Happy Anniversary

"RED LIGHT, ROY!"

Roy jumped and slammed the brakes. Johnny just had enough time to brace his arm on the dashboard to prevent himself from flying through the windshield.

"Man, Roy! What is wrong with you today? Maybe I should be driving." asked Johnny as soon as his heart slowed down enough for his voice to be heard.

Roy gave his partner a slightly guilty look. "Sorry, Johnny. This was our last run this shift and I can't wait to get out of here."

"Oh, right." said Johnny with a nod. "It's your wedding anniversary today isn't it? What is it, 10 years? 12?"

"Fifteen." said Roy. "I still haven't gotten her gift yet. As soon as we get off, I have to pick up Dixie."

"Dixie? Roy, is there anything you're not telling me Pally?" asked Johnny with his trademarked crooked grin. "Green light."

Roy pulled the squad through the intersection and turned toward Station 51. "No there isn't anything I'm not telling you! This is 15 years, though. I want Joanne's gift to be something special and I thought if I had another woman's opinion I could get something great."

"Not a bad idea," said Johnny. "You'll get her something special and give it to her at that little bed and breakfast you were telling me about. I bet when you come back to work you won't be able to stop smiling for a week!"

Roy grinned at the thought. Then he thought he had better make sure. "You sure you don't mind taking the kids this weekend? They can be a real handful."

"Roy, come on! I wouldn't have offered if I minded. You and Joanne need the time away and I get to spend some quality time with my adopted niece and nephew. Where's the problem?"

Roy just smiled his thanks.

**********************

Dixie woke up feeling better than she had in a long time. For a minute, she couldn't place the feeling. Until the source of the feeling shifted in his sleep next to her. Then she remembered. She turned to see the sleeping form of Kelly Brackett next to her. She smiled at the memory of the previous night and gently reached out to push a lock of hair off his face. At her touch, his eyes slowly opened.

"Morning sleepy head," she said with a gentle smile.

He captured her hand in his and brought it to his lips. "Good morning to you too."

She leaned forward and kissed him, meaning to only give him a 'good morning' peck. That was what she meant to do, anyway. What she meant to do and what she ended up doing meant they skipped breakfast. But then, there are better things on this earth than scrambled eggs and toast anyway.

An hour later, they were still in bed, a bit sweatier and definitely a lot happier. Dixie finally got up and went to have a shower.

"Want me to join you?" Kel asked with a smile.

"You go make some coffee," she answered. "Roy is picking me up in an hour and I have to be ready."

"Roy?" asked Kel, not quite believing his ears. "Roy DeSoto? Why is he picking you up?"

Dixie threw a towel at him. "Relax. He wants a woman's opinion on what to get his wife for their anniversary. I have today off and I told him I'd help. Now, go make the coffee."

***********************

As soon as the squad pulled into the station, both Marco and Chet came running up to the driver's side both talking at once.

"Man, Roy! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do it, but Chet bumped into me ..."

"Marco was just trying to help and I was trying to set up...er...never mind. I didn't mean any harm!"

By this time Roy was thoroughly confused and starting to get a bad feeling about this.

"Alright, Alright!" Roy said, holding up his hands to both the remorseful firefighters to try to get them to stop talking at the same time. "Now Marco, what happened?"

"I was cleaning the dorm and I saw something sticking out of your locker. It looked like your shirt had gotten caught in the door. I opened your locker to try to put whatever it was back and Chet bumped me."

"That doesn't sound bad, Marco. What else happened?" Roy asked, not really sure if he really wanted to know the answer.

Lopez looked at the ground. "When Chet bumped me, I was holding an open bottle of bleach."

Roy suddenly knew where this was going. "Oh, no! Marco, tell me you didn't!"

Marco pulled Roy's civilian clothes from behind his back. The shirt was all but dissolved and the pants had large white patches all over.

"Look, Roy. We're really sorry, pal." Said Chet with an appropriately chagrined expression. "We'll buy you new clothes to replace this stuff, okay?"

Roy sighed, "Okay, guys. It's alright. Just what am I gonna do about today? I have to pick Dixie up in half an hour! I don't have time to go home and change!"

"Guess you'll have to go in your uniform." said Johnny glaring at Chet. "You could call Dix and tell her you'll be late and then go home to change."

"If I go home, Joanne won't let me back out. She's got a 'honey-do' list a mile long and it's our anniversary to boot. I'll have to go in uniform."

