Chapter Text
Johnny hated water rescues. They were all horrible but some were more horrible than others. Until a few hours ago he thought the rescues near the beach were the worst because of the waves knocking him down. But he realized that being knocked down into sewer water was worse.
He wasn’t sure how many times he went under. It felt like at least ten, but he was sure that was an exaggeration. However many times it was he couldn’t get the smell off of him.
When they returned to the station, he had taken a scalding hot shower to warm up and secretly hoped it might magically melt the smell off too. Sadly, it did not.
Normally, he would complain to Roy but he wasn’t clear on if Roy was still mad at him. Roy had said that he’d rather Joanne be mad at him than Johnny be right. Johnny wasn’t sure if that was a joke or not. And if it was a joke, why exactly it was funny.
He briefly considered complaining to Chet but that seemed like a good way for Chet to tease him with literal shit jokes, possibly for many years to come. In the end he decided to go to bed early and hope the smell was gone when he woke up.
Johnny was glad he went to bed early because at 3 am they were called out for an apartment fire. The call was a disorganized mess. None of the neighbors appeared to be on speaking terms with each other. On top of that, the people who were already out of the building when they arrived to put the fire out seemed to be extremely mistrustful of authority and refused to discuss if everyone from their apartment was accounted for. Also some of the people seemed to be lying that everyone was accounted for because something illegal was going on in their apartment and they didn’t want it searched. Thus began the search of every single three bedroom apartment, room by room.
Many trips were made back and forth to Rampart. They didn’t get back to the station until 10 am. Because they had a shift again tomorrow Johnny went straight home and collapsed into bed.
At 9:30 pm Johnny decided he needed to get out of bed. His head and his stomach were hurting. He realized he hadn’t eaten anything since last night and he wasn’t sure when he last drank something. He decided cereal with milk would solve both problems. He really needed to shower and brush his teeth but that sounded like too much trouble so he ate and went back to bed.
The next morning Johnny got up and took a hot shower. He hurt all over. He assumed it was just from all the heavy lifting at the apartment and from the water hitting him in the sewer. The hot water did help some but he still felt bad. He blamed it on too much sleep and not enough food.
When he got to work Roy seemed to be in a good mood. Johnny decided to keep his mouth shut and make sure it stayed that way.
“Gage, you look awful. Did you stay out all night?” Chet teased.
“No, I did not. I’m just sore from the apartment fire,” Johnny answered testily.
“It’s probably from carrying that 400 pound man down the steps,” Roy joined in.
“I didn’t see him,” Marco remarked.
“He was bedbound. It was completely dead weight. We had to drag him down the stairs together. I’m sore from it too,” Roy explained.
Hearing that Roy hurt too was reassuring to Johnny. Ever since the Koki virus he had been slightly paranoid anytime he felt sick.
The morning was slow. Right after lunch the squad was called out to meet a helicopter. Roy groaned and Johnny clapped him on the back sympathetically. Roy hated heights as much as Johnny hated water.
“Whatta we got?” Roy asked as they got settled in the chopper.
“There’s a man trapped at the bottom of a canyon,” the crewman, Larry, answered. “No idea how he got there. A private plane called it in.”
They settled in for their flight. Soon they reached the area. Roy was nervously licking his lips in anticipation of climbing down the ladder.
“We’ll drop you off and then lower down the equipment,” Brad, the pilot explained.
Johnny started down first and then it was Roy’s turn. He was very relieved when his feet touched the ground.
A few feet away there looked to be a man laying face down. They took off running to him.
“Sir, can you hear me? We’re with the fire department,” Johnny announced.
There was no answer so Johnny crouched down.
“Roy, we can get back on the helicopter,” Johnny announced.
“Is he dead?” Roy asked in confusion.
“No, he’s a scarecrow,” Johnny answered as he turned it over to show the face.
“How…why…” Roy sighed. “Chopper 25, we are ready to be picked up. It’s a false alarm.”
Johnny, Roy, and the scarecrow were back on the helicopter.
“What are you going to do with him?” Johnny asked.
“Nothing, I just didn’t want anyone else to think it was a person,” Roy explained.
“I know that but maybe we can use it to prank Chet,” Johnny answered.
Before he could say anyone else the helicopter started to lose altitude at an alarming rate. Johnny’s head smacked the side of the helicopter and his ears popped painfully. He was wondering if he was about to die. And then as quickly as it happened it was over.
“I’m going to make an emergency landing,” Brad called out. “I don’t know what just happened but I don’t want to risk it happening again.”
Soon they were landing in an open field.
“Everyone okay?” Roy asked.
Johnny’s ear hurt but he figured that was to be expected and that it would go away soon so he just nodded.
“Nice of you fellas to join us,” Chet commented when they finally arrived back at the station.
“Our helicopter almost crashed,” Roy said.
“I know. You’ll do anything to get out of work,” Chet teased and then turned serious. “Did anyone get hurt?”
“We all banged around a little but we’re fine,” Roy answered.
Johnny nodded in agreement but regretted it because it hurt his ear. He was sure it was just from the drop in pressure. He was very wrong.