Copyright:April 2002 By Robin R. Neher

THIS STORY IS WRITTEN FOR PLEASURE AND IS NOT INTENDED TO INFRINGE ON ANY PREEXISTING COPYRIGHTS THAT MAY BE VIOLATED. FEEL FREE TO SHARE WITH FRIENDS, BUT NOT FOR PROFIT. THIS STORY IS FICTIONAL, A WORK OF THE WRITER'S IMAGINATION. THE CHARACTERS AND INCIDENTS USED IN THIS STORY ARE PURELY FICTIONAL AND ARE NOT BASED ON ANY PERSON AND/OR PERSON'S ACTUAL EXPERIENCES.

Title: My way or the highway

Author: Robin R. Neher

E-mail: NRobin1027@aol.com

Rating:R

Pairing: N/A

Archive: Yes

Fandom: Emergency!

Summary: When Roy and his Son have a fight, Roy kicks him out and Chris moves in with some friends of his. Can Johnny get Roy to forgive and let Chris come home?

Content Warning: Harsh language. Implied violence.

My Way Or The Highway
by Robin R. Neher

"Roy, what the hell happened to you?" Johnny asked as Roy arrived for work at station fifty-one.

"See this bruise?" Roy asked as he opened his locker, which was next to Johnny's. "My seventeen year old Son did that!"

"Chris?" Johnny said. "No way! He'd know better then to hit you! I'd bust his head if he did!"

"Well, he punched me." Roy told Johnny. "Right in the jaw."

"How? You're taller than him." Johnny reminded Roy. "What the hell happened?"

"I tell you, Johnny, that boy has been getting more and more unruly." Roy told Johnny. "Chris has been getting out of hand! I've tried grounding, spanking, taking his car away, nothing works."

"Roy, what happened?!" John demanded as he buttoned his work shirt.

"I found drugs in Chris's room." Roy finally answered. "Pot."

"I tried pot when I was his age." Johnny shrugged. "I think just about every kid tries it."

"We both know that pot can led to harder stuff." Roy reminded Johnny. "Anyway, when Chris got home, I confronted him about it."

"Go on." Johnny prompted.

"He and I got into a shouting match. I told him he was grounded, he told me to go to hell." Roy said. "I smacked him in the face, he hit me in the stomach, then punched me in the jaw. That's when I told him to leave and that he was no longer my Son. He packed up his room, loaded it in that damn Firebird of his, and roared away into the night."

"What does Joanne have to say about all this?" Johnny wondered

"She's mad at me." Roy sighed. "As usual, I'm the bad guy."

"Oh, oh." Johnny muttered.

"I'm banished from our bedroom." Roy told his best friend. "I had to sleep on the couch last night! John, I just don't get it! You try to discipline a kid, his mother thinks you're a god awful monster!"

"She may not know the whole situation." Johnny guessed. "Mothers are the ones who see the kids as angels and are sometimes blind to the mistakes kids make. Mine was like that, In her eyes, her Johnny could do no wrong."

"But your mother never had to deal with you using anything harder than weed." Roy countered.

"No, I was just very skillful at hiding it from her and Dad. They worked alot and I was on my own much of the time. They figured I was safe on the reservation, but the truth was, as soon as they were gone, I caught a bus into town and partied with my friends. One was eighteen, so getting booze and cigarettes was no problem."

"What about school?" Roy asked.

"I went whenever I felt like it." Johnny shrugged. "The teachers hardly knew that I existed, nor did they care if I was there or not. To them, I was just a worthless half-breed. They didn't care whether I could read or write. So, when I did go, I sat in the very back and listened very carefully to what that teacher was saying. I was basically my own teacher."

"How awful." Roy shook his head.

"It was a different time, Pally." Johnny explained. "On the rez back then, A half breed like me was ignored and thought to be diseased."

"Johnny, at least you tried to go to school. Chris hates it." Roy told him. "What did I do wrong with him? Did I not spend enough time with him when he was little? Maybe I didn't spank him enough."

"Roy, you are a great parent to those kids, both you and Joanne do the best you can. The trouble is that kids today are facing far more dangers then we ever dreamed of as kids! They have to face things that would make us sick everytime they go to school. They face alot more pressure to fit in then we did." Johnny told his friend. "This is the eighties, Pally."

"I should've seen the signs. I'm a Paramedic." Roy shook his head. "Joanne saw Chris changing before her very eyes and tried to tell me. It's my fault. If only I'd listened to her."

