Voices

of

Conflict

 by GCS & LK

---

Chapter Ten

Dixie couldn't believe that Jimmy moved aside to let her help Johnny. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth she carefully got up from the sofa and slipped past the tormented man without a sideways glance.

Jimmy reached out and grabbed her arm nearly jerking her off her feet. "No funny business."

She nodded her understanding, and as soon as he let his grip on her arm go, she rubbed it knowing she would sport several bruises where his fingers had dug into her skin. She stepped over and knelt in front of Johnny. She put one hand on his uninjured knee and the other on his forehead to check for fever. His skin felt warm. "Johnny can you hear me?" She lovingly pushed the hair from his face and tilted his head back enough that she could see the new colorful bruises left by Jimmy's hands.

Johnny barely moved save the swallowing and licking of his lips. "Sick." He uttered the one word Dixie already knew. He felt groggy and confused. With his eyes covered, each movement seemed to make the room rock and sway as if he were on a boat. He didn't like boats. He almost always got seasick on boats. "S..stop th..this b..boat." He gripped the arms of the wheelchair with white knuckles.

"Okay sweetheart. Let me take you to the bathroom and get you cleaned up." She stood and started around the back of the wheel chair.

'Don't let her out of your sight, Jimmy. She's up to something. You need to stop her.' Jimmy shook his head trying to clear the voices and the cobwebs brought on by too much beer. "Wait! No you can do it here." He abruptly stood and stepped toward her ready to stop her.

Dixie's hands went to her hips. One thing she knew how to do was care for a patient, take charge of that treatment and give directions to those around her. She wasn't about to let anyone not even this psychotic man stop her from giving Johnny the best care she could. He was too important to her for that, and she needed to find out how badly he had been affected by the Haloperidol. "Now you listen to me. I need to clean him up and cool him down. He's going to be sick whether you like it or not. Either you step aside and let me take him to the bathroom to clean him up or you get me a bowl of cool water and some clean rags. Now what's it going to be?"

Once again Jimmy saw his Amber with steel determination in her eyes when he got out of line. She could certainly whip him into shape. He loved it when she stopped him from doing something stupid. "Aw Amber I'm sorry. I'll get you the bowl of water." His shoulders slumped and he headed to the kitchen. 'What are you doing Jimmy? That's not Amber. You should be ordering her around. Don't let her get the upper hand. Go over there and show her who the boss is.' Jimmy kept moving toward the kitchen. "Shush now Amber's mad at us."

Dixie leaned close to Johnny's ear and whispered. "We need to figure out how to get out of here. I'm going to take the bandages off of your eyes and find out how much you can see. Even if your vision is blurry, at least maybe you can see where you're going. I know you don't feel well. He's given you some medication. Johnny, do you understand?"

"Yeah." He whispered so softly Dixie barely heard him. She smoothed the hair from his forehead and began pulling the tape that held the gauze in place. He winced as it pulled at his skin.

Jimmy came back with the bowl of water and rags. "Here's the water love."

Dixie shivered at the words of endearment he used. The back of her hand went reflexively to her mouth, and she wiped her mouth trying to erase the kiss he had put there earlier. "Thank you." She took the rags, dipped one in the water and began bathing Johnny's face and neck. "Better." He nodded. "Okay I'm going to finish removing the bandages now."

Johnny held his eyes closed until Dixie had removed all of the bandages. She washed his face and neck again. He felt a little less nauseated with the coolness. Slowly he blinked his eyes open. He couldn't open them completely. The light hurt his eyes. He could make out two shapes. They were blurry. He blinked several more times trying to clear his vision. It seemed to help. "Ah Dix, could you turn out the overhead light? Maybe turn on a lamp instead. It's kind of bright."

'Dixie, her name is Amber. No…no she's not Amber. Amber's dead.' Jimmy looked from Johnny to Dixie and stared at her for a long time.

Dixie saw him staring at her. The crazed look in his eyes made her afraid to move.

"Do it." Jimmy demanded. "I want him to see us."

The fact that Jimmy had begun to refer to himself as us as though he were more than one person did not go unnoticed.

Johnny looked over in Jimmy's direction to make sure he stayed put. He had already hurt Dixie. He would not allow him to hurt her again.

Dixie turned on the lamp and then switched off the overhead light. Johnny continued blinking. "Let me wash your eyes with water again. Maybe that will help."

Johnny leaned his head back which made the room spin, but he held it back to let Dixie wash his eyes anyway. When she was finished the cool water had helped him regain some clarity.

He looked over in the direction of the blurry man who had taken them hostage.

Thoughts raced through Johnny's mind.'I know this man, but how and why did he come here? What does he want with me?' Adrenalin pulsed through his veins. 'I've got to get Dixie out of here.'

Chapter Eleven

Thoughts raced through Johnny's mind. Something Jimmy said struck a chord in his memory. Jimmy had that sound in his voice. He'd heard it before. "She's my life, my savior." The way he spoke to Dixie now had that same inflection and tone. He tried to remember where he'd heard those words. He tried desperately to place Jimmy. He and Roy handled hundreds of rescue calls a month. Only a few stood out. Usually the miraculous saves, or the tragic losses, or of course the ones where he or Roy ended up injured. Something about this man and the call had stuck in his memory. Slowly the circumstances came back to him of the fated rescue where he met the man before him. 'It was a woman down call.'

