Dr. Kelly Brackett stood up and leaned on his desk. He put all his weight on his hands. He knew that was the only thing that would keep them from shaking with rage. Perhaps it would even keep him from strangling the paramedic.
"All right!" he blasted, staring the young man square in the eye."Let's have it. I know you know what an expensive piece of equipment this is." He nodded at the mangled remains of the bio-phone on his desk."I want to know what happened to it and I want the truth! 'You won't believe it' just isn't going to cut it with me!"
Johnny swallowed hard. He knew there was no getting out of this one. He took a deep breath. "An elephant sat on it ," he admitted in a barely audible tone. He prepared for the explosion he was bound to be at ground zero for.
"WHAT?!!"
Johnny closed his eyes and winced. He knew that Brackett was going have more than one word to say. He awaited the tirade he was sure would follow.
Brackett sat back down hard. He tried to remember all those ways Dixie had tried to teach him to control his temper. He wasn't having much luck. He tried counting to ten. That didn't help much either. Finally, he trusted himself to speak.
"Johnny, you were working a multiple on the 5. There might be some feasible way, in a situation like that in which your equipment could have been damaged. Why don't you try again?" The forced patience in his voice was glaringly obvious.
"You wanted the truth," Johnny muttered.
Brackett had the overwhelming urge to pick up his paperweight and lob it at the paramedic. He fought it. Dix would be proud. "Start at the beginning," he said evenly.
"Well, Doc," Johnny began nervously, " You're right. It was a multiple car pile-up. There were three different units going flat out --- well, I guess you know that. It was a real mess. Finally we got the worst victims transported and some of us were treating the more minor injuries by the time they started moving out the vehicles so they could re-open the freeway. One of the cabs of one of the big rigs had been involved and the radiator was shot so it had to be towed. They brought in another cab but in order to transfer the trailer the -- ah cargo had to be unloaded for their own safety." He stole a glance at Brackett to see how he was taking this so far. He was still smoldering.
"Ya see, Doc, it was a trailer full of circus animals. Zebras. Camels and ---"
"Elephants?" Brackett finished for him.
There was no emotion in his voice. That made Johnny more nervous than if Brackett had been yelling. He started talking even faster. "There was a school bus in the middle of all that. All the kids were okay, thank God, but they were scared and there was a lot of stuff up there we really thought they should be distracted from so the handlers were kinda putting the elephants through their paces and well....maybe I got a little distracted too. Those animals are pretty amazing but I guess they are used to having a little more space to work in and well before I knew it.........."
"The bio-phone became part of the act?"
"I don't know how it happened, Doc. It just did. I really feel bad about all this but on the upside -- the kids weren't scared anymore. Then, of course, I was a little terrified myself." Johnny flashed his crooked grin hopefully. Brackett seemed to have no reaction. Johnny got more nervous and he babbled on more. "'Course, the only thing that gave me the strength to go on at all was the fact that I knew that Brice and Bellingham were going to have a conversation just like this with the battalion chief because an elephant also sat on their squad -----" Johnny stopped himself . He swallowed again. He saw his career going down the drain as he waited for Brackett to respond.
Brackett sat back in his chair. He stared at Johnny for a minute then steepled his fingers and took a deep breath. "I've only got one thing to say to you, John Gage."
"What's that?" Johnny's voice shook a bit, expecting the worst.
Click on the doctor to hear what Brackett had to say.
(For those without sound Brackett says "Get outta here, Hose Jockey!)
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