"I wish you two would listen to me." Captain Hank Stanley boomed, startling the men. "Roll call started ten minutes ago!"

The tones sounded, before either man could reply.

Station 51, drug overdose at the school. 722 Horton Place. 722 Horton Place. Crosstreet: Suess. Timeout: 07:30.

"Station 51, KMG-365." Cap replied as his crew got aboard the trucks.

The squad rolled out followed by the engine, code R. Roy pushed his family problems from his mind and got mentally ready for the task at hand. He knew that lives depended on him being professional.

*

An hour later, Roy and Johnny were on the way back to 51's. Johnny was at the wheel.

"LA, squad 51, available." Roy reported.

Squad 51. Sam responded.

"Johnny, that kid back there OD'ed on reds that he bought from a classmate!" Roy hissed. "No wonder Chris got turned onto pot!"

"Roy, drugs like that have been in school halls for years." Johnny offered.

"Where the hell are the teachers?" Roy asked. "They're the ones who are supposed to keep the school safe!"

"Have you seen how many kids were in that school we just came from? Teachers have a hard time as it is! They can't watch every kid all the time!"

"Doesn't seem like any adult can." Roy said. "If Joanne had kept a better eye on Chris-"

"Roy, knock it off!" Johnny ordered. "What Chris did, he did himself! He chose to use pot! He succumbed to the peer pressure! All kids do!"

"Yeah, because I wasn't there for my Son!" Roy said. "If I'd been more of a father-"

"Roy, you're not to blame for this!" Johnny cut him off. "You did what you had to do! You have a daughter to think of too!"

"And my son is living who knows where with god knows who." Roy said. "My wife won't so much as say a word to me. He calls her all the time. Everywhere I turn, I can't win!"

"I know it must seem that way now, but who knows what Chris has told his mother." Johnny replied. "He's probably told her that it was tea in his room, not weed. He probably told her that you're a bully Kids have a way of being quite manipulative."

As the squad arrived back at 51's, Roy was thinking that Johnny was right.

"I just wish that things could've happened differently last night." Roy sighed. "I can't forgive Chris telling me to go to hell though. I'm the adult, not him."

"I agree he was wrong." Johnny offered as he and Roy joined the others in the station's kitchen. "What if I took him to live with me for awhile? I think Chris really needs a unbiased friend who'll listen."

"Johnny, if you can find Chris, then go ahead. I'm so pissed right now that I might hurt him bad if we were in the same house." Roy stated.

"I don't blame you." Cap said. "Johnny told me about Chris and the drugs. Roy, he may have been wrong to hit you, but you were just as wrong to hit him."

"I was." Roy admitted. "You're a father. Cap, if you were me, what would you have done?"

"To be frank, I'd be just as angry as you are now. I would not have thrown Chris out though. He would've been in trouble, but I would not have disowned him or my daughter." Hank answered. "Kids need to know that we love them and that our love is unconditional."

"Chris is not the sweet little guy he was just a few years ago." Roy told his friends. "I don't even know him anymore. "

"Perhaps you never knew him at all." Johnny suggested. "When was the last time you spent any real time with your kids?"

"John, I'm with them all the time when I'm not here." Roy answered.

"Being with him at home and spending time with Chris are two different things." Hank said. "When was the last time you and Chris had a father/Son talk? Went on a fishing trip? When was the last time you ate a meal with your family?"

"With me working much of the time and Joanne at this or that meeting, family time is hard to come by. It seems that everytime I try to do something with my kids, they've always got other plans with their friends." Roy replied.

"I was the same way when I was a kid." John soothed. "I was never close with my folks."

"Never?" Hank asked.

"They worked all the time." Johnny shrugged. "They had to travel into the city for work."

"Do you wish you had been close with them?" Roy asked his best friend.

"Sometimes." Johnny admitted. "I wish I'd gotten to know my parents and they me."

"It's too late for Chris and I." Roy lamented. "He and I are miles apart, even in the same room."

"Then do something to bridge the gap." Johnny encouraged.

"It's too late. When I threw him out of the house, I threw him out of my life." Roy insisted. "I may be losing Joanne too over this."

"Have you called or tried to tell her your side of this?" John asked.

"She won't listen." Roy answered. "She called me a liar when I told her about the pot."

"How do you know unless you try?" Cap asked. "Go call her. That's an order."

Roy sighed as he got up from his chair and went to the pay phone.

"I'm telling you, she won't listen." Roy warned as he dialed his home number."

"Hey, what's going on?" Chet Kelly asked as he came in from latrine duty as did the others from doing their jobs.

