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Part 4
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After he had brushed the car enough to make the woman lose control, he pulled over at the end of the curve. He watched through the rearview mirror as the car ran down the ditch and into the trees. He giggled to himself as he saw the impact and knew that the occupants of the car would be alright, a bit bruised and sore, but alive. It hadn’t been too hard to tell that as soon as she had seen him beginning to pass her, she began to slow down. That had made it so much easier to take her by surprise when he tapped her driver’s side the first time. He put the car into drive and took off. He didn’t want to be seen by anyone and then have to make it look good by playing the Good Samaritan. He couldn’t stop chuckling as he thought about how they would find out it just who orchestrated this accident. Stopping at a pay phone in a rest area parking lot, he placed an anonymous call to 9-1-1, telling the dispatcher that he thought he had seen a car go off the road somewhere near the George Canyon Nature Preserve. Once the dispatcher got the information from him, he hung up and headed on his merry way, taking the long way back to Carson.
She never felt the hands that gently lifted her out of the vehicle to place her on the ground. She lapsed back into the darkness that seemed so safe to her. The paramedics who were called to the accident knew their captain had a hard call to make as the woman they had pulled out of the car unconscious was the wife of a fellow firefighter. The captain had taken charge of the two children who were very frightened as they hadn’t been able to wake up their mother. The boy was discovered to have a fractured arm and the paramedics immediately immobilized his arm. Luckily, the girl only suffered a few bruises and cuts from flying glass. Once they had finished with the boy, the captain had taken them to the engine and placed them both on the jump seat to keep them calm so the paramedics could work on the woman. He knew this wasn’t going to be easy to call Hank Stanley at Station 51 to let him know that one of his own had a family injured in an accident. It amazed him how well the men of that station worked more closely together than any other station in the LACoFD district. It was like watching a well-oiled machine, not to say that other stations didn’t have the same bonds, but Station 51 was unique.
The guys were relaxing comfortably in the dayroom. Marco had surprised them once again with his mother’s cinnamon rolls for a mid-morning snack. Their duties were half done when the Cap told them to come inside and enjoy their treat while it was still warm. So far they had been having an easy morning with the sun shining and the heat index not so high. “Marco, those rolls are wonderful,” said Chet as he stretched his arms out in front of him. “But we are all going to look like the Pillsbury doughboy if your mom keeps feeding us treats like that.” Everyone chuckled at the suggestion as they were all thinking the same thing but Chet beat them all to it. “I don’t think that will happen, Chet,” stated Captain Stanley. “With all the scrubbing you do while on latrine duty, you will work it off.” That comment set them all off all over again. Johnny started coughing as he managed to swallow some milk down the wrong ‘pipe’ while laughing. Roy smacked him on the back one time which earned him a dirty look from Johnny. He raised his hands in surrender to Johnny’s look and told him to choke on his own time. “When you get done coughing up a lung, Johnny, I’ll be in the squad,” stated Roy as he headed out to the engine bay. “Be…(cough)…out there in…(cough)…a minute,” rasped Johnny as he tried to get his wayward lungs back in control. Grabbing his plate and glass, he placed them in the sink and ran to catch up with his partner. Part of their duties for the day was to check the fire hydrants in their area. They were to keep their radio on a set channel so they would know when they were called out on a run. Roy wondered if Johnny was feeling as tired as he was. His usually bouncy partner was actually sitting still for once and was quiet. Glancing sideways over at Johnny, it almost looked like his partner was sleeping. He remembered Joanne’s parting remark as he was leaving for work that she was not going to allow him and Johnny to partake in anymore nighttime ballgames. “Wake up, Junior,” shouted Roy, laughing when Johnny jumped. “What the heck was that all about?” asked Johnny quite grumpily. “Hey, you were snoozing. If I can’t sleep, neither can you,” replied Roy. “Besides, Joanne said she’s not gonna let me go to anymore nighttime ballgames with you because I’m too hard to wake up the next morning.”
“She’s not gonna let you go to game with me again?” he asked with a childlike frown on his face. “Just not to nighttime games when we have to work the next morning,” stated Roy. “She was giving me grief because I didn’t want to get up when the alarm went off.” “Neither did I. Bree all but had to shove me out of the bed to get me moving,” chuckled Johnny. “She pretty much said the same thing as Joanne.” Finishing with the check of the hydrant, the guys jumped in the squad and headed for the next one. They could hear Squad 10 being sent on an unknown type of injury call in Squad 36’s district as they were still out on their MVA call. So far Squad 51’s morning had consisted of a woman with her hand stuck in the lint trap of her dryer and a child stuck up in a tree. The last call for the child still had them chuckling as the mother had no idea how her little one could get up that high in such a short time. Johnny told Roy he didn’t have the heart to tell the mother that he would have scaled the tree in no time flat if his mother had wanted to put him in a sailor suit for a picture. ***************************** Bree hurried through the hallways of Rampart General hoping to arrive at the lab before her supervisor realized she was late again. After she dropped Sierra off at the daycare located inside Rampart, she got waylaid by a well-meaning nurse who was also a fan of Bree Montgomery. She just couldn’t be rude, even if it meant being a little late. Thank goodness Jack knew she always made up the time, whether she cut her lunch short or stayed late. Madhouse…that was the only word she could use to describe the ER when she entered it by the admission desk. There were three cheerleaders sitting in chairs with various bruises and/or injuries. Next to them was a football player in full uniform holding his helmet on his lap and his head in his hands; beside him was what looked like the coach with a bloodied lip and nose. She skirted around the crowd and headed towards the base station to see if she could help with anything. Dixie looked up and saw Bree approaching the station. “Thank god you are here. We could sure use an extra set of hands.” “What the heck happened in here, Dix?” questioned Bree as she motioned towards the admission waiting room. “Bus crash,” replied Dixie. “Nothing too serious…mostly bruises and bloodied noses with a few minor concussions for the ones who were standing up when the crash occurred.” “What do you need me to do?” Dixie took Bree and led her towards Treatment Room 3. “In about two minutes, Squad 36 is bringing in three accident victims from a crash that happened near the Canyon Nature Center. One victim is unconscious, one has a broken arm and the third victim is a small child, no injuries but very scared. I need you to help with the child.” “I’ll do my best but you and I both know with a scared child, they don’t always take to strangers.” “This one will, Bree,” stated Dixie. “It’s Jennifer DeSoto. It’s Roy’s family who were in the crash near the nature center.” Bree looked at Dixie with horror in her eyes. “How bad?” “Joanne was unconscious when the paramedics arrived but has been showing signs of coming around. Chris has a broken arm but we are unsure of the type of break. Jennifer’s car seat luckily saved her from injury but she is pretty shook up about the whole deal.” “Has anyone gotten a hold of Roy?” she asked Dixie as she tried to figure out what would had caused the accident as she knew Joanne was a very cautious driver when she had her children with her. “Station 36’s captain made a call to Captain Stanley to inform him,” Dixie said as she kept her eye on the ER doors. “Here’s the ambulance. Let’s go.” Bree and Dixie, joined by Dr. Early, ran out to meet the ambulance. Danny from Squad 36 flung the ambulance doors open and handed Chris to Dixie who took him into the ER. He kept a running conversation with Dr. Early as they headed for Treatment Room 3, letting him know that her vitals were staying stable and she had opened her eyes at least once. She heard Jennifer before she saw her. “Auntie Bree!!!” Turning towards the front of the ambulance, she saw the 4-year-old running towards her after the ambulance attendant lowered her to the ground. Crouching down, she grabbed the child in a tight embrace as she felt the little girl breakdown with heart wrenching sobs. Nodding at the ambulance attendant, she walked into the ER and into the treatment room that Dixie pointed her to. Jennifer had a strangle hold around Bree’s neck. It took all of her soft cajoling to get the child to loosen her hold on her, but she could not get Jennifer to release her grasp completely. “Honey, the doctor just wants to check you to make sure that there are no hidden injuries from the accident.” The child buried her head in Bree’s shoulder and cried, “Noooo! I want my mommy.” Looking up at Dr. Morton, Bree shook her head softly and told him she would keep an eye on the little girl, that maybe when her father arrived they might be able to get her to let him do his examination. Mike agreed that would easier and left the room. Bree sat down on the small rolling seat and gently rocked the child in her arms until she felt her relax. ******************************* The guys were about half through their list of hydrants that they needed to check over when they heard the radio crackle to life. Johnny was closest to the squad and reached through the window to grab. “Squad 51, this is Station 51. Do you read?” “Squad 51 here. Read you loud and clear,” replied Johnny. “You are asked to return to the station immediately,” was the answer he received. “10-4…on our way,” stated Johnny. As they got back in the squad and took off, the guys wondered what was up that they would be asked to return to the station before their job was done. Roy swiftly and expertly backed the squad into the bay. Shutting off the engine, he laughed as Johnny just about slipped getting out of the squad. Chet must have mopped the engine bay, he thought. Entering the dayroom, Chet told Roy he was wanted in the captain’s office…alone without his partner. Roy and Johnny looked at each other wondering what the heck was going on. He did an about face and headed to the captain’s office. “Sit down, Roy,” asked Captain Stanley. “Is something wrong, Captain?” he asked looking as confused as he felt. “There is no easy way to say this, Roy, but Joanne and the kids were in a car accident this morning. Station 36 was the ones who responded to the call.” Roy felt like his knees were about to buckle on him and reached for the chair behind him. Just that morning he had thought to himself it was going to be a really good day, now it was ripped away in a heartbeat. The Captain watched as Roy fought with his emotions, trying to keep them under control. His skin paled the minute that Captain Stanley imparted the information of his family’s accident. “Roy, we have Brice and Dwyer coming into relieve you and Johnny. The only reason I am relieving Gage is because I don’t want you driving yourself to the hospital. This is too much of a shock for you,” stated Hank to his worried crewmember. While Captain Stanley was talking with Roy, Johnny was sitting in the dayroom wondering why Roy was called in to the cap’s office. As he mused about the situation, he failed to notice Brice and Dwyer walking into the dayroom. Chet spoke up first. “Did you two get confused about your days or something?” “No. Captain Stanley called requesting us to come in and replace DeSoto and Gage, and Chief McConikee approved it,” stated Brice, who was also known as the walking rule book for the LA County Fire Department. Johnny’s head popped up when he heard what Brice had to say. “Why are we being replaced?” “Don’t know, Gage,” replied Dwyer before Brice could put his two cents worth in. “We were just asked to come in and not told why…just that you and DeSoto needed to go somewhere.” As Dwyer finished telling Johnny what he knew, Hank popped his head around the corner and asked Johnny to join them in his office. He took off at a run to catch up with the cap and find out what the heck was up with the strange happenings at the station. He was surprised to see his partner sitting in the cap’s office quite pale looking, but what he was filled in on next gave him a start and also the reason why his partner looked the way he did. Once the cap finished his explanation to Johnny, he told them to get out of the station and head for the hospital. Stopping long enough in the locker room to grab his and Roy’s gear from their lockers, he sprinted for his vehicle. Johnny skidded to a stop as he noticed Roy just standing by his vehicle, looking unsure as to what to do. “Come on, Pally, I’m driving,” said Johnny as he put his hand on Roy’s shoulder and steered him towards his vehicle instead. He reached around and opened the door giving his friend a little bit of a shove towards the seat. Roy was totally silent the whole trip to Rampart. Johnny kept glancing sideways at him hoping for some reaction from his friend. This wasn’t like Roy. Usually if something happens he grouses about it a bit or goes on a “Gage” rant as he likes to call it. It wasn’t long before Johnny pulled into the parking lot near Rampart’s ER. “I’m afraid to go in there, Johnny,” said Roy. Johnny turned to look at his friend and was shocked to see the fear in Roy’s eyes and the tears hiding behind the fear. He didn’t know what to say. “What if something really bad happened to Joanne…or to my kids. I don’t know if I could bear that, Johnny. I really don’t think so,” continued Roy. “You don’t know if anything really bad has happened, Roy. Think positively about this instead of assuming the worst. Cap didn’t really have any information to give you other than the fact that they had been in a car accident,” stated Johnny as he got out of the vehicle. Roy glanced at Johnny before he opened the door. He tried to smile but the warmth didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I know I shouldn’t be thinking the worse but it just scares me as to what could have happened. I can’t quit thinking about it.” ************************** “Joanne? Come on, Joanne, I know you heard me,” said Dixie as she softly shook Joanne’s shoulder. “Roy should be here soon and I’m pretty sure you want to be awake for that.” She turned and looked at Dr. Brackett who had just joined them. He had been shocked when he heard who the new trauma case was. Dixie informed him that Dr. Early had just finished his neurological exam and went to check on the status of x-rays that had been taken a few minutes ago. “How are the children?” he asked Dixie as he picked up Joanne’s chart and read what Joe had observed. “Chris has a broken ulna and is with Mike right now getting his cast put on,” replied Dixie. “Jennifer is with Bree. The poor child is so upset that Dr. Morton couldn’t even get near her.” “Has her husband been informed?” he asked without looking up from the chart. “He should be arriving any moment now,” stated Dixie. “Do you want me to see if he is here?” Brackett handed her the chart and said, “No. I will see if he is out there. Keep trying to see if you can wake her up.”
Johnny glanced up and saw Dr. Brackett standing there, waiting for them. He touched Roy’s arm and motioned to the doctor standing ahead of them. Roy picked up the pace, hoping the news that Bracket would have for him was good. “My family, how are they?” he asked rather shakily. “We will talk in a minute, Roy,” stated Dr Brackett as he caught the nurse’s attention as she walked by. “Carol?” “Yes, Dr. Brackett?” “Is Treatment Room 1 open right now?” “As far as I know the room is vacant,” replied the nurse. “Would you like me to check it for you, Dr. Brackett?” “No, that’s alright,” he replied. Looking at Roy and Johnny, he said, “Please follow me, boys.” He pushed the door open and indicated for the paramedics to enter the room. The room was dark as they entered so Johnny reached for the light switch on the wall. As the room became illuminated, the men were surprised along with the young woman who was half-asleep with a child cradled in her arms. Bree felt Jennifer stir in her arms and as she opened her eyes she saw the child’s father standing in the doorway. Jennifer all but launched herself from her ‘auntie’s’ embrace as she spied her father walking into the room. “Daddy!” she cried. Roy knelt down and hugged his youngest child tightly in his arms, relief pouring from his soul as he held her. She stretched to try and relieve the kink that was forming in her shoulder from holding Jennifer without support. Johnny came to stand behind and reached out to massage the sore spot on her shoulder. Leaning down, he whispered in her ear. Bree shook her head in a silent message that she didn’t know. Glancing up at Dr. Brackett, Roy said, “I can see that my daughter is fine, but what about the rest of my family…are they okay?” “From what Dixie filled me in on…Chris has a broken ulna which has been set and is being casted as we speak. Other than a broken arm and a few bruises, he seems to be just fine.” He could see the relief on Roy’s face and let the information on his son sink in before he continued on. “When the paramedics arrived, Joanne was unconscious and not easily aroused. On the way in, she seemed to be coming out of it but not completely. Neuro-checks are normal…” Roy interrupted the doctor, “Has she regained consciousness at all?” “With stimulation we have got a response from her but it’s like she just wants to sleep and not be disturbed. Dixie told her that you are on your way to see her and that did get a fluttering of her eyelids but nothing more.” Standing up while still holding Jennifer, Roy looked at Brackett and asked, “Which treatment room is she in?” All he heard from Dr. Brackett was ‘room 3’ as he walked out to the hallway and saw Dixie standing by the door.
