Cab Of Squad 51: A Short Story

The tension in the cab of Squad 51 was palpable. Bad enough were the emotions when in route to a possible overdose without the additional turmoil Roy’s move to engineer had brought on them.
Some squad calls are routine; the paramedics know what to expect, but with possible overdose or suicide attempts, they know to expect the unexpected. Any combination of drugs, alcohol, weapons or rooftops could be involved.
The strain in the squad differed from the thickness in the air the past few shifts between the two men. This heaviness came from the unknown that awaited their arrival. "Left," Johnny stated just loud enough to be heard over the siren, never taking his eyes from the road as he directed his partner to the scene; wrinkled concentration
Thinking that maybe there was a problem, Roy and Johnny pulled their gear back out and turned back toward the house in case they were needed after all. In the chaos that followed the group rushed toward the pool house to check on the wife of the man who’d initially sent the two paramedics packing. The group pushed ahead of the two men who could offer the most help if the woman had in fact ingested some pills. The family pushed each other and the two men as they all herded around the edge of the pool. Roy had not so graciously been shoved to the left and lost his footing on the slippery side of the pool. He unceremoniously took a splash along with the drug box. Johnny had eventually made it into the fray only to find out the lady had taken a bottle of aspirin and agreed to seek advice from her personal physician. Johnny fished the drug box from the water and offered his hand to his partner, but Roy hadn’t wanted or needed his help. In a normal situation this would be a call that would be joked about and a great deal of teasing would have followed. After the past week of unrest between the two friends, the situation only seemed to add fuel to the already smoldering