SquidgeWorld Archive

Johnny Gage knew that the shift ahead was to be a long and lonely one for him as he arrived for work in his Land Rover. As he pulled into station fifty-one's parking lot, he knew that the guys would still be sore at him. It was now two days after the humiliation 51's had suffered at the hands of station thirty-six in a softball game at the annual fireman's picnic. He knew that it was his fault that they'd had to pay the cost of picnic.

Me and my big mouth! Johnny thought, exiting his Land Rover and walking into the station through the back door.

As he passed the guys in the kitchen, drinking their coffee, he was relieved that he'd put his uniform on before leaving his apartment.

One less unpleasant encounter with them. Johnny thought, making his way to the apparatus bay. Remember, Gage, low profile and distance.

"Morning," Captain Hank Stanley greeted.

"Cap." Johnny replied. "I'm suprised you're even talking to me after that disaster on Saturday."

"I can't afford to be sore at you." Hank replied. "I have to admit to being a bit disappointed in you though."

"I don't blame ya." Johnny replied. "I made station 51 look damn foolish in front of all the families and our fellow firemen!"

"Johnny, help me to understand, what drives you to do the things you do? Why do you do such impulsive things as the ballgame?" Cap asked.

"I don't think he knows." Roy said as he and the others came in. "I don't think Johnny can ever give us a satisfactory answer."

"Just what are you trying to prove, Gage?" Fireman Chet Kelly asked. "What a big jackass you are? You sure succeeded in proving just that on Saturday! You're also a screw up and a loser!"

"Kelly." Hank warned.

"It's okay, Cap, I deserve everything I get from him today." Johnny stated. "I'm exactly what he says, a jackass, a screw up and a loser. Cap, what is my chore assignment this shift? I just assume get to work if you don't mind."

"Why don't you just do us all a favor and go color in your little coloring book?" Chet teased. "I got you a nice box of crayons and a nice coloring book."

"Chet," Roy warned.

Johnny just got up and wondered out back without another word.

****

A few minutes later, Roy came outside.

"I could use your help with the squad." Roy said to Johnny.

"I'd probably cause us to lose it too." Johnny answered. "Seems like no matter what I try to do, I get you all pissed at me."

*******

As Roy was talking to Johnny, Cap was assembling the rest of the crew in the apparatus bay.

"I want you guys to lay off Gage." Hank said. "The game was two days ago, we lost, so what? Get over it."

"Cap, not only did John publicly humiliate me, he cost station 51 $162!" Chet argued. "Nine dollars a man times eighteen men, you do the math!"

"Yeah! Johnny made us all look like fools!" Fireman Marco Lopez chimed in. "It was bad enough that we lost the game, but then to hear all those people laughing at us like that! How can we ever be respected in this department again after that?!"

"Guys, I'm not sure he woke up that morning thinking we were gonna lose." Engineer Mike Stoker piped up. "I don't think any of you are being fair. You're condemning a man for trying to make things more interesting. I agree that John went about it in the wrong way, but should it cost him his friends?"

"Exactly," Cap agreed. "You know, Chester B, I didn't hear you tell Gage that you didn't wanna pitch. I didn't see any of you stand up to him."

"The Cap's right." Chet realized. "We didn't say no. So in a way, if we lost, it's our own fault. We're the ones that chose him to represent us at the meeting with 36's. We all know how carried away Gage can get with things like this."

"Did we tell him what we wanted done at the meeting?" Mike asked. "It seems to me that we gave him our permission to do as he saw fit."

"It seems we've done that alot as of late." Roy said as he rejoined his colleagues. "Remember the barbershop quartet contest? How bout the bowling tournament last year and the poker tournament the year before that?"

"How bout that time he drafted you into doing that talk show?" Chet reminded Roy. "Boy, what a mess that was!"

"It seems that you all allowed Johnny to become quite a nuisance." A female voice said.

All the guys turned around to see Johnny's latest flame, Charlotte Burns enter the station. Short and stocky with piercing blue eyes, Charlotte had made quite and impression on the guys when she had put the young Paramedic in his place during a recent rescue involving her father.

"How do you manage to handle him?" Roy asked of her.

"Simple," The woman smiled. "I don't allow John to run roughshod over me. I have a set of rules that he must abide by. For example, he talked with his mouth full the other night at the place we were eating, so he didn't get to kiss me that night. He also had to go to sleep alone."

"Oh, that must've hurt." Cap giggled

"Where is Johnny anyway?" Charlotte asked.

"Outside being mad." Roy replied.

"He's mad? He's mad? He has no right to be mad!" Charlotte said. "Where is he?"

"Out back." Chet replied.