Dixie smiled as she saw Roy walking towards her. “She is awake but feeling a little bit groggy and very sore.” Roy smiled at Dixie and said thanks as he walked into the treatment room. Once again he felt the sensation of relief roll down his body as he spied his wife lying on the gurney with her head and shoulders slightly elevated. She had an IV in her left arm and was looking too pale as far as he was concerned. She heard the door open and slowly but painfully turned her head to see who or what was entering the room. A tear slowly slid down her cheek as she saw her daughter safe and sound in her husband’s arms. “Don’t cry, mommy,” said the tiny little voice. “I’m ok. Auntie Bree watched me while the doctor took care of you.” Jennifer leaned a little ways out of her daddy’s embrace to pat her mommy on the cheek. Joanne couldn’t help it as another tear slid down her cheek. She couldn’t help it as she felt the worry for her daughter slipped away in that tear. Running his hand down the top of her head, Roy leaned to softly kiss his wife. “It’s nice to see you’re awake, sweetheart. You had us all worried for a while as it seemed you preferred to be Sleeping Beauty rather than Cinderella.” “Funny man,” said Joanne with a groan. “Roy, I’m so sorry but I think the car is a total wreck.” “I don’t care about the car,” was his reply. “I’m just glad that you, Chris and Jennifer are going to be alright. That’s all that matters to me.” He pulled up one of the rolling stools so he and Jennifer could talk with her. He could already see the bruise forming on the side of her face where she connected with the steering wheel. Neither heard Drs. Early and Brackett enter the room. They both looked up when Dr. Early cleared his throat to get their attention. “Well, Mrs. Desoto, your x-ray showed no cracks or fractures of the skull. The neuro-checks are all within normal range,” stated Dr. Early. “But you do have a moderate concussion as evidenced by the length of unconsciousness you exhibited. And for that reason alone we will keep you overnight just as a precaution.” Joanne emitted a slight groan at the thought of spending the night in the hospital but knew from experience with Johnny and occasionally Roy, it was necessary. She smiled wanly at the doctor before saying anything. “What about my son?” she asked. “He’s okay, isn’t he?” “He has a broken ulna and is in getting it casted right now. Aside from that, he has a few bumps and bruises,” replied Dr. Brackett. “Dr. Morton is with him and the two of them have been talking baseball the whole time.” Just as Dr. Brackett imparted that information, the object of the discussion was wheeled into the treatment room by Dr. Morton. Chris was so excited about his cast that he had completely forgotten the reason why he had to have in the first place…until he was wheeled into the treatment room his mom was in. It shocked him so see his mother look so pale and like she was hurting. The smile he had over the cast vanished as he locked eye contact with his mother. He could feel his lip trembling and knew he didn’t want to cry. He felt the arms come around him before he realized his dad was in the room. When the familiar scent of his father’s aftershave enveloped him, he couldn’t help but breakdown and cry. The trauma of what really happened to his mom, sister and to him finally set in and he was able to express his fear. Joanne glanced over at her son tightly wrapped in his father’s arms and felt relief that her family was intact. She closed her eyes to say a silent prayer of thanks for their safely when she felt a small hand grasp her free hand and squeeze it. She heard her son softly whisper in her ear that he was sorry. Opening her eyes, she looked at Chris and asked, “What do you have to be sorry about?” “I didn’t warn you fast enough that he was too close to us,” was his reply. Roy glanced at Joanne and then knelt down by his son. “Why do you think it was your fault, Chris? You had nothing to do with whoever was driving irresponsibly.” “I know, dad, but I noticed the car had been too close behind us before we got to the curve in the road…” “Chris, it’s not your fault that someone wasn’t pay attention to where they were at and tried to pass in a no passing zone. You did your best to let your mother know about it but the other driver took that option from you. They are to blame, not you. Do you understand me? You are not to blame.” Chris glanced first at his mother and then back at his father and nodded his head in agreement with his father’s statement. Deep down he still felt that he should have told his mother sooner about the car but he was trying to behave and not yell at Jennifer to quit dropping her dolls all the time.
After Roy had left to go check on his wife and children, Johnny walked with Bree to the staff lounge. He had been surprised when he followed Dr. Brackett and Roy into the darkened treatment room and found his girlfriend sitting there with Jennifer asleep in her arms. He smiled as he remembered Jennifer’s expression when she saw her daddy. He quietly slipped in behind where Bree was sitting and absentmindedly rubbed her shoulder as he softly talked with her while Roy talked with the doctor. Johnny grabbed two cups and filled the first one up, handing it to Bree. After filling his cup, he sat down across from Bree and smiled as he watched as she sat there with her eyes closed inhaling the scent of the warm coffee. “Do you plan on letting me know how you got roped into to helping Dixie?” he asked when she finally glanced up at him. “The minute I walked in the ER, that’s when,” replied Bree with a grin. “I had just dropped Sierra off at daycare and walked into a madhouse of an ER.” “Yeah, I saw the aftermath of that. What the heck happened?” Chuckling, she took a sip of coffee before she answered him. “A bus crashed. Seems the bus driver was gawking at a girl in a pair of short shorts and crashed into a tree. When I walked in, they were just finishing up with the last cheerleader. Dixie caught me as I was trying to get through to the lab. Johnny watched as the expression on Bree’s face changed from cheerful to dismay. He wondered what she missed or forgot about. She surprised him by jumping up from her seat and dashing for the phone on the wall. When he heard her apologizing to her supervisor, Jack, he couldn’t help but start laughing. “What are you laughing at, funny boy?” she asked as she hung up the phone. “You, sweetheart,” he replied. “I have never seen you move that fast unless you are trying to catch Sierra before she crawls into something she shouldn’t.” “I had completely forgotten about work when Dixie told me that Joanne and the kids had been in a car accident and was on their way to Rampart. She asked if I would help with Jennifer as the child was scared out of her wits,” stated Bree. “I never once thought to inform Jack that I was helping out in the ER and would be late.” “He wasn’t mad at you for not calling him I take it,” asked Johnny as he tried to get his laughter under control. “Not really,” she replied with a confused look on her face. “He seemed very understandable…” Bree stopped in mid-sentence and slapped her hand to her forehead. “I saw Candie coming out of a treatment room when they brought Joanne in. I bet she told Jack that I was helping out.” Johnny was still chuckling to himself as he watched Bree keep up a running conversation with herself, answering her own questions on top of that. Since her move out to the ranch a week ago, he noticed she had a tendency to do that when she had something on her mind. He was pretty sure she wasn’t aware of it either. “You’re getting a kick out of watching me talk to myself, aren’t you?” giggled Bree when she noticed Johnny sitting there just following her every move. “Honey, you’ve got to admit it’s a little funny watching you ask yourself questions and then immediately answer them,” chortled Johnny as Bree had already answered her question. “See, you already answered what you just asked me.” Bree looked at Johnny and broke up laughing as she realized she did just what he said…answered the question she had asked of him. This is what Roy walked in on when he entered the staff lounge looking for his partner. Noticing Johnny’s partner in the doorway, Bree nudged Johnny with her foot under the table, tipping her head towards Roy. Johnny looked up and smiled worriedly at his friend standing there looking lost. He was holding his daughter in his arms seemingly unsure of what to do next. Johnny walked over to take Jennifer from Roy’s arms and handed her to Bree. He then poured Roy a cup of coffee, sitting down at the vacant chair next to him. “How’s Joanne doing?” he asked. “Hurting but at least she’s conscious,” replied Roy as he wrapped his fingers around the warm cup. “They are getting her ready to transfer up to a room.” Realizing Chris hadn’t walked in with Roy, Bree asked, “Where’s Chris at?” “When Chris told Dr. Brackett that he got his arm broken when he was tossed around in the backseat, Brackett immediately admitted him,” replied Roy. “He said he was doing it as a precaution as they couldn’t be sure if something might show up later indicating a more serious problem.” Both Johnny and Bree asked at the same time, “Tossed around? How?” “He had taken his seat belt off to pick up Jennifer’s Barbie doll that dropped to the floor. When he got up off the floor, he noticed the car alongside them and swerving their direction. He wasn’t on the seat when they slid into the ditch and hit the tree.” As she listened to her daddy talk about Chris getting hurt, Jennifer hid her face in Bree’s shoulder as she was feeling like it was her fault that Chris got hurt. She could feel her adoptive auntie brushing her hand over her hair in a very comforting manner and just wanted to snuggle even closer so she could feel safe. Bree knew the child was still feeling lost and upset about the incident and began subconsciously rocking the girl in her arms in hopes that maybe she would drift off to sleep again. The three adults talked softly in hopes that Jennifer would nod off again and fall into a restful sleep. When she knew the child had fallen asleep and would not wake if moved, Bree went to stand up to place her on the couch but was stopped when Johnny took her from Bree’s arms and gently set her on the couch, covering her with a blanket. Roy took a sip of the lukewarm coffee in front of him. He glanced over at Bree and then to Johnny. He wasn’t sure if he should even ask them this but he just couldn’t leave his wife and son at the hospital. At the same time he felt like he was abandoning his daughter by not being with her either. “What is it, Roy?” asked Johnny. “I would like to stay here for a while to be with Joanne and Chris but I don’t want to leave Jennifer either,” stated Roy. “I don’t know what to do.” Bree took the matter out of his hands. “Johnny and I will take care of Jennifer for you so you can spend time with your wife and son,” said Bree as she placed her hand over Roy’s. “Don’t worry about her. We can take her to your home where she will be surrounded by familiar things until you get home.” “Thanks,” replied Roy as he looked back down at his coffee cup. Bree glanced at her watch and said that she had better get down to the lab before her boss sends a search party for her. She told Johnny to leave Sierra at the daycare and to just take Jennifer home. Before she left, she gave Roy a quick hug and told him that everything was going to turn out just fine. Both guys sat in contemplative silence for a few moments longer. Johnny told Roy to get upstairs and check on his wife and son. With one last touch of his daughter’s head, Roy said he would call Johnny at his home later to see how she was doing. As he picked up the sleeping child, Johnny said a silent prayer and followed his friend out of the lounge. Parting ways at the elevator, Roy watched as his partner & friend slowly walked out of the ER with his precious cargo.
As he stepped off the elevator, Roy spotted Dr. Brackett exiting the room that Dixie told him he would find his wife occupying. Pasting a smile on his face, he walked up to the doctor and asked him how she was doing. Kel looked up from the chart in his hand and smiled when he saw who addressed him. He told Roy that Joanne was resting comfortably in bed and had fallen asleep before he left the room. He told the young man to go ahead and sit with his wife for as long as he wanted. Roy slowly opened the door wide enough to slip in. He quietly crept into the room, pulling the door shut without a sound. Grabbing a chair and sliding it close to her bed, Roy sat down and silently contemplated his life with this woman. He took her hand in his and subconsciously rubbed his thumb across the back of it as he thought about their life together. As he sat half-sleep, lost in his memories, Joanne slowly woke to feel her husband’s hand grasping hers. She could hear him chuckling and wondered what he was finding so funny. Deciding it felt like she was sliding off the end of the bed, Joanne tried to scoot herself back up and couldn’t stop a groan from escaping. Roy shot up in the chair and found himself looking into his wife’s pain filled-eyes. “Are you hurting?” he asked as he leaned closer to her. “No, just felt like I was sliding off the end of the bed. So I tried to scoot myself back up but it hurts to even do that,” she groaned. “How long am I going to feel like I was run over instead of hitting a tree?” Before he answered her, Roy helped his wife get more comfortable in bed. He complied when she asked him to sit on the edge of the bed instead of the chair. “So what were you chuckling about a minute ago?” she asked. “Just remembering the first day I met you,” he replied with a slight blush growing on his cheeks. “And as for the answer to your other question, it depends…on how much you let it take over your recovery.” “That was a very memorable day in more than one way, if I recall,” stated Joanne as she giggled when she saw her husband blush. “Did Chris get settled in his room?” “Yep. He’s already challenging his roommate to a game of Chinese checkers. I don’t think an overnight stay is going bother him as much as he thought it would.” “Probably not, but I wish I could remember more of the accident. I didn’t even realize he had taken off his seat belt,” she said. “I remember telling Chris to leave his sister alone. After that, the last thing I remember is seeing the car that had been following us for several miles try to get around me when we just entered the first part of the S curve.” Roy instinctively felt suspicious of the car. He knew he had to ask. “Just how long had that car been following you?” “I don’t know really, maybe twenty minutes after I left the house,” replied Joanne. “What are you thinking, Roy?” “I’m not sure yet,” was his answer. “What exactly did you do when you realized that the idiot was going to try and pass you?” “First I slowed down. I figured if he was going to be dumb enough to try and pass on a curve even though it’s clearly marked not to so I wanted to slow down enough for him to fly by me,” she said. Just then Joanne was hit by a yawn so big she couldn’t begin to hide it from her husband. She looked up at him with apologetic eyes and he chuckled. Changing the subject, he asked her if she would like to sleep for a bit. When she told him yes, he made the move to sit back in the chair. She told him that she really wanted him to stay with her and slid her sore body over to make room so he could lie down next to her. The couple softly talked for a little while longer until Roy noticed that Joanne’s answers had come to an end. He rose up on an elbow and saw she had fallen asleep. He rested his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes. Soon he too was sleeping deeply, not realizing Bree and Dixie had peeked in on them an hour later. ********************** When Bree peeked into Joanne’s room, she noticed that both she and Roy had fallen asleep. Knowing that she needed to rest and that it wouldn’t hurt Roy to get some either, she quickly pulled her head back out the door. After she had quietly pulled the door closed, she turned and almost ran over the head nurse from the ER. “Good grief, Dixie!” she exclaimed. “You need to put on some noisier shoes so people can hear you.” Chuckling at Bree’s reaction, she replied, “But it wouldn’t be as much fun. Everything okay in there?” “Sleeping. In the mood for lunch?” “You read my mind,” Dixie stated. “It’s nice out. Let’s eat on the patio.” The two women turned around and headed back towards the elevator. While waiting for the lift to arrive, they talked about the strange circumstances of Joanne’s accident. Roy had talked with the two paramedics from Station 36 that had been called to the scene. Jake, the senior paramedic, said that whoever called in the accident never went back to the scene to wait for their arrival. He said the anonymous caller stated that he ‘thought’ he had seen a car go into the ditch but wasn’t sure and hung up. Arriving at the accident, the only witnesses they found were a couple who came upon the scene ten minutes after the 9-1-1 call had been made. They knew not to remove any of the victims but had been trying to calm the children down by talking with them and distracting them from the stillness of their mother in the front seat. Both women moved out of the way when a delivery person went to step off onto the floor they were on. Whoever was behind the two bouquets they were carrying, they had no clue. Dixie turned to Bree whispering she would love to snitch the bouquet of peach and red roses from the arms of the delivery person. As she hit the button that would take them back down to the ER, Bree giggled and said she would prefer the other bouquet as roses never seemed to last too long. Lunch was quickly forgotten as when the elevator doors opened, the girls were greeted by chaos. The police had brought in a couple of biker gang members who just couldn’t get along. Dr. Brackett