Head back to the main page?

The girl had a shocked expression and her eyes weren't responding. Takei swung the penlight over her pupils again to make sure. It wasn't that her pupils were fixed, it was that her skin was already clammy and somewhat grey.

"She's unresponsive," Takei said curtly and let the more senior officers take care of her from there. This wasn't a good situation at all. Perhaps it was too close to home for her, really. One day a long time ago she'd seen such a shocked look on a student. That student had died shortly afterwards.

Mink slid off the seat and allowed Redburne to see the patient. The dark skinned woman gave two glances: one at Takei, and the other at the second girl standing just outside their van. Mink took that as her cue to get the girl away from there.

"We're going to need to take statements, right?" Takei asked one of the passing police officers, and he nodded. "Honey, why don't you try and talk to him about this. We're doing all we can, all right?"

The blond-headed accident victim nodded mutely, and turned away. Mink wasn't sure that her friend was going to survive to see the hospital. Unfortunately, the rubble and other cars had to be cleared away from the accident site before anything else could be done.

Two cars, a bus-stop, and a coffee shop wall. All three seriously trashed. Two already dead, including the driver of the first car. Jimenez had established that the man had been shot while driving, and the cops nearby had indicated that there was a gang-shooting in a building a few blocks away. Whether this man was a victim of the gang's violence or just a bystander, no one knew, and probably would never know.

The hazard team arrived and started pulling the cinderblocks off the bus stop, when they saw something moving in the building itself. Captain Ward hastily stopped the digging and motioned to the EMT crew.

"Come on," Hyde said, tossing his hair over his shoulder and getting down into the rubble to move it off the arm they spied. "She's still alive."

"Why haven't we gotten a good count on how many victims there are yet?" Demanded Barratt, his voice booming over the sound of the lifts and whine of engines.

"Because the two people working in the cafe were busy at the time, and both had their backs turned," Takei said, "she's trying to remember, but I think we've got all but this one out. There's ... no room for anyone else, is there?"

She surveyed the damage, as Hyde and Jimenez worked on the woman under the wall. Her other arm was crushed, and her legs were at odd angles. There was a good possibility that she would be paralyzed, as she wasn't screaming or in what appeared to be a whole lot of pain.

Dr alHadim had a grim look on his dark face, as he examined the woman. She was going to need more of their supplies than they had easily available. Others were using the neck braces, back boards...

"Get a stabilization board behind her, then move her into the van," the doctor said. Takei looked nervously from the inside of the dusty rubble filled cafe, and out into the van. There were two uniforms helping get the covered body out and onto the Medical Examiner's side of the street. The girl didn't make it, her friend would be miserable.

This took all the afternoon, and then some. Their day was long, exhausting. Their hands were bruised from the dust and having to move blocks to even get to their patients. The jaws of life had to be used to get the first victim out of his car, and even then it was just to move his body. Had they known that the other woman was in the building still, they would have concentrated their efforts on it.

In all, it was not what any of them would have called an ideal day.

Jimenez paced around their office, not even having changed out of the dirty blood-stained shirt or jacket. Hyde sat in his chair at the corner of their large table, eyes down at his hands. Dr alHadim read through paper after paper about their performance, while Barratt and Redburne discussed things with one of the local administrators.

Takei hoped that they wouldn't get into trouble for their lack of response in the one woman's case. They could hardly know that she was there. The police had done everything they could - and they were spread thin that day too. The gang shooting event had far wider repercussions than just the two drug lords that were invaded.

"Will they be charged with this, as... maybe accessory to manslaughter?" Barratt asked. He was trying to change the subject but the local Lieutenant would hear nothing of it.

"It's an election year, Barratt, and this accident has had nothing but bad written on it from the start. TV crews there, I mean, how many people?" He gave off a sputter.

"Sir, with all due respect, you weren't there, and you do not know the situation well enough to-" Redburne started to say but she was cut off by the Lieutenant's sharply raised hand.

"I do know the situation, and I know that your response time, the fatalities at the scene, and the general lack of preparedness has a disaster coming for the mayor's reelection campaign."

"Well maybe if the mayor would see his way to funding more supplies our way," Jimenez said darkly, "we would have been able to transport Mrs Lee sooner. Of course she wasn't exactly waving a flag to point us in the right direction either."

"So now it's the victim's responsibility to --" Lieutenant Grey demanded, but Barratt cut him off.

"I think it's time for you to let me debrief my people, Lieutenant, and for you to take a long look at our budget before you start accusing us of any wrong-doing. There are three other qualified EMT units within spitting distance and they were not requested, even though I heard Porter yelling for them."