Charlotte went to the back door. Opening it, she called to Johnny.

"John Roderick Gage, you come down off that hose tower and get your butt in here, right now!" Charlotte called.

A startled Johnny obeyed.

"These men here tell me you made a bet without asking them. What gave you the right to do that?" Charlotte asked.

"I was just trying to make things more fun." Johnny explained.

"How by humiliating Chet? By costing these guys- how much was it, Roy?" Charlotte queried.

"Nine dollars a man." Roy answered. "A total of $162."

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Charlotte demanded. "What the hell was going through your mind? Huh?"

All Johnny could do was stammer out an answer.

"Paychecks are here." Cap announced.

"Lemme have John's." Charlotte requested.

Cap handed it over. Charlotte then tore it into pieces.

"HEY!!" Johnny shouted.

"Let's see how you like not having any money." Charlotte told him, then left the station.

"I'll see what I can do about getting you another paycheck." Cap promised.

"Cap, don't bother. By the time that check came through, it'd be next month." Johnny answered.

"At least let us give some money to get you through." Chet offered.

"Hey, Guys, I appreciate it, but the last thing I wanna be is a charity case." Johnny told them. "I'll just have to take another job and works some extra shifts for awhile."

******

Two days later, when Johnny arrived for work, it was in the uniform of a local burger palace.

"Don't laugh, Roy. I just got off shift at the burger place. Do you know how embarrassing it is to have to say, and would you like fries with that?" Johnny asked his partner. "I'm an adult that's earning the pay and doing the job of a teenager!"

"Johnny, I'm sorry." Roy offered. "There has to be something better than that out there."

"Hey, I'm lucky I got this." Johnny told Roy. "After this shift, I report to station 110 to work another."

"What about time off?" Roy asked.

"There will be no such thing for me for awhile. I got bills to pay." Johnny replied. "I gotta keep a roof over my head and food in my belly too. What a way to learn the value of a dollar."

"Geez, what is that smell?!" Hank demanded, arriving in the lockeroom. "Gage! What the hell?! Have you no pride?!"

"Cap, I hate working in a fast food place! I gotta support myself! I don't have any choice right now!" Johnny replied, getting a uniform from his locker, then going to shower.

"Cap, we have to do something." Roy said. "We can't allow Johnny to live like this."

"What can we do, Pal?" Hank replied. "Johnny won't take help."

"Cap, he'll kill himself if we do nothing." Roy insisted.

Just then, the tones sounded, announcing the first run of the shift.

Station 51, engine 110, traffic accident at the corner of 12th and Gollo.12th and Gollo. Timeout: 8:15.

"Station 51, KMG-365." Hank acknowledged as the crew ran in and got aboard the trucks.

Johnny was buttoning his workshirt as Roy guided the squad from the station, lights and sirens full blast.

******

Two hours later, squad 51 returned to the station.

"Roy, I'm gonna go lay down for awhile." Johnny said as he got out of the squad.

Before he could move however, the tones went off again.

Squad 51, possible drowning 112 E. Benson St. 112 E. Benson St. Crosstreet: Benjamin. Timeout: 10:09.

"Squad 51, KMG-365." Roy answered, the once again got behind the wheel and rolled out with Johnny, code R.

Squad 51, cancel. Sam Lanier advised over the squad's two way radio.

"Squad 51." Johnny answered as Roy cut the code R response a few minutes after leaving the station.

"Johnny, what do ya say we stop at the doughnut shop? I'd like to talk to you." Roy said.

"Sure." Johnny shrugged.

A few minutes later, both men were biting into doughnuts as they sat at a corner booth of a bakery not far from station fifty-one.

"I'm concerned about you." Roy said between bites of his glazed doughnut.

"There's no need to be." Johnny answered. "I'm doing okay."

"Johnny, I can't let you work another job." Roy told him. "You know, there's no shame in asking for help. It sure beats killing yourself working at a fast food joint."

"Roy, I was hired and fired on the same day." Johnny revealed. "I messed up on orders too many times."

"How come you didn't say anything?" Roy asked, gently.

"How would you feel if your girlfriend took your paycheck and tore it up in front of you?" John replied. "I can tell you that I feel like the lowest form of life on Earth right now. Roy, she treats me like a small boy. She hits me if I do even the slightest thing wrong."

"And you love this lady?" Roy wondered.

"She hits me cause she loves me." Johnny argued. "Charlotte only wants me to do what's right."

"Johnny, how long have you and she been dating?" Roy asked.

"Two weeks." Johnny replied. "Roy, Charlotte Burns is the best thing that's ever happened to me. It's really the first time in my life that anyone has cared enough to hit me."