already had his hands full with one guy who was hell bent on attacking the other guy. The other biker who was in handcuffs found himself in a choke hold by the other officer and pretty much gave up. Bree look at Dixie and told her she would see her at the end of their shift for an early dinner since seemed lunch just took a nose dive. The girls parted ways and went back to work. Back in Joanne’s room, Roy crackled an eye open as a small squeak from the room’s door was loud enough to disturb his nap. In the dark of the room, it was light enough for him to see a nurse put a bouquet of flowers on the side table. He smiled as knowing his partner and his girlfriend more than likely had them sent so Joanne would wake to something cheerful instead of the sterile hospital room. Quietly he raised himself up and off the bed without disturbing his wife. Feeling the need to find the rest room, he left her room in order to go locate the visitor’s lounge for that floor. Stopping a nurse, he was pointed in the direction he needed to. Thanking her, he took off a brisk clip to take care of business. Joanne felt rather than heard her husband get up and leave. The painkiller they had given her before she was moved upstairs was starting to wear off. Grimacing as she shift positions and raised the head of her bed a little farther, she couldn’t help but smile when she saw the flowers on the side table. Once she had herself situated, she called for the nurse and asked if she could have another pain pill or at least something to kill the headache. Before her nurse left the room, she asked her to move the flowers to the over-the-bed table so she could open them up. As she pulled the plastic covering away from the flowers, she gasped out loud when the first flower to greet her was the purple orchid. She didn’t even see the red carnations surrounding it as her focus was totally on the orchid. Reaching up with a shaking hand, she took the card nestled in the flowers. Finding the coffee pot in the visitor’s waiting lounge, Roy stopped to grab two cups, one for him and one for Joanne. Gazing out the window while he filled the cups, he noticed it turned out to be a nice day. The sun was shining and not a cloud in the sky. Roy softly whistled to himself as he walked back to his wife’s room. Just as he was reaching for the door handle, he heard his wife shout something he normally would never hear her say, not in front of the kids or anyone else. Shoving the door open with his shoulder, Roy practically fell into his wife’s room. “Jo, what’s the matter?” he asked as he placed the coffee down on the side table. “You’re not hurting, are you?” “No, I’m not hurting but I am truly pissed off!” she explained as she pointed at the bouquet of flowers on the over-the-bed table. “So help me if I ever get the chance to meet this…..” When she realized she was shouting at her husband, Joanne threw her hands up to her mouth and tried not to giggle at the look on his face. Sensing something out of the ordinary set his wife off, Roy glanced at the flowers and could feel the blood drain from his face. He now understood what made his wife upset…a purple orchid nestled amongst red carnations. He turned his gaze back to his wife and noticed the tears in her eyes. He grabbed her in his embrace as the dam broke. “Joanne…” he stated to say when she interrupted him. “It’s not the flowers that have me upset, Roy, it’s the card,” cried Joanne. “He planned this!” Roy took the card from Joanne’s hand and could feel the blood rush back into his face as the rage towards this individual filled him. He kept his face averted from his wife until he could get his emotions under control. The cold tone of the message made his skin crawl. “Next time it will be worse.” With his anger barely in check, Roy tossed the card onto the table right next to the flowers. He turned to his wife who was still struggling to keep her emotions in check. He gave her another hug before heading to the door. “Roy, where are you going?” she asked. “I have to call the detectives on this, Jo,” he stated. “They need to know that he is still lurking around and watching us. That’s the only explanation I can give. He held back until we let our guard down and then struck again. I’ll be right back. As luck would have it, as Roy walked down the hall to make a call from the visitor’s lounge, the two detectives he had in mind to talk to, stepped off the elevator. “Mr. DeSoto, could we have a word with you?” Roy jumped when he heard his name called. The detectives could see the surprise on his face and then the relief. The two men exchanged glances and in the silent communication of two people who work closely together, instantly knew that this man and his family had now become targets. “I was just going to call you,” said Roy. “But I guess I now want to know…why are you here?” “We found the car that sideswiped your family,” stated Detective Davison. “But we really don’t feel we should talk out here. Is there some place we can go to talk in private?” “Yeah, my wife’s hospital room. Follow me.” The detectives followed Roy back to Joanne’s room. Joanne quickly wiped her eyes when they walked into her room. He could see the questioning look his wife’s eyes. Turning to the two men, he introduced them to Joanne, explaining to her that these were the two detectives he had been telling her about when they first realized that Bree’s stalker was now watching all of them. “How do you know that my accident is tied to this individual,” asked Joanne as she directed them to sit down. Detective Crockett spoke first. “When we first heard of your accident, Mrs. DeSoto…” Joanne interrupted the detective and stated, “Please call me Joanne. Mrs. DeSoto is too formal and from what I am gathering about this whole situation, we have not seen the last of you or Detective Davison.” “Alright…Joanne,” chuckled Detective Crockett. “Like I was going to say when we first heard of your accident, we wondered the same thing. But we really had no proof until they found the vehicle that sideswiped yours.” “Found the vehicle? Where?” asked Roy. “It had been abandoned in a parking lot in Carson…about eight blocks from your station house,” continued Crockett. “The only reason we knew that it had to be tied to this case was the orchid found on the front seat and the note that read, “Next time it will be worse.” The impound lot called us immediately when they discovered it.” The detectives couldn’t help but notice the glance exchanged between the couple. Detective Davison pulled his chair closer to Joanne’s bed as to be a little closer in terms of eye contact with the woman. “I was wondering why you were on your way to call us, Mr. DeSoto,” stated Davison as he glanced back up at Roy. “Call me Roy,” he replied. “And I think you pretty much have guessed why I was on my way to calling you.” Sitting on the edge of the bed, Roy reached for Joanne’s hand before he continued the conversation with the two detectives. He noticed that Detective Crockett had pulled out a notepad and was prepared to take down the specifics of what Roy was about to tell him. “My wife received these flowers about four to five hours after she was admitted to the hospital with the same saying on the card,” stated Roy as he pointed to the flowers. “I thought they were from some friends of ours, but when I returned from getting some coffee, I could hear my wife speaking in no uncertain terms her displeasure with the flowers.” “Hence the reason for wanting to call us,” stated Crockett. “It’s kind of scary how this individual seemingly gets around inconspicuously, not bringing attention to himself yet manages to always be more than two steps ahead of us.” Roy looked at the two detectives and asked them pointblank, “What does this mean for us? He ran my family off the road! Who’s to say it won’t happen again. What is going to be done for us? Are we going to be back under watch again?” His rapid fire questions that he continued to throw at the detectives showed just how rattled this incident had the paramedic. Joanne watched as her normally stoic husband questioned the detectives harshly without allowing them to answer anything he asked of them. He still had a hold of her hand and no matter how many times she squeezed his or tried to pull hand out of his to get his attention, it was to no avail. Finally Detective Crockett put his hand out and said “Cease!” startling Roy into quietness. “I can understand your concern for this whole situation and for the welfare of your family. The problem is we have no clue as to who this person is. Every angle we have looked at, every lead we have tried to find, have led to nothing.” “Then what the hell do you plan to do about it? It seems like none of us are safe anymore. Up until now he was just playing with us, now it seems the ante has been set higher and that price is going to be someone’s life!” Detective Davison stepped in. “Mr. DeSoto, we are doing all that we can but until this individual screws up, we are as much in the dark as you and everyone else involved in this.” “What my partner says is true,” broke in Crockett. “If it would make you more comfortable, we can have a uniformed officer stationed outside your wife and your son’s rooms.” Realizing he had been close to losing his temper, Roy glanced down at his wife and then back up to the detectives. “That won’t be necessary. We all know the real target is none of us, that the rest of us are just collateral damage or a means to make his statement known to who he really wants.” Both Crockett and Davison told Roy and Joanne that they have a team going over the car to see if there is anything in it that could lead them to this psychopath and that as soon as they had something to report, they would contact them. Roy told Joanne that he was going to walk with the detectives to the elevator and that he would be right back.
It wasn’t hard for the detectives to notice just how much this has rattled the fireman but they really had no easy answer for this and told him just that. As they discussed the situation and tried to think of ways to keep all of them out of harm’s way, the elevator finally stopped on their floor. Stepping off the elevator, Bree looked up to find Roy standing with the two detectives she had met a few months ago. She was puzzled as to why the detectives were here on the same floor that Joanne had been brought to. At the same time she couldn’t help wondering why Roy was looking at her rather harshly but chalked it up to concern for his wife. “Hi, Roy, how’s Joanne doing?” she asked she tried to smile but feeling very uncomfortable at the intense look she was receiving from him. “Is there something wrong?” “You should know,” replied Roy rather tersely. “It seems your ‘friend’ is the instigator of my family’s entanglement with the trees.” “What…what do you mean my ‘friend’?” she asked feeling all the more confused and not following the conversation at all. “Your ‘friend’…the one who seems to think we are standing between you and him…the one who has placed a target on anyone’s back who is even associated with you…that’s who!” stated Roy loudly as he struggled to keep his emotions in check. Bree felt the color drain from her face when the realization of what he meant sunk in as she shifted her gaze from Roy to the detectives and then back to Roy. She could see in his expression that he was very unhappy with this turn of events and knew he was placing some of the blame on her. The detectives were trying to get Roy to head back to his wife’s room or at least get on the elevator and ride down with them, but he wanted nothing to do with them. He had the one person he felt like blaming right in front of him and he felt the need to let her know, in no uncertain terms, just how he felt. “Don’t you have anything to say?” asked Roy very sarcastically without waiting for an answer from Bree. “Well, I do and right now I don’t care who hears it. Because of you, my wife and children could have been seriously hurt or worse in that accident. Did you even bother to think what might happen if this ‘friend’ managed to locate you and start up his obsession again? Guess what, girl…he did and instead of taking it out on you, he is going after anyone who is dumb enough to friend you!’ Once Roy finished venting his anger on Bree, she turned without a word and ran for the stairs. Watching Bree take off like she did, Roy suddenly felt like a jerk as he realized what he had done and the crowd that had observed his tirade. Thanking the detectives for stopping by, he quietly turned around and headed back to his wife’s room, trying to figure out how to straighten out this mess. ****************** Bree stopped her headlong flight down the stairwell, just short of the exit into the emergency room. Leaning back against the wall, she willed her racing heart to slow to a manageable pace and began to breathe deeply to get everything under control. Roy’s attack completely caught her off guard. When she saw the detectives talking with him outside of Joanne’s room, she never dreamed it was because her stalker had been the cause of the accident. As she realized from what Roy was saying to her…the accident was a direct result of interference from the stalker, a cold dread filled her. It scared her so badly that she could think of was her friend and her children, how badly this could have gone and what she could have done to prevent any of these things from happening. ‘Get yourself under control,’ she thought to herself. ‘I can’t leave through the ER if I look like the world dropped out from under me.’ Noticing the shaking in her hands had diminished and taking one more deep breath, she opened the door to what was the organized chaos of the emergency room.
‘Strange,’ she thought as Bree said she would stop at the ER desk and the two of them were going to have an early dinner together. Shaking the questions from her head, Dixie proceeded with giving report to the oncoming staff for the evening shift. ******************** Joanne could hear someone raising their voice in the hallway but didn’t associate it with her husband. With the remote in hand, she clicked from one channel to the next, not finding much to watch with the limited channel selection they had. She finally stopped on one of the local talk shows and absentmindedly listened to it as she thumbed through the magazine Dixie had dropped off earlier. She glanced up when she heard the door to her room open and was surprised to see her husband walking with his head down as if he had done something wrong and didn’t want to look her in the eye. Remembering the raised voice from the hallway, she wondered if he didn’t have something to do with that. “Roy, what’s wrong?” she asked him. When her husband finally made eye contact with her, she was stunned to see that he looked almost physically ill about something. “Roy, please tell if something is wrong. Did the detectives tell you something that they didn’t want me to know?” she queried as she began to fear the worst. “No, Joanne, they had nothing more to tell me,” he replied very softly. “It’s more like something I just did that I am not sure I can rectify.” “It can’t be that bad, Roy,” she said calmly. “I’m sure whatever it was it can be fixed. Now tell me what happened.” She patted the side of the bed near her, indicating she wanted him to sit down next to her. Instead, Roy sat down in the chair next to the bed and placed his head in his hands. He couldn’t help recalling the look on Bree’s face when he finished his tirade at her. The color had drained from her face and even though the tears were in her eyes, she wouldn’t let them fall. Rather, she turned and vacated the area to avoid a bigger scene than the one he started. Glancing back up at his wife, Roy stated, “It’s bad, Jo. Bree walked off the elevator just as the detectives and I left your room. All she did was asked me how you were doing and that’s all it took.” “Took what?” she asked her husband softly as she placed her hand on his, guessing that something did happen out in the hallway. “When I saw Bree, all I could think of was her connection to this and how irate I am with this person who caused the accident that I went and took it out on her,” he whispered. “I didn’t stop to think of where we were standing or who was nearby listening, all I could think about was you and the kids, the accident and how this person is messing with our lives.” “Oh honey,” sighed Joanne as she knew just how much this was bothering her husband. “I think Bree understands how concerned you are with everything that happened.” “If you could have seen her face, Jo,” said Roy as he felt his emotions coming back under his control. “She was devastated. The worst of it is quite a few people heard my little speech. I can only imagine how the grapevine is flying with this one.” Joanne softly chuckled to herself as she knew as well as Roy did about the Rampart ‘grapevine’ when it came to gossip. It could give the tabloids a run for their money when it came to speed and inaccuracy. But knowing Bree and how she handled the challenge a newspaper reporter threw at the general public to locate the missing singer, she knew the girl would breeze through this without a scratch. Reaching out to reassure her husband that Bree could handle herself when it came to gossip at Rampart, she also talked to him about how they were going to handle resolving Roy’s blowup at Bree. Brainstorming possible ways of apologizing to the girl flew around the room. Soon the couple was laughing as they began to come up with some pretty outlandish and ridiculous ideas to make her feel better about what happened. Roy even suggested setting the phantom on her but Jo immediately vetoed that as Bree seemed to always be one up on the phantom. Eventually the silliness of their conversation relieved the stress that Roy had been feeling about what happened earlier. He stressed to Joanne that he would find a way to talk to Bree tomorrow and apologize to her for what happened. Still chuckling about some of the crazy ideas they had brought, Joanne glanced at Roy and asked him what he did with Jennifer. Roy told her that Johnny volunteered to take Jennifer back to the DeSoto home and watch her until Roy got there. He also told Joanne that he called her sister, Nancy, shortly after she got settled in to her room and let her know what had happened. In true sisterly fashion, Nancy told Roy she would be on her way up to Torrance to watch Jennifer so that Roy could stay at Rampart with Joanne and Chris. Seeing the tiredness in Joanne’s eyes, he pulled the chair close to her bedside and told her to close her eyes and fall asleep. He took the remote from her hand and switched to the station that had the evening news he liked and turned the volume down. Shortly after Joanne fell asleep, he followed suit with his head slowly dropping to the side. ******************************