Captain Stanley came out of the office. "Hey, Roy or John. Either one of you want to pick up some overtime? Dwyer's stuck in San Francisco and can't get here until at least 5 tonight."

"I'll take it, Cap." said Johnny with a smile. "Roy here's got a date to keep! Ain't that right, Pally?"

As the others looked at him, Roy glared at Johnny. "Thanks, Junior."

*****************************************

Dixie was waiting outside her apartment building when Roy pulled up. As she got into the car, she gave Roy a visual once-over.

"Roy, you didn't have to get all dressed up on my account," she said with a smile.

He pointed to the plastic bag in the back seat with his clothes in it. "It's not as if my casual outfit was actually wearable," he stopped with a sigh and a roll of his eyes.

"Let me guess," she said. "Chet."

"You guessed it, Dix. Now, where should we go first?"

"No woman in her right mind on an anniversary will say no to jewelry. There's a great place a couple miles from here that's got good quality and almost reasonable prices."

Roy put the car in gear with a smile. "Dixie, what would I do without you?"

Dixie laughed, "You'd probably give your wife a power tool."

*****************************************

Two men were looking very out of place inside Martin's Fine Jewelry. It was close to 80 degrees outside and they were wearing long black coats. Sarah, the sales clerk behind the counter was very nervous. But she couldn't call the police on two customers--until they did something illegal, of course.

Finally, there were no other customers in the store. Sarah looked at Jack, the manager, for support. He also looked nervous, but signalled that she should go help the 'customers'. He slowly tried to position himself near the silent alarm trigger just in case.

With a forced smile, she approached one of the men. "May I help you sir?"

The tall man looked down at her and smiled. She shuddered at the evil glint she saw in his eyes. "Why yes, little girl. You can help me. You can start putting jewelry in a bag for me and my friend here!"

With that, he pulled out a shotgun and pointed it at her and his friend pulled out a .38 and pointed the shaking gun at the manager. Jack was cursing himself for not moving faster. The silent alarm trigger was still 4 feet away.

************************************

Completely oblivious to the situation they were about to walk into, Dixie and Roy approached Martin's Fine Jewelry from the parking lot.

************************************

"Come on, come on!" shouted the man holding the '38. "How long does it take to empty a jewelry cabinet?"

"Relax Mikey," said the other one. "I'm sure this little dish is moving as fast as she can."

He waved the shotgun around in her general direction. "She knows what'll happen if she doesn't move as fast as she can."

Sarah stifled a sob and fumbled with the cabinet keys to open the next case.

"If you hurt her, so help me I'll..." began Jack.

"You'll what?" asked Mikey, putting the gun to his forehead.

Jack wisely shut up.

Suddenly, they were startled by the sound of the door opening and two people coming in to the store.

Roy and Dixie stood in the doorway of the store in shock. Mikey took one look at Roy in his blue shirt and badge and panicked.

"Dammit, Harry! It's a cop!" and he turned his gun on Roy.

Roy saw the man's finger tighten on the trigger and closed his eyes. In his mind, he said goodbye to Joanne, Jenny, Chris, and especially Johnny. Roy heard the gunshot and felt the wind being knocked out of him as he flew sideways.

Sideways?

Roy heard the two robbers beating a hasty retreat. Jack finally managed to hit the silent alarm and ran over to the fallen man and the woman who had tackled him out of the path of the bullet.

"Hey, man, you alright?"

Roy slowly opened his eyes and realized he had survived. "Yeah, I guess so. What happened?"

Jack pointed at Dixie, "She pushed you out of the way. She's out cold. She must have hit her head when she went down with you."

Roy looked at Dixie and realized she was hurt. He rolled her over and his eyes widened as he saw the blood soaking her shirt where the bullet had entered.

"Oh, God! Dixie! Nononononononononono!" Roy quickly grabbed a piece of black silk from the counter and held it on the wound. Roy took a deep breath and let his paramedic training take over. He looked at Jack and said, "Call an ambulance! Do you have any more of these cloths or any other clean cloths around here?"

Jack and Sarah scrambled for more of the silk cloths. Until today, they had only been used to display jewelry. Now, they had to be used to save a life.

*****************************************

'Squad 51, gunshot victim, Martin's Fine Jewelry, 1924-A Marcus Drive, 1-9-2-4-A Marcus Drive, cross street Harrison. Ambulance has been dispatched. Time out 11:13.'

*****************************************

As the squad pulled up to the store, the police were already there. Then Johnny saw something that made his blood run cold: Roy's car.

