Johnny's bad day

As the station was getting ready for the day, senior fireman Roy Desoto was outside in the garage with Captain Stanley discussing Roy's honeymoon with Joanne. When Roy and Cap were done talking they went in to have a cup of coffee and chat with the guys before they had to go on a call.

         Roy went over to pour himself a cup and turned around to find Johnny Gage nowhere to be found "he must still be in bed" thought Roy. Roy made his way to the sleeping quarters to find Johnny's bed unslept in. It had been folded over as Chet had done the night before. As Roy made his way out of the sleeping quarters he heard what sounded like throwing up, coming from the bathroom. Roy started to approach the bathroom door then the sound changed from throwing up to weeping.

      Roy leaned into the bathroom door and said: " Johnny, are you in here?" Roy waited for a few minutes before he heard " Yeah, Roy I'm in here." Roy thought of how he wanted to approach this. From past experiences he knew had to be careful about how he asked Johnny if he was ok because Johnny has Asperger's.

   "uh, Johnny." he uttered. " yeah." Johnny weakly said. " you, uh, you sound sick. You alright?" Roy said cautiously. " yeah Roy, my dinner last night just didn't sit right." Johnny lied. "Don't worry about me Roy, just go on your honeymoon with Joanne." Johnny continued. "You sure?" asked Roy. "yeah, Roy. I'm sure. I don't want to be a burden."

     Roy was shocked at what he heard Johnny was like his little brother they had been partners for close to 3 years. " ok, junior." Roy said with concern in his voice. After Roy had left to finish his cup of coffee, Johnny had found enough strength to get up off the bathroom floor and clean himself up before heading to get dressed to go on calls with the guys.

     Johnny had gotten dressed and made his way to the kitchen to have coffee with Cap, Mike, Chet, Marco, and Roy. When he entered the kitchen, he poured himself a cup of coffee but when he turned around to sit at the table he got dizzy but luckily Roy wasn't in the room to see it happen he would have insisted that he stay and take care of Johnny.

    After they went on a call of a  45-year-old male heart attack victim, they went to Rampart General Hospital to fill up on supplies, Dr. Kelly Brakett stopped Johnny on his way out to put the supplies in the squad, since Roy had already left to go on his honeymoon with Joeanne, he had to drive the Squad back to Station 51.

     Dr. Brakett had noticed something was off with Johnny, "Johnny, how are you feeling today?" Dr. Brackett questioned. "Honestly Doc, Not so good," Johnny confessed. " I haven't been able to hold down my food and I feel like I'm running a fever," Johnny explained.

     Kel paused a minute. " Johnny, do you remember when you had malaria?" Kel asked him. " yeah, vaguely, but yeah." Johnny replied, not sure where he was going with this. " I said that it could return at any time in days, months, even years," Kel informed.        "Are you implying that it's back?" Johnny asked worriedly. "Well Johnny, I'm not gonna lie to you it is a possibility. But the only way to know for sure is to examine you." Kel calmly said.

    "I'll come back if I think I need too. But for right now I don't think I need to, it feels more like the flu." Johnny lied through his teeth he knew Kel was right but he also knew that if he did come back Kel would call Roy and as Johnny had said before he didn't want to be a burden to Roy. Roy had been there when he had the Cokie fever virus, he was there when Johnny had his broken bones.
 
    Johnny headed out to the squad to put the supplies in the compartments and head to the station. He was exhausted and what Dr. Brackett had said kept replaying in his mind. When Johnny reached Station 51 his stomach was in knots from the day he had, so he decided to skip dinner and go straight to bed. When Johnny woke up it was noon the next day. " Did I really sleep that long? And why didn't Cap or Chet or any of the other guys try and wake me up?" Johnny thought.

    It took him maybe 10 to 15 minutes to work up enough strength to get out of bed and get dressed to go into the kitchen and see what Chet had cooked for breakfast. When Johnny had entered the kitchen he saw the engine gone so he assumed that Cap and the other guys had a call while he was asleep.

   He went over to the oven to find that Chet hadn't had a chance to fix anything, but yet again, he wasn't hungry. In fact, he felt worse than he had before he laid down. Johnny took the time to find a piece of paper and a pen and write Cap a note telling him that he needed to head to Rampart and that he probably wouldn't be back.

   Johnny headed to the Emergency! doors before a dizzy spell hit him and he lost consciousness right as he made it to the doors. Luckily head nurse Dixie McCall saw him hit the ground and yelled at Dr. Mike Morton to get Kel and Dr. Joe Early. 2 men were walking by with an empty stretcher and saw Johnny hit the ground as well and rushed out with Dixie to get him into Rampart.

     When the 2 medics got Johnny in treatment room 1, they had him set up with 2 iv's ringers lactate and ice packs for his fever which was now 106.6. By the time Kel and Joe had reached the treatment room, Johnny's fever had gone up a full degree and was fighting to stay conscious when Kel went around the examining table "Johnny, Johnny! Can you hear me?" Kel asked but all he got was a half mumbled "yeah".

     Joe had gone straight to examining Johnny and when he got his diagnosis he gave Kel a look to check him over just in case he had missed something. Kel had finished looking Johnny over; "Dix, keep the ice packs coming and try to keep his fever down as best you can. Joe, can I talk to outside?" "Sure, Kel."

   They gave Johnny one last concerning look then left to talk about what they had witnessed. After discussing Johnny's condition, Kel and Joe went into the break room to call Cap. After ending the call with Cap, Kel and Joe went back to Johnny's room to help Dix and then assess what they could because of how long Johnny held off and with him fighting to stay conscious they had no way of asking the questions they needed to.

    After they did what needed to do they went to meet up with the Cap and the guys to talk about what they knew and what they need to do. " Do you think that we should call Roy?" asked Chet. "Honestly Chet, No I don't think we should." said Kel "why not?" asked Marco. "When Johnny was getting set up all he kept saying was don't call Roy, I don't want to be a burden." Kel explained. " I don't understand. Why would he say that?" Cap asked. "Honestly Cap, I don't know but we should obey his wishes for now. But from what Joe and I have concluded about Johnny, his malaria has returned. I'm sorry."

    As Joe and Kel left to go do their rounds Cap and the guys stood where they were and took a moment to process what they just heard. Mike and Dix stayed with them to provide comfort as best they could if needed. Cap and the guys gathered themselves
"May we go visit him?" Cap asked Dix.

    Dix froze a moment and traded looks with Mike before saying " I don't see why not, but don't expect him to respond he might not be conscious."
" I understand Dix," said Cap. He turned to the guys " Come on guys, lead the way, Dix."

   As they approached Johnny's room they could hear Kel working on him, when they thought it would be a better idea to wait in the break room with Joe and Mike, Kel had opened the door enough to pop his out " It's ok guys come on in." Cap and Chet turned around to go back but Stoker and Marco went to take the engine back to the station.

    Kel had a grin across his face when the guys entered the room. " His fever has gone down at least 5 degrees since I last checked. I gave him something so he could sleep but man was he lucky."    "He really was. I'm glad he listens to you Doc." Cap stated. "Should we call Roy and tell him Johnny was sick," Chet questioned. "Nah Chet, Johnny can do that tomorrow."