Stopping by Jennifer’s room, he peeked in the door and saw the child was still fast asleep. It took him about two hours to get her to settle down and to quit worrying about her mom and brother. He finally had her convinced that Dixie would not let anything happen to them while they were at the hospital. The two of them had a light lunch of Jennifer’s favorite sandwich, PB & J, with chips (he figured she deserved a bit of junk food) and a glass of milk. Within a half an hour of their lunch, the little girl couldn’t contain her yawns anymore and let her uncle tuck her into bed. He sat by her bed for about twenty minutes making sure she had fallen asleep before he left her room. Back in the kitchen, he cleaned off the table and washed their lunch dishes. As he finished drying the dishes and putting them away, he noticed Nancy’s car pull into the driveway. Hanging the towel back on the stove’s handle, he went to meet her out front. “Hi, Nancy,” said Johnny as he took one of her bags from her hand. “How was the drive up here?” “Uneventful,” she replied. “Traffic was light so it only took me a fraction of the time to get here. How’s my sister doing?” “When I left to bring Jennifer home, they were just taking her up to her room. Roy said she’s feeling pretty sore and has a whopper of a headache but looking forward to some peace and quiet for at least one night.” Nancy listened to Johnny talk as she followed him to the room she would be occupying while she stayed with her sister and her brother-in-law. She laughed as he kept up a running dialog without seeming to stop for breath. Remembering what Joanne told her about her husband’s younger partner, she couldn’t help chuckling to herself as she could understand why she said Johnny was like having another kid running around the house. “…so Jennifer is still sleeping. I’m thinking that you might want to wake her up otherwise I’m thinking she’ll be up all night,” stated Johnny as he set down her bag. “Well, I agree with that but at the same time I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sleep wondering what caused my sister’s accident,” replied Nancy. Johnny turned to Nancy and asked, “Didn’t Roy tell you when he called you?” “No, he just said she and the kids had been in an accident and wouldn’t be coming down for the weekend after all. That’s when I told him I would come up and help with Jennifer until Joanne and Chris were brought home tomorrow,” she said. “So what should he have told me?” “Someone ran them off the road,” he said. “It seems this person wasn’t paying attention to where they were and tried to pass her on a curve and got a little too close to her, bumped her and caused her to lose control.” Nancy gasped out loud as Johnny finished the story. “So that’s why Roy sounded so rattled when he called me. I knew there had to be more to the story that what he was telling me.” While Johnny and Nancy were discussing the accident, Jennifer was slowly waking up and feeling really scared as she knew something bad had happened that morning. She knew they were supposed to be going to her aunt’s house but realized she was back in her own bed. She could hear voices outside her bedroom and slid her legs over to dangle off the side of her bed. She could hear her ‘uncle’ Johnny talking to someone but it wasn’t her mommy or her ‘auntie’ Bree. Hearing the word, ‘accident,’ brought back the memory of what happened that morning. Jennifer started to cry and ran to her door, flinging it open and running towards her ‘uncle’. “Jenny Bean!” exclaimed Johnny as he caught the 4-year-old in the middle of her headlong rush. He hugged her close to him as he felt her little body shake with the heartfelt sobs coming from her. Glancing at Nancy, he could see the tears in her eyes as she watched the child cling to him. “Honey,” he said softly to her. “Your aunt Nancy is here to see you. She was really worried when she heard about the accident.” The child looked up from his shoulder and gave her aunt a watery smile. She pushed away from Johnny and told him to let her go. He smiled as he handed her over to Nancy. A short while later, Johnny told Nancy and Jennifer good bye and headed home to his own family. ********************
When Johnny offered to bathe and put Sierra to bed, it had surprised him when Bree told him to go ahead but didn’t follow them back into the house. Usually she liked to ‘supervise’ as he called it but it was more like refereeing between the two because Sierra liked to splash her daddy. He would always reciprocate until Bree would step in to remind them both to behave. After settling his daughter down for the night, Johnny headed back into the living area of his home. Bree was nowhere in sight. He was really worried about her. She seemed to be taking the accident to Joanne and the kids a little too hard, he thought, there has to be something else that was bothering her. “Bree?” he called out. He softly heard a voice outside telling him she was by the barn. Johnny stepped outside and saw her sitting atop the rail of the corral. Her silhouette made a pretty picture in the dusk of the night. He leaned against the corral fence and glanced up at her. “What’s bothering you, sweetheart?” he asked. “This whole day,” she replied without looking down at him. “I couldn’t believe it when Dixie told me that Joanne and the kids had been in a car accident. Poor Jennifer, she looked so terrified when the ambulance attendant let her out of the front seat. When she spotted me, she clung to me like I was her lifeline.” “You were familiar to her in a time of crisis. She had no clue what happened to her mother or her brother,” he said. “But, Bree, I think there’s more to this story than you’re telling me.” Bree finally glanced down at him and he could see the tears in her eyes. “Johnny, it’s really nothing. It was just day that started totally wrong and didn’t end any better.” “Please, sweetheart, come down and talk with me,” stated Johnny as he raised a hand up to help her down. For moment she looked like she was going to refuse but then she swung her legs over the rail and accepted his help. The young couple walked over to the patio and sat down on the lounger. Johnny kept his arm around Bree, keeping close to his side. “Now are you going to tell me exactly what has you all out of sorts?” he asked teasingly. “Like I said it’s really nothing…” started Bree. “Don’t, Bree, it’s not nothing. I want to hear the truth from you.” “Alright,” she replied with a sigh. “Before I left work, I decided to run upstairs to see how Jo and Chris were doing. Chris was pretty much settled in for the night. When I got to Jo’s floor, Roy was standing outside of her room with Detectives Davison and Crockett.” Interrupting, Johnny asked, “What were they doing there?” “Joanne received a bouquet of flowers…but not from any of us. Nestled in the bouquet of red carnations was a purple orchid. Roy called the detectives and unfortunately I showed up as they were just leaving.” “What do you mean ‘unfortunately’?” asked Johnny wondering just what had occurred. “Now understand I don’t blame Roy for being upset, after all his family had just been in a car accident and he needed to vent…” Bree was saying as Johnny interrupted her. “Just what happened, Bree?” exclaimed Johnny all but shouting that at her. “He basically said that anyone who is associated with me has a target on their back and his family’s accident was directly caused by my stalker.” Johnny shot to his feet, angry with his friend for his verbal attack towards Bree. He couldn’t see past that fact and understand that his friend had been concerned about his family’s accident and just needed to vent to someone the pent up feelings he had about the whole situation. She watched Johnny pace back and forth muttering to himself and seeming to get angrier by the minute with his best friend/partner. Bree knew she needed to intervene before Johnny did something rash like calling Roy up and arguing with him over the phone or worse, going to his home and arguing with him there in front of Joanne’s sister, Nancy. “Johnny, please,” she said as she placed her fingers on his arm. Johnny stopped long enough to look down into her eyes and seeing the pleading look within them. Although he wanted to shake her fingers off his arm, the look he saw in his eyes made him realize that she had more to say. He wondered what else could have happened. “What?” he asked. “Please don’t be angry with Roy,” she pleaded. “And why shouldn’t I?” he retorted. “He blamed you for what happened and he definitely didn’t need to shout at you especially in the middle of the hallway at Rampart.” “But what if he is right, what if this really is my fault. What if by returning to California, I brought this all on?” stated Bree as she turned away from his glance and stared out towards the corral. “What if this person is thinking now that I am visible again that I will be an easy target, that he can once more go after the people I care about the most,” she continued. “There are so many ‘what ifs’ that I don’t know which way to turn anymore. I’m afraid that he will find a way to reach you…” Johnny reached his arms around her and pulled her back again him. “I’m not about to let that happen. If Joanne’s accident was caused by this psychopath, then we will take the necessary precautions to make sure it doesn’t happen again to anyone.” “I wish I had your faith but you weren’t there, you didn’t see his face…the concern for his family, the anger for the one who caused it. He needed to vent and unfortunately I showed up making it easy for him to vent,” she sighed as she relaxed against him. Johnny’s irritation with Roy deepened as he realized just how hurt Bree felt by Roy’s tirade. He didn’t see that Bree understood Roy’s anger or concern of today’s incident and forgave him for being in the receiving end of his rant, all he saw was her questioning why she came back to California. Not wanting her to be any more upset than she already seemed, he tapped down his anger and locked it away for the time being. Taking a deep breath he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him. “Sorry, Bree,” he said. “You’re right I need to see this from Roy’s perspective. But realize this…it’s NOT your fault. If you hadn’t returned, I would never have found you again and never would have known my daughter. I thank God that you did come back.” Not wanting to say anything more, he rested his chin on the top of her head and hugged her to him tighter. The pair stood in total silence staring up towards the mountains as the sky darkened around them. What seemed like an eternity but in reality was only twenty minutes, Johnny released his hold only slightly on Bree…just enough to turn her around and kiss her. Leaning down, he softly whispered something in her ear that seemed to relieve the tension of the situation. She giggled in response to what he asked, laughing even harder as he swept her up into his arms and carried her inside. Johnny gently laid her on the bed, joining her with the intention of making her his. The last thing Bree remembered was his liquid brown eyes and lopsided smile as she fell asleep. **************************
Chris had already bolted out of the car and ran for the house so he could show his aunt the cast on his arm. Jo could hear Chris’ excited voice as he was practically shouting to be heard above his sister. “Are you ready for the cacophony of children?” Roy asked as he grabbed her belongings from the backseat. “Headache or not, I miss the noise of my children,” she replied. “I was never so glad when Dr. Brackett told me I could go home as long as I relaxed for the rest of the weekend, and the way I am feeling I will have no problem following that order.” Roy offered Joanne his arm to hang on to and the pair slowly walked up the sidewalk to the front door. Nancy, Joanne’ sister, was waiting for them along with Chris and Jennifer who immediately wrapped her arms around her mother’s leg and hug for all she was worth. Joanne let go of her husband’s arm and placed a hand on her daughter’s head. “How you feeling, sis?” asked Nancy as she followed Jo into the living room. “Like I’ve been hit by a truck instead of a tree,” she replied with a laugh. “I didn’t think I hit the tree hard enough to cause so many body aches.” “It doesn’t matter how hard you hit something but how you hit it,” stated Roy as he came back into the living room. “I’m gonna head out and work in the garage. Is there anything you need before I go out there?” “No, you go ahead and do what you need to. Nancy and Jennifer will keep me company,” Jo said as she cuddled with her daughter. Roy headed out to the garage bypassing his son who came running back inside. “Mom! Can I go with Bobby to the park?” he asked as he skidded to a stop in front of his mother and sister. “Can I, please?” “Chris, you just got home from the hospital,” she said as she looked at her sister who was rolling her eyes behind Chris. “But, mom, all the guys are gonna be at the park and I want them to see my cast and see who signed it. Please?” Chris begged her. With a dramatic sigh, Jo looked at him and smiled. “Go ahead, but if your arm starts to hurt I want you back home pronto. Got it?” The sisters exchanged looks that said it all…kids are resilient and can survive just about anything. After asking Jo if she wanted something to drink, Nancy headed into the kitchen to grab the iced tea she had finished making before Jo got home. As she reached up into the cupboard for some glasses, she thought she heard another vehicle pull in the driveway. “Nancy, did I just hear someone pull in the driveway?” asked Joanne from the living room. “Yes. I forgot to let you know that Johnny and his girlfriend were going to stop by this afternoon,” replied Nancy as she came walking back into the living room. “He had called earlier to see if they were going to let you come home and I let him know when you would probably be back.”
Bree glanced up at Johnny as she was unbuckling Sierra from her car seat and asked to please behave. He looked back at her before he shut the door and said that would depend. Shaking her head, she picked up her daughter and diaper bag, shutting the back door with her hip. “Hey, Johnny, Bree,” greeted Roy as they walked towards him. “Good Afternoon, Roy. How’s Joanne feeling now that she is home?” asked Bree as she positioned Sierra on her hip, grabbing the diaper bag. “Better. She’s happy to be back listening to the noise of the kids,” replied Roy as he walked up to the couple. “She’s inside with talking with her sister if you would like to join them, Bree.” “I think I will,” Bree absentmindedly replied as she headed to the house. Roy made eye contact with Johnny and immediately noticed that all was not right with his friend. “I’m working on a dollhouse for Jennifer. Come on and keep me company while I finish with the roof.” “Sure,” said Johnny as he followed Roy into the garage. He had to admit that Roy was good at woodworking as he listened to his friend tell him about the dollhouse he was making for Jennifer. All the way into town, Bree kept telling him to let it rest, that all was forgiven and to move forward. But in the back of his mind he was still steamed about how Roy treated Bree yesterday. Roy noticed that most of Johnny’s answers were one word or a grunt. He then knew that Bree must have said something about what happened yesterday at the hospital. He decided to just jump in feet first and hope that he could get his partner to talk about right away instead of having to pull it out of him like he usually has to. “Okay, Junior, do you plan on telling me what’s got your goat this time?” asked Roy. “Who said there is anything wrong?” retorted Johnny a bit sarcastically. “The simple fact that you’re giving one words answers and/or grunts in reply to what I’m talking about,” stated Roy. “Not to mention when I have to ask you what’s wrong and I get a sarcastic answer that means I’m on the right track of questioning. So are you going to tell me what’s wrong?” Johnny whipped around and startled Roy with the furious look on his face. “You really want to know…okay, I’ll tell you what has me upset. You do! Furthermore, what gives you the right…” As Johnny proceeded to unleash on Roy, Bree was inside the house chatting with Joanne and Nancy. Jennifer was on the floor with Sierra and giggling at the baby’s attempt at pulling herself up using the edge of the soft chair. All three women’s head turned as the volume of Johnny’s voice was beginning to be heard in the living room through the open window above the kitchen sink. Bree stood up and straightened her skirt. “Jennifer, could you help your mommy and aunt keep an eye on Sierra for me?” she asked before she headed out to the garage. “Yes, I can,” said the 4-year-old as she looked over towards her mother for approval. “Do you want help, Bree?” asked Nancy. “No but thanks for the offer, Nancy. I think I had better deal with these two on my own,” stated Bree as she walked out of the living room. Glancing at her sister, Nancy smiled and pointed in the direction that Bree headed, indicating she was going to check it out.