"Roy's got a problem at home." Johnny replied.

All waited on pins and needles for the call to go through.

"Jo? Honey, it's me." Roy said into the receiver. "Honey, Please, we really need- No, I don't know what pot looks like!"

"Sounds like real trouble!" Chet whispered.

"Honey, of course I love Chris! How can you question that?!" Roy demanded into the phone. "Why would I lie about finding pot in Chris's room?! Joanne, I did NOT plant the stuff in there! Jo, please, don't hang-"

Roy sighed as he hung up the phone.

"She hung up on you." Johnny guessed.

"Yep." Roy answered. "She thinks I planted those drugs in his room."

"Do you need a place to stay, Roy?" Engineer Mike Stoker asked.

"Yes, Mike, can you put me up for a few days?" Roy asked. "I can't go home with her pissed at me."

"Sure." The quiet man nodded. "Do you need to get anything from your house?"

"I brought some things." Roy replied.

With that, Roy went into the office to log the squad's earlier run.

*

As Roy worked in the office, Johnny went to the pay phone and dialed Roy's number.

"Johnny, don't call her. It's between her and Roy to work out." Hank said.

"In case you haven't noticed. She won't exactly listen to him." Johnny replied.

"Don't you remember what happened when you got involved in their fight over her spaghetti?" Chet asked. "You only made things worse for Roy."

Johnny sighed as he realized Chet was right. He hung up the phone and rejoined his friends at the table.

"I just hate seeing my best friend this way." Johnny told the guys. "Roy loves her almost to the point of obsession."

"She's the only love he's ever known, Pal." Cap smiled. "Love like they have is hard to find these days. Roy and Joanne have known each other almost all their lives. Roy can't even begin to fathom a life without her and those kids."

"Yet, she's being so cruel to him now." Johnny whispered.

"She's caught between her husband and her Son." Mike offered. "I can only imagine how she must feel right now."

"Uh, hi." A shy voice interrupted.

All turned to face Roy's son, Chris. Johnny couldn't believe how tall the boy now was nor could he believe the blue spiky hair the boy sported.

"I don't think your father wants to talk to you now." Johnny informed the boy.

"I'm not here to see him." Chris DeSoto answered. "Uncle John, I don't hate my dad. Lord knows I never meant to hurt him. He just made me so damn mad. He had no right being in my room to start with."

"It's his house." Johnny replied, flatly.

"Tell him he doesn't have to worry about me disgracing him." Chris requested. "I'm living with some friends now and have a job. Tell him I'm all right."

"Are you, Chris?" Johnny asked. "Are you? How do I know you're not stoned right now?"

"You don't." The boy shrugged as the tones sounded.

Station 51, station 110, boat explosion at the marina. 14th and Seashore.
14th and Seashore. Time: 09:20.

"Station 51, KMG-365." Cap acknowledged.

Chris could only watch as the trucks left the station, code R. Once they were gone, Chris went to the back door.

"Okay, Guys, come in." Chris invited his friends.

"Chris, we'd better not." One friend advised. "These men are fireman. They deserve respect."

*

Outside, Roy got out of the squad and joined the engine crew. Johnny then parked the squad around back and stuck inside the station.

"Say good-bye to your friends, Christopher." Johnny instructed.

The startled boy just looked at Johnny.

"The rest of you boys, if you've touched anything in this station, you're in deep shit!" Johnny warned.

"We didn't ouch anything, Sir." One boy swore. "Honest!"

"I believe you, now, hit the road!" Johnny instructed, cocking his thumb toward the back door.

The rest of the boys quickly left. Johnny then focused his attention on Chris.

"You think you're real tough, don't you?" John asked Chris. "You must be real proud of what you did to your dad!"

"He deserved it." Chris shrugged, uncaringly.

"He deserved it, huh?" Johnny countered. "Why?"

"He hit me." Chris answered. "So, I hit him back. I kicked his fat, smelly ass."

"Are you proud of what you did?" Johnny queried. "What if you'd killed him? Would you be proud then?"

"My mom's better off without him. What's he ever done for her?" Chris wanted to know. "What's he ever done for Jen and me?"

"I'd say quite alot." Johnny answered. "He's given you a home, food, clothes, and most of all, he loved you."

"He's never cared about me." Chris told Johnny. "The only thing he ever does is yell at me."

"At least your dad cares enough to do that." Johnny told him. "I wish my father had cared as much. So, you like to smoke, huh?"

"Hey, I only do pot occasionally!" Chris defended himself.