He turned to the other paramedic and said, "Roy's here. God, please let him be alright!"

They leapt out of the squad, grabbed the equipment and ran into the store. Johnny's heart was in his mouth as he ran. The relief he felt at seeing Roy okay was quickly changed to panic as he realized the identity of the gunshot victim.

"Oh my God! Dixie!"

Roy looked up from where he was holding pressure on the wound with tears in his eyes.

"Johnny! They thought I was a cop! She pushed me out of the way. He was gonna kill me!! She pushed me out of the way!"

Roy couldn't keep up the pretense any longer. Now that the on-duty paramedics were there, he turned Dixie's care over to them, sat back, looked at the blood on his hands and started crying.

****************************************

Kelly Brackett was standing by the bay station when the alarm went off. He went to the radio.

"Unit calling in repeat."

Johnny's shaky voice came over the speaker, "Rampart, this is squad 51. We have a female gunshot victim. The bullet entered the upper left quadrant of her abdomen. There is no exit wound. Vitals are, BP 90/40, pulse 110 and thready, respiration 10. She has diminished breath sounds on the left. Pupils are reactive, but sluggish. She is unconscious at this time."

There was a pause.

"Rampart, be advised the patient is Dixie McCall."

Brackett suddenly felt a knife twist in his gut. He felt dizzy and grabbed at the counter for support.

Joe Early saw Brackett stagger and came running.

"Kel! Are you alright?"

Kel just quickly nodded his head and handed the paper with Dixie's vitals on it to Early.

Joe looked at the vitals. "51, start an IV with normal saline wide open, another one of D5W TKO, and insert an esophageal airway. Transport as soon as possible. Continue to monitor blood pressure."

"10-4 Rampart. Ambulance is on the scene. ETA is 10 minutes." "10-4, 51"

Joe leaned out of the radio area and said to the nurse on duty, "We have a gunshot victim coming in. Have treatment 2 ready." The nurse nodded and ran.

Then he turned to Brackett, who was leaning on the counter as if he would crumble if it weren't holding him up.

"Kel, what's wrong? Are you feeling okay? Let's get you into a treatment room and see what's the matter"

Brackett shook himself and pushed Joe away. "Dammit Joe! I'm fine! They're bringing Dixie in! She's the gunshot victim!"

"Dear God!"

*************************************

In the ambulance, Johnny and Roy (who'd insisted on riding in with them) were monitoring Dixie's vitals.

"V-FIB!"

The ambulance stopped and the squad pulled up behind them. When Bellingham (who was pulling overtime at 51) opened the ambulance doors, he saw Roy performing CPR as Johnny prepared the paddles.

"CLEAR!" Dixie's body jumped as the electricity coursed through it.

"No conversion."

"Damn, again."

Roy continued CPR as Johnny waited for the machine to recharge.

"CLEAR!" Dixie's body convulsed again.

"No conversion."

Bellingham grabbed the biophone, "Rampart, this is squad 51. Patient is in V-Fib. We have counter-shocked times 2 with no conversion. We'll send you a strip on lead 2."

Joe and Kel looked at each other. There was complete panic in Brackett's eyes.

Joe grabbed the mike, "51 administer one amp. sodium bicarb intravenously and de-fib again." The wait seemed endless. Kel was extremely pale. He was quietly muttering a prayer.

After a very long moment...

"Rampart, we have sinus rhythm. ETA 5 minutes."

The relief was palpable between the two men.

Joe turned and put his hand on Kel's shoulder. "Kel, you're too close to this. Just stand back and let me do all the work. I'll take good care of her. You know I won't let her down."

"How am I supposed to stand back! Dammit Joe, I love her!" Kel's eyes widened at what he just said. He realized with a heavy heart that he had yet to say it to her. Now he might not get the chance.

Joe looked at his friend. "That's exactly why you shouldn't be there! You're too emotional right now. You can't detach the woman from the patient. You're a damn good doctor, Kel, but you know you can't handle this one."

Kel's shoulder's sagged. He realized Joe was right. He allowed himself to be led to the doctor!'s lounge to wait for news.

*********************************************

The doors to the ER swung open and Dixie was wheeled in. Early was immediately at her side as they ran for the treatment room. He had never seen her look so pale. Johnny was holding the IV bag and Roy was following the gurney with a dazed look in his eye. As they reached the treatment room, Roy felt a hand on his shoulder, stopping him. He turned to see Bellingham looking at him with a sympathetic expression.