When Johnny made a move towards Roy, Bree immediately jabbed one fist into his chest and planted the other into Roy’s chest. Both backed up rubbing their chests as she continued on. “What the hell is going on out here?” she asked shouting to get their attention. “We could hear you all the way inside the house and if we could hear you, I can’t imagine what the neighbors are hearing.” “He asked what was bothering me and…” “I don’t care what he asked you,” she stated loudly turning towards Johnny. “I told you to let it rest. I know Roy was just worried about his family and the accident and the arrival of those flowers didn’t help. I was just a convenient sounding board for his anger…” “But, sweetheart…” Bree planted one finger in the middle of his chest as she glared up at him. “Don’t ‘sweetheart’ me. I understood where Roy was coming from and I forgive him for that…” Nancy watched the petite blonde as she repeatedly poked her finger into Johnny’s chest. She couldn’t help but giggle as she caught Roy’s reaction to this little dynamo standing between him and his friend. “She can sure handle herself with him, can’t she?” stated Nancy as she returned to the living room. “What did she mean though about being a sounding board for Roy’s anger?” “Bree has him wrapped around her finger and he doesn’t even know it,” chuckled Joanne. “As for the other part, it’s a really long story. Why don’t you sit down and I will clue you in…but I don’t want a word out of you until I’m done.” “…and if you think…” continued Bree hardly taking a breath until Johnny grabbed her by the arms, hauled her up against him and kissed her silent. When he released her, the look on her face said it all…she was speechless. “Can Roy and I say something now?” asked Johnny as he glanced over at his friend who was smiling at the couple. Bree just nodded her head. “I think we both got the gist of your message. You understood Roy’s concern and his reaction to the flowers and then seeing you, right?” Bree once again nodded her head in response. “And I believe you were saying how Johnny needed to cool down and step back and put himself in my shoes so he would be able to see where I was coming from. Am I correct?” asked Roy. Once again, all Bree could do was nod. “Then, sweetheart, I think you covered everything,” said Johnny as he smiled at her wide sapphire blue eyes. “Why don’t you go back inside so that Roy and I can talk a little bit more and finish this conversation by ourselves.” Kissing her one more time, he turned her around, giving her a little push towards the house. He chuckled as he watched her almost trip over the rake next to the door. He glanced over at Roy who looked a little sheepish at what had just occurred in his front yard/garage. The guys walked back into the garage, grabbed a couple of beers from the cooler and headed for the backyard where the prying eyes of the neighbors who witnessed the altercation between he, Johnny and Bree, couldn’t be felt. ***************************
Back at the end of May when Jeremy got her up on stage at the park, she had been itching to get back to recording and had been working on a bunch of songs. It took Jason a couple of months to find a recording studio that they could begin practice in and it turned out to be a studio that belonged to the recording company she has first signed with. The album they were working on for RCA records was going to be all of her songs She had the band out to the ranch the first weekend after she moved in, when they weren’t at the club and had them go through the sheet music she had filled up. Jeremy and Rick, her bass guitarist, had really good intuition when it came to what fit the band the best. She knew they wouldn’t steer them wrong. “Come on, Bree, you have this down pat,” stated Jason through the intercom. “What’s got you feeling like a giggly school girl?” “Sorry, Jason, but it doesn’t help when Mandy stands behind you and starts waggling rabbit ears over the top of your head and then pops her head around you and sticks her tongue out at me,” chuckled Bree as she tried to get herself under control. Without looking behind him, Jason cracked a comment to his unseen pest. “Mandy, if you don’t want to be thrown out on your pretty little behind, I suggest you quit antagonizing our lead singer.” The only thing he heard from behind him was giggles and the shutting of the door which indicated to him that his cousin left the room. “Okay, let’s try this one more time, from the top…” Bree smiled and placed a hand over one side of the headphones resting on her ears. She could hear the music began and slowly she began to sway to the music as she waited for her cue to start singing. I’m gonna do it Darlin’ I could waste time tryin’ to figure it out, But I’m jumpin’ anyhow. I’ve never been this far Didn’t know love could run so deep
He smiled as he listened as Bree finally nailed it. As much as he loved his cousin, Mandy, sometimes he would love to wring her neck. Like Bree, Mandy also sang but she did it more for fun than anything else. She just didn’t have the drive for it as Bree did. Bree and Mandy together, he thought, that was just downright scary. The two were so alike when it came to their sense of humor and ability to stir up a crowd. Mandy was the one who could get the party started and Bree kept it going. When Mandy decided to pursue a college degree, most of the band breathed a sigh of relief. Still there was never a dull moment. He was glad to see Bree getting back into the swing of things. When she walked away from her career four months after the death of her family, it took them all by surprise. Of course, none of them knew the real reason behind her leaving…Sierra. “Earth to Jason?” asked Bree. “Hello. Are you still with us?” Jason jumped when he heard a knock on the glass partition that separated the recording booth from the control room. When he looked down, there was Bree standing on the stool so she could reach the window. “Get down you fool!” he exclaimed. “Are you trying to break your neck?” She kneeled back down and slid to the floor, laughing. “No, I am just trying to get your attention. Where did you disappear to?” she asked as she stepped back into the control room. “Just remembering how it was when Mandy was still a part of our group,” he replied. “Or you were remembering how quiet it was when she left,” retorted Bree. “You have to admit that when she left for college, things did quiet down.” “True, but you still were pulling the practical jokes. We thought for sure when she left the jokes were done.” Chuckling slightly, she stated, “Oh my God, you guys did actually think she was the instigator of all those pranks. I love it!” Jason chuckled right along with her before he stated, “Enough of that. That track sounded great. But before I let you go home, I have a question for you…Have you talked with Johnny about wanting to return to performing full-time yet?” “No,” she replied as she gathered her stuff. “We did have a long talk during his last few days off and he knows I really love to write the songs but I never got around to talking to him about quitting work at the hospital and returning to performing. I’m sure he will be okay with it.” “It’s not like you to vacillate like this, Bree,” stated Jason. “Usually you are very straightforward when it comes to your music.” “I know but there is so much more to consider than just myself. There is my daughter and the fact that if I do go back to performing, I may be gone for months on end,” countered Bree. “I now have to consider the long term future for when Sierra is older.” Jason chuckled at the expression on her face and replied, “Life gets a little more complicated as you get older. Well, get going for your daughter’s sake or before Mandy corrupts her.” Placing her hand on the doorknob, Bree turned to Jason and laughingly asked, “The band is still coming to the ranch on Saturday, right?” “Wouldn’t miss it, Bree. We’re gonna bring some of the instruments so we can have a jam session. Sound good to you?” “Definitely!” she exclaimed as she darted out the door with a wave. He smiled to himself as he watched her get into her car. Finally, he thought, she is back recording her music. He shivered as he felt anticipation run through his veins, knowing it wouldn’t be long and she would be with him. As she pulled out of the parking lot, he put his own vehicle in gear to follow her. As they back towards Carson, he figured she was going to pick up the child and then probably stop by to see ‘fire boy’. No matter, he thought, they won’t be back together for very long. He was going to make sure of that. When she turned down the road that led to the house she used to live in, he went right by the street. He wasn’t gonna take any chances that she might think she was being followed. He knew she would come back this way to get the station house. He wasn’t disappointed. Ten minutes later, she drove right by the spot he had parked in and didn’t even notice him sitting there. He chuckled as he could see she was singing along with the radio. And as he had predicted, she was heading towards the station house. He could feel the anger with her build up but he slowed tamped it down as he needed to be patient. Soon, he kept repeating, soon. He couldn’t help but smile though as she kept on going…the reason being both squad and engine were gone. He began to laugh as he now could follow her back to the ranch and watch her from there. Soon it would be all over and she would be with him. The ‘fire boy’ would be gone. The child no longer a part of her life and she would be all his. *************************** Roy swiftly backed the squad into the station and laughed as Johnny cleared out of the vehicle before he even had it stopped. Mike was cooking today and Johnny did not want to miss out on any of Mike’s spaghetti. As he exited the squad, he could hear Johnny and Chet sparring over something that had nothing to do with the dinner Mike had prepared but more about an article Chet was reading in a magazine. Entering the dayroom, he spotted Mike draining the spaghetti and Marco was pulling a cooking sheet out of the oven that smelled deliciously of garlic bread. Chet was sitting at the table with Johnny all but breathing down his neck trying to get the magazine out of Chet’s hand. Walking behind the two combatants, Roy reached out and snagged the magazine out of Chet’s upraised hand. “Hey…” shouted Chet as he turned to see who swiped his prize. He whipped back around to glare at Johnny who started laughing. “You snooze, you lose, Chet,” said Roy. “So what’s in here that has you jumping all over Johnny again?” “His girlfriend,” retorted Chet. “Now gimme it back so I can finish reading it and torturing Johnny.” “The second article is out?” asked Johnny. “Roy, let me see it!” “Now just wait a minute,” exclaimed Roy as Johnny tried to grab it out of his hands. “It’s mine now. I want to read it.” Then he started teasing his partner by tossing over Johnny’s head at Chet who in turn threw it to Marco. Marco threw it back to Roy who was standing by the door, but it was intercepted by the captain. “What adolescent escapades are you guys up to now?” he asked with a raised eyebrow as he looked at what he had caught. “They won’t let me see the article in the People magazine on Bree,” whined Johnny. “Well, I guess this magazine is now mine to read as you juveniles think it’s a toy,” replied Hank as he sat down on the couch, proceeding to flip through the pages. “But, Cap…” whined Johnny once again. “Whine one more time, Gage, and you will be on the receiving end of latrine duty next time instead of Chet,” stated the captain without looking up. Johnny looked at his captain with his mouth moving but not saying a word. The rest of the gang were behind struggling not to laugh, finally giving into it after Chet tossed a rubber glove at Johnny and told him to use it like a pacifier.
Reaching for the phone, he quickly dialed his home and while he waited, flipped through the pages of the magazine to locate the article. As the phone kept ringing, he started reading the article. The young man who penned the article was good with words and very diplomatic when describing the loss of Bree’s parents and grandparents in the accident and her subsequent breakdown. Just as he was becoming engrossed in the article, he heard “Hello?” and then heard a choice few words exclaimed as the cacophony of metal bouncing on the floor hit his ears. “Is everything okay, Bree?” he asked. “Peachy,” she replied in an exasperated tone. “I’ve been trying to get some things ready for the party on Saturday and forgot that I had just shoved all the pots and pans that your daughter had been playing with back into the cupboard willy-nilly.” He chuckled and stated, “So that’s what I was hearing when you picked up the phone.” “Yes. Next time I am going to write myself a memo to clean up immediately after she plays in the kitchen,” Bree said as she began to chuckle at the thought. “So is our little charmer already in bed?” “No, she’s still at Mandy’s,” stated Bree. “When I got there from the studio, she was still napping so Mandy said to just leave her there and she would bring her out on Saturday. I really appreciate her doing that as now I can really work on getting the house cleaned and some of the food ready for the party.” Johnny smiled as he thought about the party she had been planning for his birthday. At first he told her that she didn’t need to do anything special but she just smiled at him and laughed, saying that he would have a hard time stopping her. “So how was it being back in the studio?” he asked. “It felt wonderful to be back in the studio, Johnny,” exclaimed Bree. “Mandy stopped by after her shift to pick up Sierra and managed to irritate Jason. She kept making faces and rabbit ears above Jason’s head to the point that I couldn’t quit giggling.” Johnny couldn’t help but laugh as he listened to her explain about the recording session this afternoon. He could hear the excitement in her voice and knew she thrilled beyond compare to be singing again. For the past couple of months ever since she sang at the Memorial Day picnic, he could see the restlessness in her every move. When she had told him that Jason had found a studio they could practice and record in, he was happy for her but at the same time he felt worried that she might find her life here lacking and want to leave. “…so I have tomorrow off. What time do you think you will get home?” she asked him. “Huh?” was his reply. “I asked you what time you think you will get home tomorrow as I thought maybe you and I could spend some alone time before the group descends upon our home.” “I should be home by eight in the morning,” he said. “But that’s not why I called you. I called cause I finally was able to read the second article in People about you. I think the young man who interviewed you did a nice job on it.” Bree smiled when he said that. “Have you finished it yet?” “No,” Johnny replied. “Well, why don’t you finish it and we can talk about it in the morning when you get home. I’m going to try and finish with preparations for some of the salads I can put together tomorrow. I love you.” “Love you too, sweetheart,” Johnny softly said as he hung up the phone. He continued to read the article and his heart skipped a beat as she bluntly talked about her unplanned pregnancy and how she wouldn’t change what happened as it gave her the greatest two gifts of her life…her daughter and Johnny. She didn’t mention him by name, only that he was an LA County Fire Fighter. He then had to laugh as she talked about her disastrous return to California with her car breaking down not only once but twice (the second time almost causing her to be late for work). Closing the magazine, he shut the light off on the captain’s desk and left the office. As he entered the dayroom, he was greeted by catcalls and popcorn being thrown at him by Chet. Sitting down in the vacant chair, he turned to Chet, taking the popcorn bowl out of his reach and told him that there was nothing he could do that would ruin the rest of the night for him. With that being said, he tossed the magazine into Chet’s lap and proceeded to watch the movie. *********************************** She watched as he fell from the 2nd floor walkway as the roof collapsed behind him. His screams were heard along with his partner’s as he disappeared from view. When she opened her eyes, she could sense things around her had changed. It was dark but she knew the reason it seemed that way because she was blindfolded. All she could remember was being forced from her home by gunpoint. The vehicle slowly came to a stop. Her heart began to race as her fears rose to the surface. She was afraid of what would happen next. Sensing her door had been opened, she tried to swing her legs out but found it hard to move without sending her head spinning. He picked the girl up as he knew the drug he had slipped into her soda was taking effect. She felt as light as a feather in his arms. Pushing the door open with his foot, he entered the cabin and placed her on the bed. She felt the softness of the mattress as she slowly woke and became aware of her surroundings. She reached up with one hand to try and rub the sleep from her eyes, realizing she was no longer blindfolded. Slowly sitting up, she felt a heaviness encircling her ankle and noticed that she was chained to a bolt located in the middle of the floor with enough length to allow her movement around the room. She reached for the curtain when she heard something behind her. She whipped her head around to locate the sound when she saw… Gasping for air, Bree shot straight up in bed. She could feel her heart tattooing a rapid beat as if it was trying to escape from her chest. As she struggled to get herself and her breathing under control, she failed to notice the person she cared about most watching her from the doorway. Johnny leaned against the door frame and studied Bree as she tried to get herself under control. He had been surprised when he got home that she wasn’t up yet. In fact, it scared him into thinking that her stalker had somehow got in and had taken off with her. From the hall he had heard Bree’s restless sleep and knew that she was once again in the throes of a nightmare. It seemed that ever since Joanne’s accident she had been having these dreams with more frequency. He knew from experience to let her wake up on her own as the first time he tried to wake her, she almost slugged him. Bree could feel the tears running down her cheeks and wondered why this latest nightmare had her so rattled. Still oblivious to her surroundings, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and reached for her robe. As she stood up, she sensed she was not alone in the room. Looking up, she gasped as she noticed Johnny for the first time. “When did you get home?” she asked as she took a few deep breaths and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “About five minutes ago. It spooked me when you weren’t up. I thought for sure he’d gotten in and took off with you,” replied Johnny. “As I was walking down the hallway, I could hear you rustling around in here and found you experiencing another nightmare. Was it the same old one?” Shaking the last of the cobwebs from her brain, she stated, “No. This time you were falling from the 2nd floor of a burning building. Then I was being taken by gunpoint and blindfolded, drugged. When I woke from the drugged haze, I was lying in a bed and chained to a floor. Johnny, it was awful.” She put her face in her hands and shook. Johnny didn’t know what to say. It stunned him as it seemed that her dreams were getting worse. He could see that this dream had really shaken her up and that she was having a hard time letting go of the after effects from it. “Honey, it’s just a dream,” he said as he held her closer. “There’s nothing to worry about. Roy always has my back and so do the other guys on our shift. And as for the other thing, nothing is going to happen to you either.” He stood up and put his hands out of her. She looked up at him and gave him a watery smile as she was trying to get her emotions under control. “Why don’t you head into the bathroom and freshen yourself up while I go get a pot of coffee started.” Bree walked on shaky legs into the bathroom. She knew Johnny was worried about these dreams that have been popping up way too frequently. Splashing water on her face, she gazed at her own reflection trying to keep herself from screaming. Johnny only knew half of what her dream showed her. If she told him the rest, he would freak out as it involved their daughter. She dried her face, once more looking at her reflection and took a deep breath. She kept telling herself she needed to get things under control so everything would be perfect for Johnny’s birthday party on Saturday. Just the thought of his reaction to the birthday present they all had planned for him was enough to put the smile back on her face and the spring back in her step. Johnny smiled as he watched Bree bounce into the kitchen smiling. He chuckled as she came up behind him grabbing him in a big bear hug. “What brought this change on?” he asked as he turned around to face her. “Just the thought of your birthday party tomorrow and all the fun we are going to have,” she replied as she grabbed a pan and placed it on the stove. “So how do you want your eggs done?” She kept a running commentary about the happenings at Rampart as she stirred the eggs. He sensed nervousness in Bree’s voice and watched the conflicting emotions race across her face, wondering what she had to talk to him about that she was finding difficult to put into words. “Honey, I get the vibe that you have something you want to talk to me about. What is it?” he asked. Bree kept chasing the eggs around in the pan trying to find the right words to say, knowing that she could be jeopardizing things between them. “Johnny, what would you say if I decided to go back to performing full-time?” Johnny’s head shot up to look at the back of Bree’s as she hadn’t turned around when she asked that question. For the past couple of months he had known something was bothering her but she always brushed it off as nerves due to the obsessed fan who was rearing his ugly head with more frequency. Now he realized that that wasn’t what was she’d had on her mind. “You want to go back to performing full-time?” he queried as he wasn’t sure he heard her right. Removing the eggs from the stove, she turned to him, leaning against the counter. “Yes, Johnny, I do. It’s been on my mind for the past two months. In reality, it’s what I really want to do.” “So you want to put yourself back out there so your obsessed fan can take another run at you?!” exclaimed Johnny all but shouting at her. “Good grief! Is that all you can think of?” retorted Bree. “Music was my life before that idiot entered it and it is going to be my life again. I cannot let whoever this person is dictate what I do with my career.” Pausing for a moment, Bree turned to dish up their breakfast and indicated to Johnny to sit down so they could continue the conversation. “Johnny, I know that this fan is still out there,” continued Bree a little more calm. “But I really feel strongly about this. Right now all I’ve done is gone into the recording studio and laid down some tracks for a couple of new songs. They still need to be pitched to RCA to see if they are willing to resign me for contract.” He was working at getting his emotions under control. He knew deep down thatmusic was Bree’s first passion and her choice for a career. But now that she was back in his life giving him the opportunity to bond with their daughter, he just didn’t want to give that up. He knew he would need to choose his words carefully so not to alienate Bree’s feelings or worse, put a wedge between their fragile relationship. “Sweetheart, it’s not that I don’t want to you have that career, it’s just that…well, I’m worried what might happen if this fan manages to get close enough to harm you. Look what’s happened so far,” he stated with a calm tone. “Besides that, how will this affect me and Sierra?” “Thus the crossroads that I find myself at,” stated Bree. “I no longer have just myself to think about but also you and Sierra. Right now I’m more than happy to perform with the band again at the club and writing songs. Someday it would be nice to be back on the road but I don’t foresee that anytime in the near future.” “So then what you are trying to tell me is that you are just sounding things out to see how it would go or if it would even fly?” he questioned. “You are not going to up and leave us and head to Nashville or other parts unknown?” Bree softly chuckled at the little boy lost look on Johnny’s face and realized just how worried he was that she was going to leave him. “I’m so sorry if this worries you, honey. I just needed to talk to you about it. I have no intention of leaving anytime soon. Why do you think I had Jason looking for a recording studio here in LA?” She stretched across the corner of the island and kissed him lightly. He just looked at her with his lopsided grin not saying a word. He was pleased to hear that what she was discussing with him was only in the planning stage. Yet that nagging doubt would always be in the back of his thoughts…that she would someday disappear on him again without any warning. “I’m sorry if I gave you the impression that I thought you would do this without a thought to me or Sierra. I think I’m more worried about this obsessed fan of yours catching up with you than I am about you returning to performing,” said Johnny as he cupped her face in his hands. “I just want you to be safe in doing what you love, but what about your job at Rampart?” “I would have to quit my job there especially if I want to record more songs. I can’t work during the day and then record at night. It would take its toll not only on me but also on Sierra and you. Would that bother you if I quit working there?” “Well, money would be a little tight I’m sure, but I think we could make it,” he replied. “Money won’t be tight,” said Bree with a wicked smile. “Johnny, I never told you this but I have enough money that neither one of us would have to work ever again if we didn’t want to.” “What did you say?” he asked with a credulous look upon his face. “I said money won’t be tight. My father was a CPA/Investment Broker. Once the money started rolling in from my record sales, concerts, merchandise, etc. he began investing my money for me. I have enough that I don’t need to work if I don’t want to.” As he contemplated what she had just told him, Johnny put a forkful of scrambled eggs in his mouth and made a face. “Yuck. Bree, these things are cold.” He pushed his plate towards her like a little kid. “Give them here, my child,” giggled Bree as she took the plate. “I will warm them back up for you and make some more toast. Now sit down and behave.” He chuckled at her mother-like tone and like any child got up to pester her. As she set the eggs back in the pan, he snuck up behind and in a very un-childlike way, grabbed her around the waist. Bree squealed and dropped the pan full of eggs on the floor which were instantly forgotten in the kiss that he gave her.
