, "Take a left up here."

Their minds now on the mission ahead they put the dark thoughts of death behind them. Roy tried to approach every rescue fresh and with optimism.

Pulling up to the small run down little house they hopped out of the Squad, arriving before the Engine. Roy pulled the boxes out and they both headed up the 4 concrete steps and onto the creaky front porch that was missing several planks. The outside railing was mostly missing with posts sticking straight up alone, the nails exposed and protruding, ready to catch the unsuspecting victim's skin.

Roy knocked on the door which had paint coming off in sheets. There was no answer. He tried the doorbell but yelped.

Johnny jumped at the noise, "You ok?"

Roy rubbed his index finger after being zapped by the short wired job on the button, "Yea, just got a little shock."

Johnny moved to the window on the front porch and tried to look in. His view was obscured by the twenty layers of dirt and grime that covered the screen, "I can't see a thing."

They moved to the side of the house, looking back to see the Engine pull up behind them. Hank jogged over, "What'cha got fella's?"

"No one's answering the door yet. Checking the side door here," Johnny replied.

Looking in the side door's grimy window he could make out a woman lying on the kitchen floor.

"Roy, I see her, she's on the floor." He reached for the door knob and found it unlocked. Opening the door the three men moved inside and to the woman's side.

She was lying on her back, looked to be about 30. Chet walked up behind the group and after seeing Johnny and Roy tending to the downed woman he glance around the kitchen. It was enough to make a sane person gag. The sink was piled full of dirty dishes, well, beyond dirty. Caked with dried food they looked as if they were ready to topple at any time. The refrigerator was standing open and the stench was almost overwhelming of spoiled food, what little there was of it.

Johnny and Roy noticed the living conditions too. Including the drug paraphernalia beside the woman's hand. "Roy." Was all Johnny said as he pointed to it.

Johnny opened the bio-phone as Roy did his assessment and worked on vital signs.

She was barely breathing. An apparent overdose. Roy looked to Johnny, "Pulse 50, respirations 8, BP 60/30. Pupils are dilated and unresponsive." Johnny knew they needed help fast and quickly relayed the information to Joe Early on the other end of the line.

Roy placed the esophageal airway while Johnny got the IV started on her. Finding a vein was challenging showing her abundant use of IV drugs. Her vitals continued to fall, "She's gonna go out on us," Johnny said to his partner.

"I know. I doubt she'll make it to the hospital at all." His voice reflecting the sorrow he felt.

Hank and Chet looked at each other. The last two shifts had been hard on the paramedic team, actually the whole crew. The last thing they needed was to lose another patient. Chet's eyes continued to survey the scene and he took a deep breath in when he saw something laying in the living room floor beyond them.

"Cap," he said.

Hank looked up to see him pointing at something. "Damn," he shook his head. "Let's go find him."

The two men walked past the baby bottle on the floor and began to search the living room area. Not finding anything right away and looking over to see Roy doing chest compressions, Hank got on the HT.

"HT to Engine 51. We need you guys in here on the double."

Mike and Marco came running into the kitchen to find Johnny and Roy in the process of a full code, Mike stopped to help while Marco moved forward looking for Cap.

Hank went into a bedroom that was disgusting. Piles of vile smelling dirty clothes and soiled diapers were scattered along the floor. Food was laying everywhere and evidence of rat droppings throughout. Hank looked in the closet and on the bed, finding nothing.

Chet found the next bedroom and it was in the same horrid condition. He couldn't believe that someone actually lived here. Marco found Chet first.

"What are you looking for?" He said with a disgusted look on his face.

"A baby," Chet called back to him.

"A baby?"

"Yea, we found bottles in the living room. But no baby so far. Cap's down the hall."

Marco moved across the hall and opened up the bathroom door. One whiff and glance made him gag outright. He was amazed he didn't loose it altogether as he closed the door back.

Chet and Marco moved up with Hank to the last little bedroom. It was more like a large closet really. Crammed inside were dirty toys, more dirty diapers and food laying on the floor. There were blocks, torn up books, blankets, rattles, more scattered bottles that had something green in them now and a stack of dolls. The room was half painted pink, like someone started but never finished it. There was a crib with the side down, well more like barely hanging on but it was empty.

Hank looked back at the men perplexed. Maybe someone had the baby somewhere else? "No luck?" he asked them. They both shook their heads no. Chet felt a deep sadness that any child should come home to this as he scanned the room.

"Chet?"

Marco looked at Chet's face as it turned three shades of pale. He was speechless; all he could do was point. Marco and Hank followed the pointed finger to the pile of toys and dolls. Then Hank realized with horror that one wasn't a doll. It was a baby, curled up on the blankets, holding an old bottle. Hank reached the infant, of about 9 months, in two steps. Reaching down to pick her up his breath shuddered at her cold skin.

He turned to Marco, seeing that Chet was in his own state of shock, "Get Roy now!"

They had loaded the woman into the stretcher but Roy continued the chest compressions. Marco looked down to see the defeat in his eyes, she was gone, they were just going through the motions until they reached the ER for her to be pronounced.

"What's wrong?" He asked him.

"Cap, he needs you right now."

Roy gave him his look of 'little busy here', "Marco."

"No Roy, now."

Mike moved over, "I'll take over Roy, go ahead." Mike knew it must be an emergency for Cap to call him away from what he knew to be a critical patient. Roy had to sprint to catch up with Marco as he ran through the house.

Roy stopped short to see Hank kneeling beside a stack of toys and dolls on the floor. He almost knocked over Chet, thinking he would move over, but he didn't. "Chet?"

"Roy, here." Hank redirected him.

Roy knelt down and felt his heart sink to his very knees; he could see the little girl now. Reaching down he turned her over and felt for a pulse, then for respirations. He looked up to see his Captain fighting back the tears.

"Sorry Cap, she's already gone. Looks like it's been a while too." Roy then took a pink laced blanket from the crib and laid it over her.

The men moved from the room, pulling Chet with them. As they approached the kitchen Hank then realized that the woman was still unresponsive and they were still working on her. Looking at Roy, "the mother?"

"She's gone too Cap."

Too? Thought Johnny. "Roy?" He asked.

Roy just shook his head in a quick motion, a 'not now' sign to his partner that it would be discussed later. Johnny looked at Chet as he moved out to the yard wondering what had happened. They followed with the stretcher, continuing to bag her and compress. Both paramedics looked out from the back of the ambulance as Marco held Chet's shoulders while he threw up in the bushes. Hank smacked the back of the ambulance twice to signal its departure, hard enough to make his hand sting with pain.

"LA. 51. We need a police response to this scene. We have a Code F."

This day couldn't get any worse. It was only lunch time but his men couldn't take anymore. The losses were stacking up and overwhelming the wins. He could see it in their eyes.

"Squad 51. Are you available?"

"51 available from Rampart," Roy replied while standing at the desk with Dixie.

"Stand by."

"Station 51, Battalion 9, Engine 86…….Structure fire………….."