"Roy, why don't you go wait in the doctor's lounge. You're off duty. There's nothing more you can do for her now. Why don't you call Joanne to get your car and someone will tell you how she's doing when they know something."

Roy didn't answer. He allowed himself to be led to the doctor's lounge. Of course, in his state of mind, he would have allowed Bellingham to lead him over a cliff.

**********************************************

Brackett looked up as the doors to the lounge opened. He saw Bellingham leading Roy over to the couch. Roy looked completely shell-shocked. He was still in uniform, Brackett noticed. He saw the dark stain on Roy's shirt and realized with horror that it was Dixie's blood.

Bellingham looked at Brackett, "Hey Doc, could you look after Roy? He's not doing too good at the moment."

'Neither am I,' thought Kel. Out loud he said, "Sure, Bob. What the hell happened?"

Bellingham shrugged, "I'm not entirely sure. From what I gather, they walked in on a jewelry store robbery. One of the gunmen saw Roy's uniform and thought he was a cop. He went to shoot Roy and somehow hit Dixie instead."

Suddenly a sob was heard from the couch. Roy was sitting forward with his head in his hands. "He was going to kill me! She pushed me out of the way! She took the bullet for me! All I had to do was call her and tell her I'd be late. I could have gone home and changed clothes and none of this would have happened!"

Brackett felt a brief flash of anger directed at Roy. Why was he still in uniform to go shopping? Why didn't he go home first? Why was he unharmed and Dixie lying on death's door? He started to say something horrible to Roy when something in the paramedic's demeanor stopped him.

He took a deep breath and thought about it. It wasn't Roy's fault the jewelry store was being robbed when they walked in. It wasn't his fault the guy couldn't tell a firefighter's uniform from a cop's. It sure as hell wasn't his choice for Dix to push him out of the line of fire. He realized Roy was beating himself up enough as it was. Brackett decided that if he had to be angry at anyone, it would be the shooter. And boy, was he angry!

He managed to control his voice as he went over to sit next to the crying man.

"Roy, it wasn't your fault! You couldn't have known this was going to happen. You didn't ask Dixie to do what she did. Do you hear me? IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT!"

Roy lifted his red, swollen eyes to meet Brackett's dark eyes. "You can say that, Doc. But it doesn't change the fact that this could have been prevented if I had just gone home to change. It would've been so easy! But, no! I was afraid to face Joanne and tell her where I needed to go on our anniversary. It was my fault!"

"Roy, listen to me. Everyone's hindsight is always 20/20. They always see what they could have done differently to make a better outcome. The fact of the matter is that it happened. We can't change it and we can't pretend it didn't happen. There's no point in blaming yourself for something that a nut with a gun did or something that a very brave woman did. You had no control over the situation you were in. What if you had gone to change? What if the robbers decided to be a little later? They might have tried to shoot at any stranger who walked in at that moment. Unfortunately, it was you and Dixie. That fact can't be changed. The fact is you didn't make the choice for the robber to fire his weapon. You didn't make the choice to let her get shot. Stop blaming yourself and go call your wife."

Roy just nodded and, like a zombie, rose from his seat and walked over to the phone.

When Joanne picked up the phone, Roy clung to the receiver like a lifeline.

"Joanne, honey, it's me."

"Roy! You were supposed to be home an hour ago! It's our anniversary! I was getting lonely..."

"Joanne, listen to me. Can you get Mary next door to take you over to Martin's Fine Jewelry on Marcus Street? That's where I left the car."

"Left the car? Roy, what's wrong? Where are you?"

"Rampart."

"Rampart! God, Roy! Are you alright? Sweetie, what happened?"

"Just get the car and come down here. You'll find me in the doctor's lounge. Please." His composure was starting to slip. "I need you."

"I'm on my way."

*******************************************

When Joanne finally got to the hospital, she ran to the doctor's lounge and burst through the door to a scene that broke her heart.

Roy was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, sobbing. Johnny was sitting next to him with an arm around his shoulders and one hand on his knee. There were tears running down Johnny's face. Dr. Brackett didn't look much happier sitting at the table staring at his cup of coffee like it contained the secrets of the universe.

When Roy looked up and saw his wife standing in front of him with a terrified look in her eyes, he grabbed her around the waist and buried his face in her stomach. She gently stroked his hair.

"Roy, what happened?"

Roy just sobbed harder.