Johnny glanced down at his sleeping girlfriend and smiled as he thought of how their breakfast ended. He had only meant to help her but couldn’t resist sneaking up behind her first. After she dropped the pan, the look on her face struck a chord in him and he couldn’t resist kissing her. One thing led to another and well…he just smiled as that memory replayed in his mind. The nap felt good but he woke long before she did. As he glanced at the time on the clock, he knew Bree would have a fit. “Sweetheart,” he said again. “I think you might want to open your eyes.” He softly dragged the feather across her nose and then her lips, laughing as she reached up to swat it away but missed. Once more he lightly brushed the feather across her lips but this time couldn’t help laughing out loud as she brought her whole arm up and caught him by surprise. “You know, a kiss on the lips is a lot nicer than that damn feather,” Bree said grumpily. “Yeah, but it’s not as much fun,” he retorted with a chuckle. “But I think you might want to get up.” “Why? I don’t have to work today and neither do you.” “True, but it’s two in the afternoon,” he said as he quickly moved out of the way. Bree shot up in bed. “How long have you been up?” She fired the question at him while she grabbed her clothes and ran for the bathroom. He followed behind her trying not to laugh too loudly at her running commentary as she started the shower and jumped in. He could hear her asking him questions and then before he had a chance to reply, answered them herself. He leaned against the bathroom counter still chuckling as he listened to muttering in the shower. Bree kept mumbling to herself as she grabbed the soap and scrubbed the sleep from her eyes. He knows I need to get to town and finish up the grocery list for the party tomorrow, she thought, as she squeezed a little too much shampoo into her hand. Lathering up her scalp, she yelped when she got some in eyes which set her off muttering more about men and their ideas. She opened the shower door and realized she did not leave a towel within reach. She glanced up to see Johnny standing there with a big grin on his face waving the towel just slightly out of reach of her grasp. “John Roderick Gage!” she shouted at him. “Give me that towel! I have so much I need to get done today before the party tomorrow and you let me sleep.” Doing a slight dance as he kept the towel still out of her reach, he replied, “Just what do you still need to do? You have the house clean, most of the food is ready to be mixed or cooked tomorrow.” “Not everything,” she stated in exasperation. “And what you mean by food is the cake and the pasta. I still have to get to town to purchase the fresh vegetables, the meat for the grilling. I don’t want to be working late into the evening. Now please give me that towel!” She stomped her foot impatiently wincing as she came down a little too hard on her heel. “You okay?” Johnny asked with concern in his voice as he tossed the towel to her. He picked her up and sat her on the stool at the counter to check her foot. “What did you hurt?” Tucking the towel around her, Bree replied, “I just stomped my foot a little too hard on the stone floor. It’s nothing.” “It might be nothing but there is a little swollen spot on your heel.” “Great, just great. I still need to go grocery shopping and this will be fun to walk on,” she said with a little bit of irritability in her tone. Johnny reached up and turned her face so he could look her in the eye. He smiled as he said, “You don’t need to worry about going shopping. While you were still sleeping, I found your grocery list. It’s finished.” Bree looked at Johnny with total disbelief on her face. “You did the shopping for me…for your own party?” “It wasn’t that hard, besides I stopped by to talk to Roy. Joanne was heading to the market too, so we rode together and she helped me,” he stated. “Why don’t you stand and see if the swollen spot is going to cause you any problems?” Bree couldn’t believe how thoughtful Johnny had been in letting her sleep and doing her shopping for her. Now she could finish up what she was making for the party and enjoy the rest of the day with him. Johnny held onto her hands and helped her up. She took a couple of steps, smiling up at him and told him that it didn’t hurt to step down on her heel. Letting go of her hands, he told her to get herself dressed and he would be out in the kitchen waiting for her. Bree smiled as she watched him walk away. That is one view I will never grow tired of, she thought to herself as she entered the closet. He knew she was watching him leave the room and couldn’t help but smile. As he headed down the hallway, he listened to her singing from the bedroom. Johnny loved it when she was singing as he knew she was in a good mood. And it seemed like lately she was always singing. ‘Ringggg!” Johnny jumped up and swung around when he heard that sound. He couldn’t help but chuckle at himself as he reached for the phone. One would think he had never heard a phone before. “Hello?” he asked. “Johnny, it’s Mandy. Is Bree available?” Glancing up, he saw the person in question enter the room. “Yeah she is. Just a sec,” he replied. Handing the phone to Bree, he mouthed that it was Mandy to her. He playfully swatted her on the backside as he walked by. He opened the fridge to grab a soda when he heard Bree say something quite unladylike. “Seriously, Mandy, how the hell did the press find out where I live…or should I say where I used to live?” she questioned as she then started to giggle. “No, I’m sorry I shouldn’t be laughing. Come on, cousin, you have to admit it is kind of funny.” Johnny found himself leaning against the counter once again and listening to a lopsided conversation. From what Bree was saying the press somehow got a hold of her old address and was camped out front of the house. He couldn’t wait for Bree to get off the phone to hear the story. Bree finished the phone call and hung up. Turning around, she caught Johnny’s eye and immediately broke out in a fit of giggles. He patiently waited until she was done giggling before he asked what happened. “Spill the beans, girl. From what I gathered from your side of the conversation, the press found out where you used to live.” “Oh wow, Johnny,” she said as she caught her breath. “Mandy is fit to be tied. It seems that once the second article in People Magazine hit the newsstands, the press has been hounding the phone lines at Rampart. Brackett finally had to threaten a lawsuit against three of the bigger papers in order for it to stop.” “Are you kidding me?” he questioned. “Nope and then on top of that, someone at the hospital inadvertently gave my address to someone claiming to be my aunt in Alaska.” Seeing the look on his face, she cut him off before he could say anything. “No, it was not male. But I am thinking that it might be the reporter who printed the article about me and my alter ego, Bree Montgomery.” “I can see Mandy now standing on the front porch of the house with a shotgun in her hand, peppering the reporters with buckshot,” he stated as he started laughing at the picture in his mind of Bree’s cousin with a gun in hand. “Those reporters wouldn’t stand a chance.” She started laughing right along with Johnny as the picture of her model-perfect cousin with a gun in her hand was ludicrous. She knew Mandy hated guns even though she grew up around them as her dad was an avid hunter and he also worked for the Denali National Park in Alaska. “Okay, funny boy, if you are done laughing at my cousin you can help me with cleaning the vegetables and putting together salads for tomorrow.” Johnny looked at Bree with a ‘You are joking’ look upon his face. Bree just smiled at him and pointed to the grocery bags left sitting on the counter. Knowing he had just been drafted, he grabbed a knife, cutting board and set up shop next to the sink. For the next two and a half hours, the couple worked side by side…Johnny chopping the vegetables and Bree finished up the salads she had planned for the party. She then took the steaks out, placing them in two large plastic containers. She then grabbed an onion, two cloves of garlic and numerous spices from the cupboard. Opening the fridge, she then grabbed a bottle of soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and mustard. Johnny quit pulling the cauliflower apart and proceeded to watch her mixing a marinating sauce for the steaks. Once the marinade was completed, she poured half of the bowl into each container, sealing the containers and placing them in the fridge. Johnny quickly went back to the cauliflower before she turned around. Bree smiled as she knew he had been watching her make the marinade for the steaks. After the pre-party preparations were done, they retired to the patio and spent the rest of the afternoon and most of the evening relaxing and/or talking about things that Johnny wanted to do with the ranch. In his usual way, Johnny talked on and on about the horses he remembered as a kid in Montana and how he wanted to have a few of his own, maybe even try his hand at breeding them. Bree just smiled as she leaned against him laying her head on his shoulder. He wound down his conversation as he realized she had once again fallen asleep on him. Carefully, he turned placing his arms around her and picked her up. She stirred a bit before relaxing back against him. Holding her tight against him, he slid the screen door on the patio door open with his foot. He gently laid her down on the bed, leaving long enough to shut the door on the patio, check to make sure everything was locked and the lights shut off. Upon walking back into the bedroom, he saw Bree lying on her side, propped up by one arm. She glanced up at him in the doorway and beckoned with her finger. That’s all it took. He bounded into the room, shucked his jeans off and joined her. As he captured her lips with his, he thought life couldn’t get any better than this. ******************************* He watched from the thicket as the sun rose that morning. Today was the birthday party for ‘fire boy’. He had been out here in the thicket one afternoon listening at she talked to her cousin about her plans for the birthday party. How thick can she be? The guy was commitment phobic. From what he heard when the others joked around about him, his door was revolving and the women never stuck around long. Shaking his head to get the thoughts to dislodge, he settled in for long and patient wait for the festivities to get underway. He wished she would just realize what type of an individual this guy was. ‘Fire boy’ was only going to break her heart. It was up to him to save her from herself and her bad decisions. Even though he wanted to whisk her away immediately, he knew it would only cause her to hate him. Time was on his side and that time was within sight. He chortled as the thought of what awaited his rival sent the adrenaline flowing through his veins. The events he was ready to set in motion only needed the perfect time. He had found the place, had everything in place. All he needed was the time for it to happen and that was soon. He heard the patio door open and smiled as he watched the object of his desire step out on to the patio. Her hair was disheveled but he felt she looked beautiful. The sun had chosen that particular moment to slip through the tree branches and illuminated her. He gasped as she turned her face partially and her profile was lit up. As he regained control of his breath, he saw him step out onto the patio, placing his arm around her waist. The anger began to well up inside him, threatening to spill out. He took a deep breath to bring his emotions under control only to find them ready to break loose as she turned her face up to him for a kiss. He never felt the fingernails digging into his palms causing them to bleed. Thankfully for the couple, they chose to move back inside which gave him the opportunity to bring his emotions back into his control. He decided it was time to take a long walk before the party begins so he could meditate and rein in his errant emotions. Patience, he kept telling himself, patience. “Good Morning, sunshine,” Johnny said to Bree as he leaned down for a kiss. “Come back inside. Coffee is ready.” “I could sure use a cup of that right now,” she stated as she followed him back inside. As she entered the kitchen she noticed he had started breakfast too. “Johnny, do you realize that it’s your birthday and I should have made you breakfast?” she stated looking a little sheepish when she realized it should have been her making him breakfast, not the other way around. “It was my pleasure to make you breakfast. Besides, for what I know is coming later today, it’s the least I could do to make your day easier,” he stated. “I saw the guest list. What did you do…invite half of the LA County Fire Department?” Bree felt a blush rising up her cheeks and smiled at him. “No, but I asked Roy where you worked before you joined Station 51. He told me about Station 10 and helped me locate some of the guys you used to work with. Unfortunately, a majority of them are working today and unable to make it. But I was able to get a hold of Gil Robinson whom Roy said you went to high school with and also trained as a paramedic.” “You’ve been a very busy girl, haven’t you?” he asked as he placed an omelet in front of her. “I just wanted everyone who has been an important part of your life to come help celebrate this day,” she replied. “Rose plans on coming and I hope you don’t mind but I asked her to stay a couple of extra days. It’s been a while since we visited.” “Of course, I don’t mind. She’s my aunt after all and helped raise me. Now come on and dig in. If I remember correctly, eggs do not taste good cold.” A quick shower after breakfast and Bree was off and running. She basically kicked Johnny out of the house and told him to go play in the barn. Once he was out of her hair, she called Roy and Joanne to see when they would be coming out. Roy said Jo had gone to the market to pick up the birthday cakes and as soon as she returned they would be on their way out to the ranch. Next, she called Dixie and was informed that she and Dr. Early would be joining them at noon but that Dr. Brackett wouldn’t be able to make it until around 3 p.m. Dixie also told her that they would be bringing the gift that Joe, Kel, Dixie and Mike had chipped in on for Johnny. Hanging up, she checked on the marinating steaks and stirred up the salads.
