Chapter Text
Disclaimer: The E! characters do not belong to me. They have been borrowed strictly for fun and not for fortune.
"The Twelve Runs of X-mas"
By Ross
Run One
07:45...December 23rd, 1977
"Hey, Gage!" C-Shift paramedic Don Lorey greeted John, as he stepped into Station 51. "Will you pull C for me here Christmas Day?"
"Mornin', Don! Sure," Gage assured him. "If you'll pull A for me here today. I'm pullin' B for Benjamin Franklin over at 8's tomorrow."
"You have B at 8's tomorrow?"
John nodded. "That's why I'd like you to pull A for me here today."
Lorey stared down at his uniform. "I'm glad I didn't get changed."
Gage glanced down at the dry-cleaning bag in his hand. "Me, too," he agreed and stepped back out of the garage.
John had just about reached his Land Rover, when a red Chevy convertible came revving into the parking lot. He recognized the car's driver. "I can't!" he informed the married father of four.
"Ahh, c'mon, John!" Phil Reeves, one of Station 16's C-Shift paramedics, pleaded.
"Sorry, but you're about two minutes too late. I already promised Don Lorey I'd work C here for him Christmas Day," John explained. "You should a' asked sooner."
"Believe me, I would have-if I'd a known Seacrest was gonna go and burn his wrist!"
"How thoughtless of him," John insincerely said. "Don't worry," he added, upon seeing the car's driver's crushed look, "you'll find someone."
"Not likely! The only guys willing to work holidays are JW's and bachelors-and there ain't nearly enough of either-" he stopped speaking, as something suddenly occurred to him. "Hey, if you were to pull A for Jeff Palmer at 12's today, he could pull B for Ron St. Onge at 36's tomorrow, and then Ron could pull C for me Christmas Day!"
Gage studied the family man for a few moments. "Wait right here," the paramedic advised, then he and his garment bag disappeared back into the garage.
Don Lorey exited the Station a minute or two later and approached the red convertible. "Gage just informed me that I'm gonna be pulling A for Jeff Palmer at 12's today," he numbly announced.
The announcement caused the car's driver to signal a touchdown and then begin 'whooping'-wildly.
Sheesh! Lorey wished he could feel half that excited about the deal.
"Hi, Pat!" Hank Stanley called to C-Shift's Captain, as his colleague stepped out of the locker room, in his street clothes.
"Hi, Hank!" Patrick Donnelly greeted him. "It's nice to see a familiar face around here."
"What d'yah mean?"
"Well, the men are all switching shifts and juggling their work schedules to fit their holiday plans, and you wouldn't believe the crew I finally ended up with!"
"Good grief!" A-Shift's Captain exclaimed. "I hope I don't end up with a bunch of odd-balls!"
"We heard that, Cap!" Roy DeSoto said, as he and his partner fell in for morning roll.
"Sorry, Hank!" Donnelly insincerely said and motioned to the two paramedics. "But they don't come any odder."
"You got that right," their Captain acknowledged, and the four firefighters exchanged grins.
The tones sounded.
"Squad 51..."
The paramedic team tossed their dress caps onto the call station and piled into their truck.
"Child down...3757 Ralston Way...Three-seven-five-seven Ralston Way...Cross street Magnetic...Ambulance responding...Time out: 07:54."
Nine minutes later, DeSoto parked their Rescue Squad on the street in front of 3757 Ralston Way. He and his partner pulled a bunch of equipment cases from the truck's side compartments and went trotting up onto the home's porch.
Roy rang the doorbell and called out. "Fire Department!"
No response.
He tapped on the portal a couple of times with one of the equipment cases, and called out again.
Still nothing.
So he set one of the heavy metal boxes down and tried the knob. The door was unlocked. He opened it a crack and shouted out, "Fire Department! Can we come in?"
From an inner room, the two rescuers could hear a woman's distraught voice speaking some rather alarming words.
"Please don't die! Mommy is sooooo sorry! Please, please, please don't die!"
The pair exchanged glances that matched the woman's words and proceeded to enter the residence, uninvited.
The firemen followed the voice down a narrow hallway and into the home's living room.
A young lady was kneeling beside a toppled Christmas tree, cradling a motionless baby in her arms. The woman was completely oblivious to the two men's presence. She just kept rocking back and forth and repeating her disturbing mantra, over and over and over.
The hardwood floor was littered with shards of broken glass ornaments and blood seemed to be spattered everywhere.
The duo dropped themselves and their equipment onto the floor beside the mother.
"Ma'am," DeSoto tenderly rested a hand on the distraught woman's right shoulder. "My name is Roy DeSoto. My partner John Gage and I are paramedics with the Los Angeles County Fire Department. May we please take a look at your baby?"
The woman turned to him, looking as though she were in a trance.
The fireman extended his arms.
The lady relinquished the baby's lifeless body into them, with a heart-wrenching sob.
The paramedic team went straight to work.
"We put all the glass ornaments up out of reach...and used only wooden and plastic bulbs...to decorate the lower branches...Mandy is so tiny...How could she possibly pull such a big tree over?"
The pair could find no pulse...no respirations. Neither could their cardio equipment. The telemetry screen registered a flat line. The infant's pupils were fixed and dilated.
A shard of razor sharp glass had completely severed little Mandy's right radial artery. Without the immediate application of arterial pressure, or a tourniquet, the baby would have bled out in only minutes.
"I was...in the laundry room...folding clothes," the child's mother numbly told them. "Mandy was playing at my feet...I went to put another load in the dryer...I didn't hear the tree fall...I didn't even realize Mandy was missing...until it was too late," her voice cracked and she began to sob inconsolably.
The paramedics followed Rampart's orders-implicitly. They administered all the drugs and definitive therapy they possibly could-to perfection. But they both knew it was hopeless.
Mandy's mommy was right. It was too late.
They were too late.
An ambulance arrived and the infant was transported.
John continued to perform CPR, until the patient was finally pronounced...thirty minutes later...in the hospital ER...by Dr. Joe Early.
On the first Run of X-mas, the paramedics got to see...one exsanguinated toddler from a broken bulb on a toppled Christmas tree.
TBC
Author's note...
Safety tip to avoid Run One: Use only wooden and plastic ornaments when small children or pets are present in the home, and wire the tree to the ceiling or a wall with a toggle bolt anchor to prevent it from being pulled over.