"Well, why not do it all the time?" Johnny asked of Chris. "I got a carton of cigarettes in my locker. If you gonna smoke, you should do it right."

"C'mon, Uncle Johnny, you don't smoke!" Chris snorted.

"How do you know?" Johnny asked.

"I've never seen you light up." Chris answered.

Johnny led Chris to his locker and pulled out a carton of smokes.

"Let's go." Johnny invited. "Got a light?"

Inside, Johnny smiled as he executed his plan.

The boy started laughing at the invitation.

"Come on, Uncle John, we both know you don't smoke!" Chris guffawed. "Later."

Johnny watched as Chris left the station and Roy and the engine crew returned.

"I tried, Roy." Johnny said as Roy climbed off the engine.

"Don't worry about it, Partner. Chris is just stubborn." Roy replied.

"Not unlike his father." John said.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Roy demanded.

"Roy, you want Chris to come to you. How bout going to him instead?" John offered.

"No way!" Roy growled.

"Roy!" Johnny pleaded.

"Johnny, Roy's right." Cap stepped in. "Chris is the one that should be apologizing to him."

"As far as I'm concerned, I have no Son." Roy added.

*

As far as I'm concerned, my father is dead." Chris was telling his friends as they drove away from 51's.

*

"I can't believe you're being so damn hard headed!" Johnny was saying to Roy back inside the station. "Chris tried drugs! He didn't commit murder!"

"Trying drugs was just as wrong!" Roy countered. "I've talked to him time and time again about the consequences!"

"Roy, you're letting Roy the fireman make the rules!" Johnny yelled. "Where's Roy the loving father?!"

"I'm being a loving father by protecting Jen against that worthless piece of garbage of a brother!" Roy insisted. "Johnny, don't you wish that your folks had been loving enough to stand up to you?"

"Yeah, but they would not have disowned me." Johnny replied.

"You think I'm enjoying this?" Roy softly asked. "This hurts me too."

"Does it?" Joanne asked, arriving at the station. "Chris is our Son. You just don't send him back because he made a mistake. Our son is human, Roy."

"Honey, I know you love Chris, but try to see my point of view on this." Roy answered. "We have a daughter to think of too. Chris will be eighteen in just a few days. He's old enough to live on his own. Jennifer is twelve years old and easily influenced. Do you want her to wind up just like Chris?"

Joanne just looked at Roy.

"Honey, I need support on this." Roy pleaded. "If you can't, then you can leave me if you want."

Joanne took off her wedding ring and handed it to Roy. He could only stand there as she left the station.

"You happy now, Pally?" Johnny asked, then followed Joanne outside.

He found Jo at her car.

"I'll talk to Roy." Johnny offered.

"Forget it, Johnny." Joanne sobbed. "When he's like this, there's no changing his mind. He thinks he's right and there's no in between or wrong for Roy DeSoto. I know that Roy sees things on the job that the kids and I don't, but does he have to be so fucking rigid all the time? He always acts like he's on duty even when he's not."

With that, Joanne got in her car and left the station. Johnny went back inside and found his partner servicing the squad.

"I don't wanna talk about it." Roy said, before Johnny could get a word out. "But, I will say this, if your parents had been more like me, you wouldn't be the man you are right now."

Johnny just shrugged and went to get started on his assigned latrine duty. When the latrine was clean, Johnny went to Hank's office and knocked on the door.

"Cap, got a minute?" Johnny asked.

"For you, Pal, sure." Hank smiled. "What's on your mind?"

Johnny entered the office and shut the door. He then took a seat across from Hank.

"I grew up on a reservation as you know." Johnny began. "My parents had to work. They couldn't afford a sitter or daycare for me."

"Go on." Hank encouraged.

"I can't understand why Roy is being so rigid about Chris and this drug thing. I did pot when I was even younger than Chris. I drank too." Johnny said. "Roy said that if my parents were more like him, I wouldn't be the way I am now."

"Which is?" Hank wanted to know.

"That's what I don't understand." Johnny told his boss. "Am I a bad man?"

Before Hank could answer, the tones sounded.

Squad 51, man down at the corner of 78th and Cook. 78th and Cook. Timeout: 11:22.

"Squad 51, KMG-365." Roy answered as Johnny took his place in the squad and strapped on his helmet.

Roy joined him a second later and they were on their way. As they left the station, Johnny pulled a map from the squad's drug box.

"That's way on the other side of town." Roy remarked as he drove.

"Sure is." Johnny agreed as he glanced at the map.