Standing in the tack room, he chuckled as he felt the mother cat wind her way around his ankles purring loudly. He reached down and picked her up. She rubbed her whiskers against his face before pushing against him as an indication to put back on the ground. He followed her to the corner of the tack room where he had set up a bed for her and the kittens under the bench out of sight. Kneeling down, he kept up a running conversation to the mother cat as if she understood him. The kittens now had their eyes open and were exploring their home. He knew the kids would enjoy seeing the kittens but thought he had better remind them first not to pick up the kittens or to try to touch them as the mother was still very protective of them. He stood in the middle of the tack room and closed his eyes. In his mind’s eye he was envisioning a room that smelled of leather with saddles on the holders made especially for them. He opened his eyes and smiled as he glanced around the room as his vision of a full room stayed with him. As he walked back into the main part of the barn, he looked at all the empty stalls and hoped one day he would have his horses back around him. The mama cat had followed him and was weaving her way around his ankles. He leaned down to give a few more soft strokes to mama cat and wondered how she would feel about the dog he wanted to have also. He chuckled softly at that thought and headed back outside wondering if it was safe to go back in the house. He could see Bree in the kitchen walking back and forth with the phone attached to her ear and gesturing with her hands in a very animated way. Figuring he had better save whomever she had a hold of on the phone, he closed the door to the barn and headed towards the house. Entering the home through the patio, he failed to notice another individual who had shown up…until Bree tapped him across the back of his head with the phone and pointed behind him. “Happy birthday, nephew,” said Rosemary. “Aunt Rose,” exclaimed Johnny as he grabbed her in a bear hug and swung her off the ground. “When did you arrive?” “A few minutes ago,” replied Rose. “Bree seems to be having a very animated conversation with someone on the phone who I gather is a relative of hers. Neither of them sound too impressed with something that is going on.” He glanced back at Bree who was still in a very animated conversation with Mandy and wondered if it had anything to do with the reporters who had camped out in the neighborhood. “I think I have a pretty good idea of what has her goat…” he started to say. “Does it have anything to do with an article in People Magazine?” asked his aunt as she waved that very magazine under his nose. “You too?” he queried as his aunt laughed at the look upon his face. “She thought she was doing something good by finally telling her story as to why she left the business as abruptly as she did. But now she is beginning to wonder if that was a good idea.” “Johnny, it was a good idea. After that LA reporter threw the challenge out to the public and her fans to find out if she really was in LA and singing again, what choice did she have? She had to do it,” said Rose. Bree hung up the phone and just stared at it. Could anything make this day funnier, she thought. She felt rather than heard Johnny come up behind her. Both Johnny and Rose sensed something was up just by Bree’s body language. As she turned to face them, Bree suddenly came down with a case of giggles that she couldn’t hold back. Rose glanced over at Johnny beside her who had just as much a puzzled look on his face as she did. They glanced back to Bree who just stood there and laughed, thinking about her cousin and the predicament she was finding herself in.
“Your mommy has no idea what a zoo it is outside this house, girl,” said Mandy as she knelt down by the playpen. “Mmmaaaammmaa” was the only reply she received from the child. “I agree. Well, your ‘uncle’ Marco is not going to be pleased when he comes to pick us up. That mob has pretty much blocked the driveway.” Standing up, Mandy wondered just how he was going to get through the hordes of reporters hovering in the street outside her home. She pulled the curtains back a ways and jumped as the flashbulbs started going off once again. If I ever catch who gave out this address, she thought, they are going to wish they were never born. Thinking back, Mandy realized that neither one of them had thought about the ramifications of what could happen when Bree agreed to be interviewed for People Magazine then also decided to return to the world of music. This probably wouldn’t have been so drastic, she thought, had that reporter for the LA Time Variety Page hadn’t started offered that stupid challenge of ‘Is she or isn’t she?’ in her column. Combine the second part of her story with the article for People Magazine and the entertainment community went nuts. Peeking through the curtains once more, she spotted Marco’s truck slowly pushing its way through the crowd. She had called him the night before and warned him of the photographers milling about the house. Of course, he had immediately offered to come over and help get rid of the pests. She smiled as she remembered telling him it wasn’t necessary as one of the neighbors had already called the police on them. When the first set of idiots showed up, Mrs. Van Mueller was out on her front porch shouting at them to quit trampling her flowers. That did not seem to faze a single reporter or photographer, so the woman called the Torrance Police Department…and from the speedy arrival of the squad car, must have pulled some strings to get them to move that fast. A small giggle escaped her lips which was soon followed by another. Mandy turned to walk back to the living room where she could hear Sierra trying to mock her giggles. By the time she had reached the child, she was laughing. Finally she was seeing the humor in the situation. She pictured herself on their front porch only instead of yelling at the paparazzi, she had a shotgun in her hand, set to go all backwoods and ‘Deliverance’ on them. ‘Buenos Dios!’ thought Marco as he slowly maneuvered his way through the maddening crowd. No wonder Mandy sounded like she was losing her mind. Finally he reached the driveway and pulled right up to the garage door. When he exited the vehicle, the hordes of reporters began to shout questions at him. Keep moving, he told himself, keep moving. Instead going through the front door, he skirted around the garage and snuck in through the backyard. He approached the doors the patio and was greeted by a pretty sight…Mandy dancing in the living room with Sierra. She had no clue he was watching them and seemed to finally be relaxing in spite of the crowd outside her house. He reached up and tapped the window before he opened the patio doors. “Now I know why you sounded upset when you called last night. There is a bunch of loco gente in your front yard,” he stated as he entered the house. “Everything ready to go?” “Yes. I have Sierra’s bag all packed. Her car seat is by the island,” Mandy replied. “I just want to get out of here.” “Can’t understand why you would want to do that. It seems like you have everything you could need here including an adoring public just waiting for your presence outside your home,” Marco stated with a straight face. Mandy glanced at him with a look of total dismay and exclaimed sarcastically, “Are you kidding me?! I cannot believe you just said that and with a straight face!” “Come on, chica, let’s get out of here,” he said laughingly as he picked up the car seat and Sierra’s bag. He noticed that Mandy also had a bag slung on her shoulder too and wondered if she was planning to staying out at Johnny and Bree’s for the duration. Before they rounded the corner of the garage, Mandy threw a blanket over Sierra so the paparazzi couldn’t get a clear picture of her. The child thought it was a game and tried to take it off. Marco told Mandy to stay beside the garage until he got the car seat in place, then she run for the vehicle and jump in. Dana watched from the sidelines as the scene unfolded before her. She smiled as this was working all too well. Her assistant was the one who called Rampart to get Bree’s actual address by pretending to be her aunt from Alaska. In a way she kind of felt sorry for the poor individual who was dense enough to believe that story and actually gave out the address. The next step had been to ‘inadvertently’ let the address slip to some colleagues who she knew wouldn’t keep the news to themselves…thus the crowd on Northridge Drive. Tony, her photographer, touched her shoulder to let her know that the couple were getting to the car and making ready to leave. She had already figured out that Bree Montgomery was no longer in this house but had no idea where she had moved to or who with. The People article never mentioned who this firefighter Bree had been seen with was and anyone Dana had talked to within the LA County Fire Department had closed ranks on her, effectively shutting her out. “Come on. Let’s make sure we don’t miss following them,” she said as they sprinted for the car. They waited until the car drove by them and slowly pulled out. Tony knew enough from working with Dana and ‘stalking’ (as he thought of it) celebrities that when you follow them, keep enough distance and always memorize the type of vehicle they are driving. As he turned the corner, Marco keep an eye on the rearview mirror, hoping he wouldn’t find any of those ‘nuts’ following them. Mandy sat in the backseat to keep Sierra occupied and ready to throw a blanket over the child should any of the paparazzi actually come after them. He breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed no crazy drivers trying to catch up with them. “So far no one is on our tail, chica,” he said as he glanced at her through the rearview mirror. “I think we are in the clear.” “I hope so,” she replied. “I would hate for the horde to follow us out to the ranch and ruin Johnny’s birthday party.” She tickled Sierra’s tummy and said, “That just wouldn’t be good for your daddy, would it, sweetheart?” The dark haired child giggled and cooed at Mandy as she tried to grab the hair that was swinging just slightly out of her reach. “Maaaa,” was her reply. ************************************ When she had finally finished giggling, Johnny told her that she needed to fill Rose in on what was going on. He then left the two women to their own devices as he had heard a vehicle coming up the driveway. Shaking his head as he listened to the two of them laughing about what Bree was telling her, he headed outside to meet up with the first of many guests. He spotted Roy’s car first and right behind him was Captain Stanley. The third vehicle he wasn’t too sure about and hoped it wasn’t one of those newspaper reporters hoping to locate Bree. After Roy brought the car to a stop, Johnny reached down and opened the passenger door, putting his hand out to help Joanne alight from the front seat. “How are you feeling, Jo?” he asked. “Much better and thanks for asking, Johnny,” she replied at she reached up to give him a hug. “Happy Birthday, Johnny.” A chorus of the Happy Birthday song came roaring out of the backseat as Chris and Jennifer flew out to greet him. Johnny laughed, feeling a blush slide up his cheeks. He wasn’t always comfortable with all this attention. “Sorry about that, Junior. There was just no containing them once we turned down your driveway,” stated Roy. “That’s alright. Besides isn’t this what birthdays are all about, right, kids?” “Happy Birthday, Johnny,” said Gil as he walked up to the group. “Gil, I was wondering whose car that was behind Captain Stanley’s. It’s good to see you and thanks,” exclaimed Johnny. “Glad you could make it.” “So am I,” Gil replied. “I was really surprised to hear from your girlfriend. When she explained about the party, I said that I would definitely be there.” “Come on, everybody,” said Johnny. “Let’s get inside and start up this party.” He made a motion for the group to head into the house. Gil held the door open for the ladies and was waiting for Johnny. Both heard another vehicle heading up the driveway and turned to see who joining them now. Two more vehicles were making their way towards the house. Johnny recognized Chet’s VW bus and the car behind him was Marco. He told Gil to go ahead and catch up with the rest while he went to greet the other arrivals. Chet followed the pattern of the other cars that had parked on the oval drive that crossed around the front of the house and reconnected with the driveway. Smart, he thought, as he put the VW in park and got out. He joined Johnny next to Marco’s vehicle and couldn’t help but chuckle as he spotted Johnny’s daughter giving Mandy a hard time as she wanted out of her car seat but wouldn’t sit still so Mandy could get the straps hooked. Johnny took pity on Mandy and opened the door on the other side and held Sierra’s hands so she could get the straps loosened up. “Maaamaaaa,” stated Sierra as her daddy lifted her out of her car seat. “Do you think you could try saying daddy just once?” he questioned as he cuddled her next to him. He winced as he felt her firmly grab the hair on the back of his neck, reaching up to gently remove her fingers from his hair. “Did this little imp of mine behave herself?” “Of course, she did,” replied Mandy. “You were a little sweetheart the whole time, weren’t you, baby?” Sierra squealed with delight when Mandy tickled her tummy. Chet grabbed the bags for Mandy from the backseat and followed the group inside. Johnny was practically run over by Alyssa and Cassie, Captain Stanley’s daughters, as they raced to take Sierra from him and play with her. He glanced over the tops of the girls’ heads and caught Bree’s smiling eyes staring at the scene before her. He watched as Bree followed Mandy down the hall to the bedrooms. He barely noticed Sierra slipping out of his fingers and into Alyssa’s arms. Gil had approached him and smirked as his friend hadn’t even noticed that he had joined him. “Boy, you have really got it bad,” stated Gil, chuckling at the expression on Johnny’s face. “Shut up, Gil,” retorted Johnny when he realized he’d been caught gawking at his girlfriend. “Let’s go join the others outside, wise guy.” While Johnny and Gil joined the others on the patio, Bree and Mandy were inside Sierra’s room. Upon entering the house, Mandy had motioned Bree to follow her down the hall. She put Sierra’s belongings on the changing table and turned to Bree. “Something is going to have to be done about those reporters, Bree. “They are disrupting the whole neighborhood and I’m just waiting for the neighbors to ask me to move out.” “It can’t be that bad, can it?” she asked. “Yes, it is. So far they have managed to trample Mrs. Van Mueller’s flower beds by the sidewalk. They have blocked two other neighbors’ driveways,” explained Mandy. “The only thing they haven’t done is camped out in the front yard.” “Mandy, I am so sorry about this. I wish I knew how they got a hold of my old address,” sighed Bree as she quit putting away her daughter’s clothes and turned to look at her cousin. “I’m wondering if this is all because of the interview I did for People Magazine instead of working with the local press.” “I highly doubt that, cousin. This whole mess started with that article in the LA Times Variety Section and has taken off from there. The choice to remain anonymous was pretty much taken from your hands when you started performing at Red Wolf and the second article was written in The Times.” “I know but…” Bree started to say. She interrupted her cousin as she knew exactly what she was going to say next. “Don’t even go there. We both know you have been itching to get back to performing. Have you talked to Johnny about it?”