"Johnny, you don't show love by smacking someone or taking their paycheck away! That isn't love, that's abuse! I want you to forget about this girl, before she hurts or kills you!"

*******

Another two weeks passed with Johnny taking another job, this time at a chicken place. All Roy and the others could do was wait to see what would become of the romance between Johnny and Charlotte. One day about a month after the romance began, Johnny arrived for work, looking depressed.

"Charlotte left me, Roy." Johnny told his partner as they changed for work. "After all I did for her. I came home last night and she was gone, lock, stock and barrel."

"I'm sorry, Junior." Roy sympathized. "It was for the best though."

"I know. Why did I let myself fall in love with her to start with? She treated me like a child, yet I loved her. What's wrong with me? I always seem to fall for the mommy type of woman." John lamented. "Why can't I ever find me someone like your Joanne?"

"Partner, I'm gonna let you in on a secret." Roy decided. "Joanne and I have our highs and lows too. She has some qualities that I don't care for and there and things about me she thinks I could improve on. There's room for improvement in everyone."

"That's what she said in her note." Johnny stated. "She described me as having the Peter Pan syndrome, you know, the kid who didn't wanna grow up?"

Roy nodded.

"I wouldn't go that far." Roy soothed. "Johnny, you have an enthusiasm for life that most people don't. When I walk in here and see that smile on your face or hear you whistle, it makes me smile. You bounce in here, excited about the day ahead and you cry when a patient doesn't make it. I wish more folks cared the way you do."

"I just wish someone cared for me that way." Johnny told Roy.

"We care about you, John." Hank spoke up.

"Yeah." Chet agreed. "We may get mad sometimes and yell at you at others, but all of us care about you. You can count on us to be there anytime you need us. We're family and families look out for each other."

"Hey, I called payroll yesterday." Johnny said, after a few minutes.

"And?" Roy prompted.

"They told me they'd get a new check to me in a few days." Johnny grinned.

"I'm glad, Pal." Hank smiled. "Johnny, you really are better off without Ms. Burns. Anyone who treats you that way is not worthy of you."

"She helped me in a way. She made me realize alot of the root of why I do what I do sometimes. It's also the reason why I made that bet, I think."

"Go on." Chet encouraged.

"I think what it all comes down to is my own insecurity." Johnny stated. "I guess there's something missing inside me. Something that causes me to overcompensate and do things like that bet."

"Johnny, you are right to a certain extent." Cap agreed. "Who suggested the bet? You or the guy from 36's?"

"The guy from 36's." Johnny replied.

"You could've said no." Chet offered.

"Chet, would you have under that kind of pressure?" Marco asked. "I can only imagine what Johnny feared if he had said no."

"Looking like a wimp." Roy said. "It probably happened so fast that Johnny didn't have time to even think."

"It's true, I didn't." Johnny added. "I really didn't mean for that to happen. Honest."

"I believe you, John." Hank answered.

"The question now is, what do we do about paying the guys at 36's?" Roy wondered.

"Hey, Gage made the bet, so he should pay." Chet suggested.

"I don't think that's fair." Hank disagreed. "Gage was working with our consent, so, we all should pay."

"I don't think that's fair either." Mike argued. "Yes, we gave John consent to represent us, but not to make the bet. I think what we have to do now-"

"What you have to do now is pay us!" A new voice said.

"Ely, we will." Hank promised as he and the rest faced Ely Beck, station thirty-six's B-Shift Captain. "We just have to figure out how to pay."

"Simple, you just take the money from your hot little hands and put it into ours." 6'5 Beck smiled.

"There's just one problem. Johnny here made the bet without asking us first." Roy told him.

"So? A bet's a bet." Beck shrugged. "You guys gotta pay. That's what Gage agreed to, like it or not."

"No, I don't like it!" Hank exploded. "Gage may have agreed to it, but we didn't!"

"Hey, Guys, what's all the shouting?" Dixie McCall asked as she arrived at the station for a visit on her way to work.

"Gage and company are welshing on the bet." Beck informed her.

"I've never known these guys to back out of anything." Dix remarked. "Anyway, I think I have a way to pay the debt without wallets being emptied. Here goes. Station fifty-one, A-Shift agrees to host a formal white tie dinner for station thirty-six. It'll be catered by a friend of mine, but Roy and the guys must serve it and wait on 36's hand and foot, granting their every whim."

"And where will Johnny be?" Chet wondered.

"That's the big stipulation." Dix snickered. "Johnny, you're gonna be my date at the dinner."

"I am?" Johnny asked.

"Yes," Dix smiled. "I'm curious to see how the great Johnny Gage charm works."