Josh Porter, the cop on the beat. Poor guy, Hyde thought. I'd hate to be in his shoes about now, especially since now he was the one going to take the rap for not 'getting them here on time'. What a farce.

Since nothing more needed to be said, at least nothing of any value other than to raise voices again, Lt Grey left the building in a huff and stomped to his nice Mercedes.

"Tell me how a guy like that affords a Mercedes on 'our' salary?" Asked Redburne. There was no answer, except a faint grumbling among the guys, and an acknowledgement that clearly the Mayor knew who to place in charge of things when he needed to look good.

There was no lecture coming, of course, no debriefing that hadn't already been covered. Barratt knew his group had done everything within their power. There just hadn't been enough people, with enough supplies, and enough space to move.

alHadim grunted, "do you think if we requisitioned those extra supplies now, they would get through?"

"I think if we did, someone would claim we didn't know how to use them or some line," Takei said.

Barratt stood up and ran his hand over his short greying blond hair. "Let's go home," he said, "we'll just have to deal with this as it goes."

Most everyone got up and started putting their work clothing in the 'to do' bins, but Jimenez as per custom remained behind. Hyde held his big hand over the slender man's shoulder. "You could come to the meeting wtih me, if you like," but Jimenez shook his head.

"Thanks, but I've got studying to do."

"You should relax, mon," Hyde tilted his head. "I'll send up a pizza for you and next time, you come with me to the club."

Jimenez waved off the odd dredlocked man, smiling. "Your club is too full of shit for me, man. Poetry and jazz isn't my style."

"There is a new waiter," Hyde said, his deep voice lilting in the way that he had, mockingly pushing for Mateo to come out of curiosity. "You know every one who works at the cafe is flamin'."

"I'm not flaming, Clay!" Mateo blushed, "... is he cute?"

"Ah - you would have to decide for yourself," Hyde laughed, on his way out.

"Next time, Clay," Jimenez yelled over his shoulder, "and call that pizza in! I've got cash for it."

***

The EMT crew decided that they were blessed with better home lives than the Fire crew. Some event or other had caused one of the divorcee's to have one of those really big blowups about custody or something. The whole station felt it, whenever Steele had to deal with his ex-wife. And well they should - because even though the EMTs and the Rescue guys could work independantly of the fire squad, they all looked up to the man for guidance. And when he was in a mood, the whole place knew it.

alHadim wanted to recommend ... something to the man. But there was nothing more than a sympathetic "women - who needs them?" to be said. Eventually, as all things would, the situation burnt itself out and was pushed to the background with yet another call to assist some rider in distress nearby.

Barratt got to play with his big toys this time, and was in his element as they got the jaws of life out from Moose. Some dumb idiot had played tag with a telephone pole. Broke it, dropped the lines, started a minor electrical fire, and all that great jazz.

Everyone was pretty busy that morning.

***

Days went by in an odd succession as the groups in the station were shown the 'fourth corner' of their building. It was built to hold dragons. Barratt caught the eye of Redburne, whose excited jitters didn't calm and would hardly help her keep a patient calm.

"Of all things, dragons," Redburne kept saying to herself. Of course, she believed in dragons long before the portals opened up over the Alabaster building. How could she not? With two young children and an imaginative husband, she kept up on all the weird stuff happening in the world. Now she had several worlds to choose from.

The tall-dark-spooky Sanger guy hit it off with alHadim almost instantly, and spoke his native tongue almost fluently enough to believe that he wasn't caucasian himself. He handed off a pamphlet to the doctor, who shared it with the others. Distractedly, Sanger waved at the air and abruptly a small blue dragon landed in the cement parking lot outside the building.

That caused a bit of a stir of course, but it was a good one. No less of a stir than the silver and blue dragons above chasing after a helicopter which had apparently been stolen. Things were going to get immeasurably stranger for this city, in the near future.

Barratt asked Mister Engell if he could take a couple guns from his collection along on their little 'journey' because he personally believed that dragons were dangerous things. "Look at them, they're huge, they're toothy, they breathe fire for god's sake!"

"No you may not bring your guns along," Engell said, but with a smile he added, "you won't want to be shooting at any of the ones you'll encounter. Maybe smack them around, but hardly shoot them."

A building fire brought all three portions of 108 together, and brought with it a most unusual discovery. A winged wolf named Eaaeril. Their exposure to the few dragons on the police force was all they had to go by... Until...