Once again the kids had found the playground set in the yard and were having fun. The two older girls had placed a blanket down and were amusing Sierra on it, who in turn kept them on their toes with her crawling skills. Motioning to Gil to go join the guys, Johnny grabbed a couple of beers and handed one to Gil when he caught up with them. Joanne was sitting on the lounger, relaxing with her eyes closed. Catching Roy’s attention, he raised an eyebrow as he pointed at Jo. Roy mouthed that she was still feeling a few aftereffects of the accident. Emily had taken over the kitchen after she made sure that Joanne was settled on the lounger. She could hear Bree and her cousin coming down the hall and hoped that Bree wouldn’t mind that she started getting things ready for dinner. Her husband, Hank, was already firing up the grill, getting it ready for the steaks and hamburgers. She smiled tentatively at the girls when they entered the area, then laughed as Bree grabbed her for a big hug and thank you for getting things started. A flurry of activity took over as the three women proceeded to mix salads, stir up Kool-Aid for the kids, and removing the steaks and burgers from the fridge. Outside, Dixie and Joe Early had pulled up and wondered about the gift in the trunk of Joe’s car. Dixie kept telling him it would be fine where it was at and not to worry about it anymore. Bree hugged Dixie when she entered the kitchen then told her to join the others on the patio and she would join her shortly. About the time Dixie was going to head outside, Joe popped his head in and said that Hank was ready for the steaks and burgers. Dixie turned, grabbed the platter off the counter and followed Joe outside. He watched them from the thicket once more. This group of close knit friends was going to be in for a surprise soon, he thought, they are never going to know what hit them. He noticed the new guy in the group and wondered where he came from, but then thought ‘Who cares?’ He kept an eye on ‘fire boy’ as he talked with his hands flying through the air. With the noise of the children nearby, he couldn’t hear what was being said. It didn’t matter…all the mattered was in a few days his rival will be no longer and she will be his. He giggled and leaned back against the tree to watch the festivities. Dana and Tony had followed Marco’s vehicle almost all the way out there. They got caught in heavy traffic and lost sight of them. Stopping to fill up with gas, Dana noticed a familiar face at the stop sign across from the gas station. She recognized the van as being the one that belonged to Bree’s backup band, Dakota Dreaming. She shouted at Tony to hurry up and pay for the gas as she kept an eye on which direction the car was heading. The pair jumped in their van and raced in the direction of the band’s van. She giggled at her good luck in noticing the vehicle belonging to Bree’s band. It wasn’t long before they spotted them, slowing down as to not be too obvious what they were doing. When the band’s vehicle turned down the driveway to Johnny’s ranch, Dana quickly wrote down the name and address from the mailbox as they drove by. “Head back to LA, Tony,” she said as she relaxed back in her seat. “What?!” exclaimed Tony. “Why?” “Because there were a lot of cars in the driveway, meaning there’s a happening going on. When I ambush her, I don’t want a lot of witnesses especially those that will rally around to protect her,” stated Dana. “I’m still pissed off at her for scooping me and giving that interview to People.” Tony shook his head and headed back towards the city. One of these days someone is going to let Dana have it over her methods towards getting interviews or ‘scoops’ on celebrities. ***************************** Dinner turned out to be a relaxing time for all, except maybe the kids. Once they were done with their meals, they were back playing tag in the yard, around the house and even through the barn. Chet discovered a kindred spirit in Jeremy when he found out he was as much as prankster as himself… that is until Jeremy told him who he learned it from…Bree. He couldn’t help but laugh at the expression on Chet’s face. Soon the two were exchanging prank stories and laughing until their stomachs hurt. Everyone around them had just as much fun listening to those stories especially the ones Jeremy was retelling about Bree’s escapades as the tour bus phantom. The ladies had just finished up with the dishes and were chatting in the kitchen. Bree glanced up at the clock on the wall and realized in less than twenty minutes her surprise for Johnny... actually the group’s surprise for Johnny would be showing up. Excusing herself, Bree popped her head out the door and looked for someone who could help her keep Johnny occupied. “Gil,” she shouted out the patio door. “Could you come here for a moment?” Gil looked at Johnny with a puzzled look that said “Me?” Johnny laughed at him and said better go see what she wants or she would draft him. “What can I do for you?” he asked as he followed her back into the house. “Within the next twenty minutes, Johnny’s surprise will be arriving and I need a volunteer to keep him out in the barn,” she whispered. Seeing the confusion on his face, she smiled and in just above a whisper told him about the delivery, “I have a trailer arriving with something very special for Johnny on his birthday. I am not going to tell you anymore just that it will knock him off his feet.” “A tour of the barn, you say? That shouldn’t be too hard as I haven’t really had a tour of it,” stated Gil. “How soon do you want me to ask for a tour?” “As soon as I see the trailer pulling in the driveway, now go,” she giggled as she pushed him back out the door. Just after she asked Gil to help her occupy Johnny, the girls brought Sierra back in and handed her back to Bree stating that the Chris and Jennifer wanted to go play on the play set in the yard. Bree cuddled her daughter noticing that she needed a diaper change. Taking the little girl into the bedroom, she placed her on the changing table and grabbed a diaper. No sooner had she gotten the diaper off her daughter, Jo came running into the bedroom and said the trailer just pulled into the driveway. She took over the diaper detail while Bree headed for the front door. Gil had been warned by a wave from Jo that the trailer was coming up the driveway. He glanced over at Johnny and abruptly asked him for a tour of the barn, stating it was the only part of Johnny’s place he hadn’t seen. Getting up, he motioned for Gill to follow him and then stated if anyone else wanted to join them they could. Running out the front door, Bree noticed that coming in behind the trailer was Mike and Dr. Brackett. As Mike got out of the car, she motioned to him to grab the doctor and head around to the back of the house. Linda had been told what time the surprise was at should they be able to make it later in the day. So she knew what Bree had up her sleeve and told Mike that she needed their help if and when they could make got there. As her husband and the doctor followed the trailer around to the back of the house, she followed Bree back inside to see what else she could do. Johnny had been a little more than surprised when Gil asked him for a tour of the barn as Gil had always been more of a city boy at heart, but as he seemed genuinely interested he took him for a tour. Roy, Joe Early, Captain Stanley, Chet and Marco decided to follow them even though they had already seen the barn before. He was beginning to feel suspicious that something was up that he didn’t know about. About halfway through Gil’s tour, Mike and Dr. Brackett joined them in the tack room. He hadn’t noticed them right away as he had been talking about the types of saddles he was looking for and how many horses he was hoping to start out with. Motioning for the gang to follow him back to the main part of the barn, he was mildly startled as Mike and Kel were standing directly behind him. “When did you all arrive?” he asked with a smile. “Just now,” said Mike. “We got told by the women in the house that we needed to immediately come out here.” Kel looked at Johnny and stated, “I don’t know what she is up to but your girlfriend was giving orders like a general and wouldn’t take any guff…just pointed to the barn and turned her back on me.” Johnny and Roy both glanced at Kel then over to Mike before they started laughing. Kel still looked disgruntled as he wasn’t used to be treated like that when Bree ordered him to join the rest of the gang in the barn. Outside the barn, Bree helped the rancher unload her surprise for Johnny. A week after her reconciliation with Johnny, he had mentioned to her how he couldn’t wait until he had enough money to purchase some horses as he missed riding and working with them. He told her about the two paints he had when he lived in Montana and how much he missed working with them. Bree had called, Henry McNamera, a local rancher whom her grandparents had known. Henry had been happy to hear from her and asked what he could do for her. She said she was wondering if he was still raising American Paints and when he said yes, she asked if he had any for sale. . Henry stated he had a 2-year-old gelding, a 4-year-old gelding plus a mare and her foal for sale. Bree asked if the 4-year-old and mare were broke for riding and Henry told her they were and that they had just started training on the gelding. Bree dickered with Henry on cost and asked him if he could deliver the four horses on August 28 as that was Johnny’s birthday. Henry told he that there would be no problem. Back inside the barn, Johnny could hear Bree calling to him and wondered what she needed. As he stepped out of the barn, he couldn’t hide the surprised expression on his face or the awe when he saw Bree standing with the most beautiful sight he could ever imagine.
“What?” was all he could say as he slowly walked towards Bree and the horses, after a push from behind by Roy. As he walked up to the geldings, he couldn’t stop the tears in his eyes. The 4-year-old gelding sensed his new owner was the one in front of him pushed his nose against his shoulder to gain his attention. Johnny softly caressed the horse’s nose as he glanced at Bree who was still holding the halter of the other gelding. He ran his hands over the animal’s withers and shoulders. He could feel the strength in the horse’s muscles beneath his hands. Walking back to the front of the horse, he looked again at Bree and said, “How?” Smiling at the pleasure she saw in his eyes, she replied, “Because I wanted to and I can.” She motioned for Henry to come over and she introduced him to Johnny. “Johnny, I would like you to meet Henry McNamera, an old friend of the family. He is the one who raises these animals and he is the only one in this area that I would trust to purchase a horse from.” Johnny put out his hand and as they shook, he said, “It is nice to meet you, sir. I can’t believe that she pulled this off without me finding out about it.” “She always was a good one for keeping secrets and springing surprises on those she loves, young man.” Henry walked with Johnny as he checked them out. He told Johnny all the information on both paints and let him know that their vaccinations were up to date. As he looked over the younger gelding, Henry handed him a packet of papers containing all their veterinary records, registration papers, etc. He helped Johnny put the two geldings into the larger pen and laughed as the pair kicked their heels up in joy for finally getting out of the trailer. While all this was happening, the rest of the crew of Station 51 and their families stood by the barn and watched the joy in Johnny’s face as the final part of his dream came true. Joanne had come from the house with Sierra in her arms and as she walked up to Roy, he simply pulled her close to him. “I can’t believe she actually got away with this surprise,” exclaimed Joanne. “I think we all are surprised. She knew this was the final part to his dream of having a ranch and horses and knew this was what she wanted to give him. What she doesn’t realize is that she had already given him the major part of his dream, a family of his own.” Turning to Bree, Johnny put his hand out and as she put her hand into his, he pulled her into his embrace and for a few seconds allowed his tears to flow on to her shoulder. He couldn’t believe she had done this for him. “Johnny?” asked Bree. He release her just enough to look down at her. “What is it, sweetheart?” “I’m not done with your surprise yet. There’s more.” He looked at her, trying to figure out how much more there could be. He had everything he ever really dreamed of…a ranch, a family and now his horses. He didn’t see Bree motion to Henry from behind her back.
Henry walked around the other side of the trailer with the paint mare and foal. Johnny felt like his knees were going to buckle and clung to Bree with his mouth wide open. He couldn’t believe what he saw walking towards him. Bree could feel his grasp on her fingers tightened and wondered if she had gone too far with her gift as she asked, “Is this too much, Johnny? Did I overstep the boundaries?” “Oh my God, no, sweetheart, you didn’t do anything wrong. I just can’t believe you did all this without me not knowing.” “I think you would have figured it out by now…if anything, I am good with secrets,” replied Bree. “I used to have one of Henry’s paints when I was a child. I missed my horse. So when you told me about your dream of having horses again, I called him up.” Once the mare and foal were safely in the other paddock, Bree escorted Henry back to his trailer. She had already paid him before he arrived as she didn’t feel the need to conduct the business end of their transaction while Johnny’s friends were present. As she walked back to the group, Johnny grabbed her and swung her around. He still found it hard to believe she had brought his dream to life in more ways than one. While he was trying to make her dizzy, Kel, Joe, Roy and Mike had gone back to the vehicles to get their gifts for Johnny. Bree had approached Johnny’s friends to tell them of her plan for Johnny’s gift. They had all been in agreement in what they wanted to give him and it worked right in with hers. “Johnny, stop! I’m getting dizzy,” cried Bree. Johnny came to a slow stop and pulled Bree against him so she could get her equilibrium under control. He bent down towards her ear and whispered something that set her giggling. Gil leaned against the fence and watched the interaction between his high school friend and the love of his life. Dixie sidled up next to him, smiling too at the young couple. “What has you so introspective, Gil?” she asked. “Not introspective, Dixie, as much as retrospective,” he replied. “I remember when I met Johnny for the first time. I saw this gangly kid walk in for the track and field tryouts and thought to myself this kid doesn’t have the stamina to run track. He proved us all wrong, could’ve knocked us over with a feather.” “He does have the knack for fooling us all,” Dixie said with a giggle. “And as far as stamina, I think his trips to the ER have proved he definitely has that. How was he with the girls?” Chuckling, Gil glances down at Dixie and states, “He loved the ladies but there never really was a special one in high school. He seemed to keep a bit of himself hidden from the girls and they would get bored. But this one…she’s different.” His anger simmered slowly beneath the surface as he watched ‘fire boy’ get close to her. He couldn’t believe it when he saw what she gave him for his birthday. How could she even think he was worth a gift like that? Horses! The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He had to slap his hands over his mouth as he came so close to screaming out loud. He knew now that his plan which would take place in a few days was going to be worth it. The more he waited, the deeper she would be in with his rival. As he went over his plan in his mind, he could hear in the background someone singing ‘Happy Birthday’. Kneeling closer to the edge of the thicket, he spotted four of ‘fire boy’s’ friends rounding the corner of the house carrying two saddles. They are just as stupid as she is, he thought. Johnny looked at Roy, Joe, Kel and Mike with astonishment all over his face when he saw what they were carrying. The rest of the group had joined them near the barn door and had been helping sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him. “I don’t know what to say,” stated Johnny as he felt overwhelmed with emotion. “All of this was so unexpected…the gifts I mean. How did you all know?” “When Bree told us what she had planned, we all got together and decided that this is what you need to go along with her gift,” replied Roy. “I think it’s the best surprise we’ve pulled on you yet.” “I won’t deny that it is, Roy,” said Johnny. He turned to Bree, “And you, missy. I think you have given me enough to last a lifetime.” Feeling nauseated at all he was witnessing, he made the decision to leave. As it was, he needed to get things in order for his final surprise, the one that involved ‘fire boy’ and the station he worked at. Making sure that he left no trace of his presence behind, he quietly slipped through the opening in the back of thicket that led him to the trail that would bring him far beyond the border of the property and keep him hidden from view. As he drove away from the ranch, his thoughts were of his hideaway hidden far from prying eyes. He chuckled to himself as he pictured her there and all the wonderful things he had planned for their future life together…void of ‘fire boy’ and the child. Soon his life would be what he had always wanted it to be.
To Be Continued... Posted to site 05/05/13
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She could hear the sirens in the background but couldn’t understand what the ruckus was all about. Somewhere near her a child was sniffling and/or moaning with another one crying for ‘mommy’. She knew she should go and check to see if she could help but just wanted to sleep a bit longer. At one point she thought she heard someone moan near her but figured it was just part of her dream. It never occurred to her that she was the one moaning.
Johnny looked at his partner in disbelief which set Roy laughing all over again. He pulled alongside one of many fire hydrants they needed to check and put the squad in park. Johnny was still sputtering when he got out and grabbed the tool they needed to open and check the hydrant with.
As he stepped out of the treatment room, he spotted Roy and Johnny walking down the hallway. From this distance, he could tell Roy was beside himself with worry.
Roy stopped the detectives before they reached the elevator. He wanted to know if there was anything he could do to keep this from happening to his family again. He told the detectives that this had scared him deeply and he wasn’t afraid to admit it.
Waving at Dixie at the nurses’ station, she quickly whisked through the ER and into Rampart Hospital to pick her daughter up at the daycare. Dixie watched as Bree quickly walked through the ER without stopping to chat, but just absently waving at her as she went by. 
Johnny looked at the phone with a puzzled frown upon his brow as he hung it up. Bree had called and said that she was going to pick up Sierra from daycare and head home as she had a nasty headache and didn’t think it would be good for her to come over to the DeSoto home. He thought Bree sounded like something wasn’t right but chalked it up to the headache she said she had. He told her that Joanne’s sister, Nancy, should be there shortly and then he would be on his way home also.
Supper had ended two hours ago. Throughout the whole meal Bree had been quiet, contributing to the conversation but seeming to be somewhere else. When the table had been cleared and dishes done, the young couple took their daughter outside in the warm evening air to play on the lawn.
“Home, Sweet, Home,” she said as she slowly opened the car door. Joanne smiled as she held onto Roy’s hand before she stood up.
Hearing a vehicle going by, Roy glanced up and noticed that it actually was coming to a stop in his driveway. He smiled nervously when he realized it was Johnny and Bree who pulled up. As he watched the couple exit the vehicle, he wondered what would be the best way to approach Bree and apologize to her for his awful behavior yesterday.
Bree walked out into the garage and purposely walked right between the arguing friends. At 5’2½” she barely stood chest high between the two but that was not going to stop her. As the two kept arguing over the top of her head, she knew she was going to have resort to drastic measures to get their attention.
Bree laughed as she goofed up the recording once again. She could tell that Jason was about ready to wring her neck. It felt good to be back in the studio again. He had called her the Wednesday after Joanne’s accident and told her about the studio and that they could use it in the evenings and weekends, she squealed with joy.
With the supper dishes done and the kitchen cleaned up, the guys were settling in to catch the movie on that evening. As Chet was so inclined to put it, “a horror flick” that was sure to keep them up tonight. Johnny took advantage of the movie to snag the magazine and hid in the captain’s office to read it undisturbed.
“Bree, honey, come wake up.”
Mandy stood there and just stared at the phone in her hand. She couldn’t believe her cousin just hung up on her. Sierra was standing in the playpen looking at her ‘auntie’ and giggling as she pulled back and forth on the rail. She glanced down at the happy child and smiled.
