Chapter Text
“Roy? Roy!!” Johnny shot straight up in his hospital bed, his heart thundering in his chest. He looked at the empty bed next to him and panicked. He tried to get out of the bed, only to be stopped by the sudden arrival of Dr. Mike Morton.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Morton demanded.
“Roy. I’ve gotta find Roy.”
“Gage, chill out. DeSoto’s okay. He’s getting his legs put in casts.”
Johnny stared at Morton, not sure whether to believe him or not. “Really?”
Morton nodded, moving to Johnny’s bedside. “Really. They’ll bring him here when they’re done.”
“He’s okay?” Johnny couldn’t take it in. “I thought…”
“Roy’s fine. You brought him out alive, John.”
“Alive.” Johnny laid back on the bed, trying to slow his breathing. “Thank God.”
“And,” said a gentle female voice from the doorway. “Thank you.”
“Joanne?”
Joanne DeSoto bustled over to the bed, put a bag on the stand, then leaned over to kiss Johnny on his cheek. “John Gage, you are a mess. What did you do to yourself?” She looked at the bandages on his face and picked his hands up one at a time, shaking her head over the burns covered with salve on the back of each. She moved to the foot of the bed and lifted the blanket.
Johnny made a grab for them. “Jo!” he uttered in a strangled gasp.
“You hush and let me look.” Joanne inspected Johnny’s ankles and calves. There were spots of burned flesh from where flying embers had made their way under his turnout. She gently covered his legs up again, patting the blanket. “Dr. Morton, will Johnny be alright?”
Morton checked Johnny’s chart. “If he takes it easy, drinks plenty of fluids, he should recover quickly. The majority of his injuries are minor. Exhaustion and dehydration are his biggest problems.”
Once Dr. Morton left the room, Joanne went to pull a chair next to Johnny’s hospital bed, then shook her head. Instead she returned to perch on the bed, gently taking Johnny’s left hand in hers. She gazed at her husband’s partner with tears welling in her eyes.
“Jo, Roy is okay, right?”
“Yes, thanks to you. Oh, Johnny,” she sniffed, laughing. “I wasn’t going to do this. Roy hates to see me cry.”
“He hates to see you hurt,” Johnny corrected.
“Do you remember when we first met?”
The change in subject threw him for a moment. “Uh, sure. You didn’t think much about me, I know that.”
“You looked so young. You made me a promise then, remember?”
Johnny remembered that day clearly and gave her a lopsided grin. “Yeah, I promised to do whatever I could to bring Roy back to you.”
“And you’ve always kept your promises, sometimes to your own detriment.” She lifted his hand and kissed the raw flesh around his knuckles. “If you hadn’t been there…”
“Roy wouldn’t have broken his legs.” Johnny’s mood turned sour and he pulled his hand away from Joanne.
“What are you talking about, Johnny? According to Roy, he fell and hit a tree. That has nothing to do with you.”
“It does, ‘cause he fell while trying to get to me after I fell! And I didn’t even get hurt!”
“Honestly, John Roderick Gage, you are as bad as Roy about going on guilt trips! I think the two of you have been together too long, you’re starting to think alike.”
Affronted, then amused, Johnny started giggling. “As long as we don’t start lookin’ alike. No offense, Jo, but I prefer my full head of hair.” He ran his hand through the tangled locks, then winced at the sting from the burns.
“Johnny,” Joanne meant to scold him, but broke up in giggles as well.
Roy was wheeled in at that moment, amused by the sight of his wife and friend overcome by laughter. “Did I miss something?”
“More like you’re missing something,” Johnny gasped, while Joanne broke into another flurry of giggles.
Roy shook his head as Dixie, returned from the fire on rotation, and an attendant helped him into his bed, carefully lifting his legs, covered with casts, onto the mattress. “Nut cases, both of them. My partner has corrupted my wife.”
Dixie shook her head, smiling as she went to Johnny’s bed. “Excuse me, Joanne. I need to check the boy wonder.”
Joanne moved to her husband’s side of the room, her giggles still erupting as she looked at her husband’s head and his much lamented thin spot. She sobered when she looked at his legs, realizing what could have been if it were not for Johnny’s determination. Joanne reached out and gripped Roy’s right hand. She turned with Roy to watch Dixie examine Johnny’s injuries, applying salve to the burns on his hands and legs.
“How is he, babe?” Roy murmured.
“He was more worried about you than about his own injuries. As usual,” Joanne replied softly. “His hands are the worst, and I think the burns will cause him trouble as he heals. Remember when you burned your elbow?”
“And every time I bent it the skin would split open again? Oh, yeah, I remember.” Roy saw for the first time the injuries his partner had incurred from refusing to leave him behind. He was relieved. Although Dixie had reassured him that Johnny’s injuries were relatively minor, seeing was believing.
“Johnny, stay in this bed and don’t bother my nurses. Roy, keep him in line.” Dixie started to leave only to laugh when her favorite paramedic protested.
“How come you don’t tell Roy to stay in bed?”
“Because he doesn’t need to be told. And, considering his legs are in casts, he wouldn’t get very far, would he?”
“Oh, yeah. I guess not.” Johnny replied.
The ash blonde nurse waved her hand and disappeared through the door.
“I need to go, the kids are with a sitter.” Joanne leaned down and kissed her husband with passion. “I’ll be back tomorrow, lover.” She looked at both of them, her smile wavering. “I’m so glad that you two are safe,” she choked out.
She walked over to the other bed and kissed Johnny on the cheek once again. “Thank you.”
Johnny looked into her face and smiled warmly. “You’re welcome.”
The End