51 Reunion

Part 1

Hank Stanley smiled as he knocked on Johnny Gage's front door. The house still looked the same, though since the last time he'd been here (and he hated to admit that it had been close to seventeen years) Johnny had added a barn and a volleyball net in the yard. A young woman answered the door and if Hank hadn't known better he would have sore he was looking at Leah. The last time Hank had seen Johnny's daughter she was five and clinging to her father's neck with tears streaming down her cheeks. But now, Dolly was all grown up. How did that happen? Hank remembered the day she was born. Roy had said she looked like a doll the first time he held her—and had unintentionally named her. When Hank held her for the first time he couldn't help but agree with her "uncle", with big brown eyes and thick dark hair she did look like a doll. She smiled and Hank suddenly saw Johnny in her features, he guessed she inherited what Roy deemed the 'Gage grin.'

"Come on in Chief," She said leading him into the living room. "My dad and Uncle Roy are around back."

Hank took the familiar walk toward Johnny's backyard. How many times had all of fifty-one been here for a get-together? Pictures lined Johnny's living room and hallway walls, serving as a test to how much of each other's lives they had missed in the last fifteen years. Most were of Dolly in various stages of her life—her first day of kindergarten, prom, high school graduation—but some were of Chris and Jenny DeSoto, both of them as children and now as adults with their own families. And one—only one—of Leah. It hung above the fireplace and it was the only photo that Hank had seen in the house of Johnny's late wife. She stood in a field—the field right outside this house—her long black hair blowing in the wind, with a smile so infectious that Hank could almost hear her laugh as he looked at the photo. He knew Johnny had taken it before she'd gotten sick and figured that's why it hung on the wall now. That photo served as a reminder that Leah had once been happy and healthy.

The backyard hadn't changed much in fifteen years, there was still the fire pit, picnic tables, and inground pool. Johnny and Roy were sitting with a man that Hank first thought was Chris DeSoto but then quickly realized it was actually his son—Johnathan. With a closer look, Hank could tell that Chris's hair was starting to thin at the top of his head, just as Roy's had done at his age. Speaking of Roy's hair, it was now completely white, unlike Johnny's which had only greyed near his temples.

"Cap!" Johnny leaped to his feet the second he saw Hank, leaving the older man to wonder how his knees allowed him this swift movement after so many injuries back in the day. After his promotion to fire chief all those years ago, Hank hated hearing the men from fifty-one still call him 'cap' but he'd grown to love it.

"Johnny, Roy." Hank shook hands with both of them men. He watched as Chris DeSoto stood up from his place at the table.

"How's retirement Chief?" Chris asked.

"It's not bad, Dr. DeSoto," Hank emphasized the title before his last name. Despite getting married and having Johnathan at seventeen, Chris had graduated from medical school with honors and became a trauma surgeon at Rampart General, working under Kelly Brackett.

"Actually, you're looking at the new head of the emergency department," Chris said with a smile.

"Wow! I kind of figured Dr. Brackett wouldn't ever give up that job." Another test to how long it had been since Hank had seen his men. The last time Hank had seen Chris DeSoto he was just applying to medical school, now he was the head of Rampart's Emergency Department. Where has the time gone?

Chris smirked, "he got an offer he couldn't refuse."

But before Hank could ask what that offer was, Kelly and Dixie Brackett followed Dolly into the yard. Kel watched Dolly out of the corner of his eye, Hank could tell that he too saw the girls late mother when looking at her.