When he and Roy arrived on the scene, what they found was heartbreaking even to two strong firefighters.

Jimmy leaned over his wife's body crying out to her begging her to wake up. He acted more like a dazed little kid than a grown man. Then he started babbling as if he were talking to someone else, but there was no one there. He kept saying that he had to call for help. That they couldn't stop him from helping his wife. He needed her. He loved her. He kept saying the men in the red truck would help her…make her better like the doctors had. He kept saying the side of the red truck said Rescue. 'Roy had to help him over to the sofa. He didn't seem to be able to think for himself. He kept asking the woman what to do.'

The woman lay on the floor comatose, barely breathing. She looked frail and her body appeared much older than he said she was. They didn't know it at the time, but cancer had stolen her beauty and left her body wasted away to near nothing. There wasn't much they could do for her but get her packaged and transported to Rampart where her life slipped away. They hated losing a patient, but in times like that it was almost a relief to know the patient no longer suffered.

'I thought we were going to have to call him in as a second patient, but then he seemed to calm down. We loaded him into the front seat of the ambulance, and he rode quietly. He didn't say another word until Dr. Brackett told him she had passed away. Then he lost it. He acted strange…confused. I can understand that, but he kept talking to someone, arguing really. He got so violent they had to give him a sedative. I remember they admitted him to the psych ward. Think John…what was it they said was wrong with him?'

"What are you looking at?" Jimmy glared at Johnny.

"I…I can't…" He tried to think of what to say. Jimmy wanted him to see him so he could do something to him. He had to make him believe he couldn't see at all. "It's too blurry, dark." Johnny moved his gaze to his hands hoping he looked as defeated as he actually felt. Here he was stuck in the wheel chair with the busted leg. His vision impaired, and Dixie caught up in the middle of this nightmare because of him.

"Johnny, maybe we need to reapply the bandages to your eyes." Dixie suggested soothingly. She reached over, smoothed the hair from his forehead and placed her hand on the side of his face careful of the bruises.

He moved his head as if he looked up at her, "I don't know." He conveyed a lot in the quick glance.

"NO!" Jimmy yelled. "You will not cover his eyes. He has to see us. He has to see. Make him see."

Dixie looked over at him. "I can not perform a miracle at your demand. He can't see. His eyes are not healed. The burns were serious. Unfortunately he may never have clear vision again." Her voice trembled with emotion. "Don't you see? His career could be over. His life as he knows it could have ended with this injury. Why are you doing this?" She sat down in the chair next to Johnny and covered her face with her hands sobbing.

Jimmy didn't like upsetting the pretty woman. He didn't like seeing Amber cry. "Hush now sweetie, don't cry. We'll make everything better." He moved over next to her and rubbed small circles on her back in a tender way that made her skin crawl.

Dixie peeked from between her fingers at Johnny. Their eyes met and they held each other's gaze for a moment.

'Don't be caught up in her female games Jimmy. She's not that upset. She's just his nurse. They work together. She doesn't love him like Amber loved you. It's time Jimmy, time to get this over with. You need to do it before morning. Before someone notices that they are missing.' Jimmy stopped trying to comfort Dixie and backed away. His eyes were wild looking and his mouth hung open. The vision of her hand lovingly placed on the side of Johnny's face flashed in his mind. "What are you trying to do? Are you having an affair with this man Amber?"

Dixie's head shot up, she looked from Johnny to Jimmy. This was not going the way she wanted it to. "I'm not. He's hurt. I'm a nurse. I care about all my patients." She stood up and took a few steps toward him. "I promise…I'm not."

"She's not." Johnny confirmed.

"Shut up! Both of you shut up! All of you just shut up! I need to think. I have to think. I have to figure this out. Amber why won't you help me figure this out?" He looked at Dixie.

"I'll help you. Let me help you." She held out her hand to him.

Johnny took advantage of the distraction to look around the room and try to devise his own plan.

Jimmy backed away from Dixie. A moment of clarity wrapped around his thoughts. "No…no you're not Amber. I…I thought you were, but you're not. You're just a nurse. You were there at the hospital. He was there. He came to our house. He killed her."

Those words stung when Johnny heard them.

He knew in his mind that they couldn't help her.

He knew in his mind that she had suffered enough.

He knew the cancer had ravaged her body, but in his heart, he still mourned his inability to beat death.

In his heart, he still mourned the loss of life.

In his heart, he saw only failure.

In his heart now knowing who had kidnapped he and Dixie he felt a strong desire to help the man, to get him to Rampart where they could help him. The paramedic in him wanted to save the victim. He found it hard to feel any animosity toward his kidnapper.

But in his mind, he knew that protecting Dixie from further harm had to be his first priority. Whatever happened to Jimmy would depend on Jimmy. If he attempted to hurt Dixie, Johnny would stop at nothing to protect her. Nothing.