"That's closer to Valley General than Rampart." Roy noted.

"So, we'll transport to St. Francis?" Johnny asked.

"Yeah," Roy decided.

LA, squad 116, available. We'll respond to 51's incident. A voice came over the radio.

Three beeps then sounded over the radio.

Squad 51, what is your ETA?

"LA, squad 51, ETA twenty minutes." Johnny answered.

Squad 51, cancel.

"Squad 51." Johnny responded as Roy killed the lights and sirens, then turned the squad around.

"Johnny, I think I said something I shouldnt've back at the station." Roy said after a minute. "I didn't mean to imply that you are a bad person. I just wish your folks had paid more attention to you."

"So do I." Johnny replied.

"You think I'm being a SOB about Chris and the drugs, but if I back down on this, it could mean Chris's life and maybe Jennifer's." Roy explained. "As for Joanne, if she doesn't back me up on this, then she has no business being my wife."

"Roy, that's not fair." Johnny protested.

"Why not?" Roy wanted to know.

"You're saying you'd rather lose your family than compromise." Johnny answered. "Chris is the only Son you're ever gonna have and you're the only Dad he'll ever have."

"You can tell what Chris thinks of his father by the bruise on my face." Roy scowled.

"Ah, so that's what this is about." John realized. "It's not the drugs, but the fact that you got your ass kicked by your kid."

*

Johnny was thrown forward in his seat as Roy slammed on the squad's brakes.

"Dammit, John, you just don't get it! You say that you did weed and drank when you were Chris's age, but it's not just harmless fun!"Roy yelled.

"I'm not saying it is!" Johnny argued. "I'm just saying that you're wrong! You're wrong with Joanne, you're wrong with Chris! Roy, you're trying to apply fifties values in an eighties world!"

Johnny immediately came to regret what he'd just said as he watched Roy climb out of the squad.

"Roy, where ya going?" Johnny asked.

"To kill myself!" Roy replied, sarcastically. "Am I the only one in this god forsaken city who cares about values? Right and wrong? What ever happened to a code of conduct? What ever happened to what Roy Rogers used to call the cowboy code? Johnny, when I was a kid, he was my hero."

"Times have changed, Pally." Johnny replied, softly. "There's no black and white anymore. It's just mostly gray areas now."

"Times have changed too damn much for my taste." Roy replied. "You get the squad back to the station, I'm going for a walk."

Johnny could only watch as his partner walked away. He then got back in the squad and headed toward the station.

*

"Johnny? I wish you'd eat something, Pal." Hank said a few minutes later.

"I'm sorry, Cap." Johnny replied. "It's not the chowder. Are Roy and I that far apart in our views?"

"How do you mean?" Hank asked.

"I think that Roy is wrong with both Chris and Joanne." Johnny said. "I didn't grow up with Roy what's his name and some ridiculous cowboy code!"

"Johnny, you sure missed a great time to grow up." Hank smiled.

"John, may I ask you something?" Mike Stoker requested.

"Shoot." Johnny replied.

"Johnny, you have seen the consequences of what drugs can do as a Paramedic. Have you forgotten about Mrs. Rogers and her daughter?" Mike asked. "One of these days, you may get married and have a son or daughter of your own. What are you gonna tell John, Jr. about drugs when it's time to talk about them?"

While Johnny thought over his answer, the phone rang, Cap went to answer it. A few minutes later, he hung up and approached Johnny.

"Johnny, that was Dixie at Rampart. Squad eighty-six just brought Chris and his friends in. It doesn't look good, Pal." Cap said, his face betraying his emotions.

"Not so harmless, is it Johnny?" Mike asked as Johnny ran into the bay, got in the squad and sped toward Rampart.

As he drove, Mike's words echoed over and over in his ears.

Not so harmless, is it? Not so harmless, is it? The words bore into John's brain as he arrived at the hospital. What are you gonna tell your Son about drugs? What are you gonna tell your kids about drugs?

"Shut up!" Johnny muttered as he entered the emergency room.

Upon arrival, he saw Roy, sitting alone in the waiting room, head in his heads. Going over, Johnny took a seat next to him. Roy looked up, tears streaming down his face.

"My son's dead!" Roy said. "I killed my only Son!"

"When?" A shaken Johnny asked.

"Dr. Brackett gave me the word a few minutes ago." Roy replied, then broke down, Johnny too. "Joanne's right, I killed my boy!"

As Johnny and Roy held each other, they knew that they would need each other more than ever in the weeks and months to come.

END PART 10