Toned Out
by Tammie Waters (TamaraC_1@msn.com)
An hour after their shift should have ended, Station 51’s A-shift made their way into the kitchen. Too tired to stand anymore, they began to drop bonelessly into the chairs surrounding the kitchen table.
"I don’t think I can move another inch…" moaned Roy. He slid far down into the seat, with the back of his head resting on the back of the chair.
"I think my arms have fallen off!" Johnny mumbled from his seat at the table. He sat, face down on the Formica tabletop, his arms dangling in front of him, too tired to even lift them to the table and rest his head on them.
One of the paramedics from B-Shift was standing at the stove making a pot of coffee. He grabbed six coffee cups and set them on the table.
Marco reached out toward the mug, trying to get some feeling back into his fingers.
"Just throw it in my eyes," grumbled Chet. "It’ll work faster that way."
"I’m too tired to drink," moaned Johnny, his face still down on the table. "Just put it into an IV bag and pump it straight into a vein."
Both Roy and Mike took their cups in silence. Cap didn’t move, as if reaching for the mug was too much effort.
Quiet reined over the kitchen.
Abruptly the tones blared out in the apparatus bay. Startled, each man from A-shift reacted to the tones.
Roy slid out of his chair, landing on his backside under the table. Johnny jerked his knee up and hit the edge of the table, bringing tears to his eyes. Chet and Marco jumped up and crashed into each other. Marco began sliding to the floor, taking Chet along for the ride. Mike, sitting with his chair tipped back on two legs, fell backwards and slammed his head on the floor hard enough to see stars.
Only Cap was able to make it safely to his feet. "Whoa, guys! It’s not for us!" It took a second or two for the Cap’s words to sink in.
"Is everybody OK?" Cap looked cautiously around the table at the state of his crew. He saw that four of his men were laying on the floor, and the fifth was leaned over the table, clutching his knee in pain. "John, Mike?"
"I’m fine." Mike tried to roll out of his chair. Cap reached out and offered a hand to his engineer, pulling him back up onto his feet.
"John, you OK, pal?"
"Peachy," mumbled Johnny, his arms still wrapped around his knee. "Just peachy."
"Now that everyone’s awake," Cap gave a tired smile, "Let’s go home and get some sleep!"
"All right."
"Come on, Junior." Roy grabbed the back of Johnny’s collar and pulled him out of his chair. "Let’s get out of here before you leave a permanent indentation of your face on the table."
"Very funny," griped Johnny as he limped after his partner towards the locker room. "You’re such a comedian."
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