Chapter Twelve

Not able to get back to sleep after his conversation with Chris Roy looked over at the clock beside the bed, just four o'clock and still two and a half hours before he had to get up. He sighed and threw his arm over his eyes in a John Gage fashion. That did nothing but make him think more about the events of the past couple of days.

He finally gave up and climbed out of bed and quietly walked over to the closet. He grabbed his uniform and shoes, some clean boxers, t-shirt and sox. He slipped out of the room to shower downstairs in the guest bath that Johnny usually used. It seemed like everything he did reminded him of Johnny. He smiled at himself and yawned.

Something was nagging at the back of his mind that he just couldn't figure out. That something made him wonder if everything was all right at Johnny's ranch. It was still way too early to head out there, but since he obviously couldn't sleep he decided to go ahead and make some coffee and shower. At least then maybe he wouldn't wake Joanne up.

He tiptoed down the stairs purposefully skipping the step that always creaked loudly. He knew not to step on that one from experience. Once when he and Joanne were headed upstairs for some wedded bliss, they had forgotten to skip that step and as soon as the loud creaking noise permeated the quiet house, not one but both children were once again awake. At the bottom of the stairs he turned and felt his way down the darkened hallway.

While he fumbled for the bathroom light switch he remembered something Chris had said about when he had gone after the ball in the woods. He had said he smelled something funny, like his aftershave only it didn't smell as good. 'What else was it he said?'

Roy placed his uniform and other things on the back of the commode and turned to the linen closet for a towel. He scratched the back of his head and thought for a minute. Chris had said he thought he heard something big and it smelled like bad aftershave. Roy stood in the middle of the bathroom for a few minutes considering what his young son had said. There had been a lot of people at Johnny's today. Any one of them could have been in the area where the ball rolled. One of the teenage boys could have been out there hiding with some teenage girl and they didn't want to get caught. One of the older men may have gone out there to…well 'use the facilities'. He shrugged his shoulders and decided to put the coffee on to make while he showered.

Once he found his way down the dark hallway to the kitchen he didn't turn on the light until he reached the sink. He knew where everything was so he didn't need much light anyway. He flipped on the light over the sink and grabbed the carafe from the coffee maker. He quickly rinsed it out and filled it with fresh water. He poured that into the back of the Mr. Coffee and replaced the carafe on the burner. Then he found the filter and filled it with the appropriate amount of coffee grounds to make a strong but not too strong pot of coffee. Johnny had shown him how he made it. Johnny's coffee was always good, rich but not bitter. Roy still couldn't get it quite right, but his coffee was much better than it used to be. He pushed the brew button and watched as the water began sputtering into the waiting container.

Something else worried him about Chris' story. He had echoed Johnny's words about someone being out there in the woods watching them, and then he had asked what if there was someone out there in the woods that wanted to hurt Johnny. 'Why would anyone be watching Johnny? Better yet, why would anyone want to hurt him?'

The hairs on the back of his neck just would not lie down.

He stood in the kitchen listening to the sounds of the coffee maker. Johnny had heard the sounds of someone nearby when he was in the hammock. They hadn't believed him, but he had even said he heard someone cough. 'Could Chris be right? Johnny had heard me at Rampart out on the patio. He could tell it was me before I even said anything. He does have really good hearing.' He chuckled to himself. 'He hears rattling in the squad all the time. Stuff I can't even hear, but Johnny, he knows it's there and usually finds it.'

Roy reached for a cup and waited for the last few drops to disappear into the rippled surface of the coffee. When it remained smooth he pulled out the carafe and poured himself a cup. Out of habit he raised the cup and smelled it. Then he took an experimental sip. 'That's good.'

Instead of going to the shower, Roy sat at the kitchen table and enjoyed the first morning cup of coffee. While he drank it he continued thinking about the past few days. His thoughts ran through the accident and the burns to Johnny's eyes. The party they had been planning for Cap and his picking Johnny up at Rampart for the day pass. 'I'm glad Dr. Brackett let him sleep at home tonight. When I went to get him yesterday morning out on the patio he looked so lost and worried.'

He slid his chair back and got up to refill his cup. He remembered Johnny looking so defeated. He remembered the way Johnny's mouth had sagged in a deep frown, and how he sat so still, obviously disturbed about his prognosis. A helpless John Gage was like a time bomb waiting to explode. But there was something else about that morning…what was it?

Roy returned to the table and tried to remember what else it was that had bothered him about the time he and Johnny spent on the patio. He raised the coffee to his lips to drink and stopped with the cup in mid air. 'There was someone there that looked familiar.'

How could he have forgotten that? The guy had been off in the corner. He had tried real hard to look away. 'He didn't want me to have time to recognize him.' Roy's military training started kicking in and he began to really consider the ramifications of someone who might actually be trying to get to Johnny. Then it suddenly occurred to Roy that the guy at Rampart looked like one of the guy's he had seen at the party.

'Nah, Roy, man you really have been hanging around Johnny too much. That's crazy.'

He put his cup in the sink and headed for the shower.