Johnny looked up, "He wanted to buy you an anniversary gift. He took Dixie along to get a second opinion. The guys at work spilled bleach on his civilian clothes, so he went in his uniform."

"They walked into a robbery at the jewelry store! The guy thought Roy in uniform was a cop and went to shoot him. Dixie pushed him out of the way and caught the bullet instead."

Joanne closed her eyes as she realized how close she had come to losing her husband. Then she remembered where the bullet ended up.

"H-h-how's Dixie?" she asked, dreading the answer.

Johnny just shrugged. "They took her up to surgery about 20 minutes ago. She lost a lot of blood and the bullet collapsed her lung. We won't know for a while yet."

She eased herself out of Roy's grasp and sat down next to her husband where she was pulled to him with the force and desperation of a drowning man.

********************************************

Some three hours later, the situation hadn't changed much. Dwyer had finally gotten to work and Johnny changed clothes and headed back to Rampart. Marco and Chet were there when he got back. Both men were feeling very guilty for forcing Roy to go in uniform.

Roy was still in the same position. Joanne was holding him for all she was worth. She was very glad Mary offered to take Chris and Jennifer. Otherwise, she hadn't known what she would have done.

The door opened and Joe Early came into the room. Six pairs of very anxious eyes were turned in his direction. He was still in his scrubs and he looked tired and a lot older than he had a few hours ago.

"She made it through the surgery okay." he said with a grim smile.

Brackett collapsed back into his chair. He took a very shaky breath and asked, "Will she live?"

Early sighed. "It's too early to tell. The next 48 hours will be critical. We nearly lost her a couple of times on the table. We were able to remove the bullet and repair her lung. She lost an awful lot of blood and was barely stabilized when we had to take her up. If she makes it through the next 48 hours without any major crisis, she's got a good chance."

"Can I see her yet?"

"In a few minutes, Kel. They're moving her up to ICU. I'll send someone down when she's settled."

Kel stood up and put his hands on Early's shoulders. "Thank you."

Joe returned the gesture and said, "You're welcome. Now, I've got to go check on our patient."

****************************************

When Brackett entered the room, he was shocked to see so much equipment around the bed. Funny how it never seemed like so much stuff when the patient was a stranger.

Dixie was laying with her eyes closed. She was very pale and still. The respirator hid part of her face and there were IVs into both of her arms. One for blood and one for antibiotics to ward off pneumonia in the aftermath of a collapsed lung.

After assuring himself that the current readings on all the monitors were more or less stable, he pulled up a chair and sat down next to her. He reached up a hand and started stroking her beautiful blonde hair.

"Hey, Dix." he whispered. "You gave me a hell of a scare, you know. I wish you wouldn't do stuff like that."

Dixie didn't move. Undaunted, he continued as though she answered him.

"I know, if you hadn't Roy, would have been dead. You know, he's really beating himself up over this. You have to wake up to tell him it really wasn't his fault. He doesn't believe me...or Johnny...or Joe....or...well, you get the idea. That's Roy for you."

His composure was slipping. She was just so still. So deathly still.

"God, Dix! You can't leave me! Not now. Not like this! If you had to leave me, there are a lot of less permanent ways of going. I never got to tell you." He choked back a sob.

"I love you."

When Joe Early made his rounds again, he saw Kel asleep in the chair. One hand was on Dixie's hair, the other folded under his head on the bed next to her. Joe didn't have the heart to wake him.

***********************************

Kel woke up the next morning to the sound of the ventilator alarm. Panicked, he looked up. He thought he saw Dixie's eyelids flutter a little. He reached out and silenced the alarm.

"Dixie?" he whispered. "If you can hear me Dixie, open your eyes."

Very slowly, her eyes opened and tracked around the room until they met Kel's shining eyes.

"Welcome back."

Dixie began to choke on the respirator.

"Dixie, calm down! You're on a ventilator. Just try to breathe with the machine. You'll be okay."

Dixie forced herself to calm down and she concentrated on the rhythm the ventilator was setting for her.

She looked at Kel with a question in her eyes.

"You were shot protecting Roy from a crazed robber."

Dixie's eyes widened a little.

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry, Roy is fine. You saved his life."

Dixie closed her eyes in relief.

"Dix, I'm gonna go get Joe and let him know you're awake."

Another question in the eyes.

"When 51 told us who they were bringing in, I lost it. I couldn't stand the thought that I might lose you and I'd never get to tell you anything. Joe realized it and forcibly removed me from the case."

The ventilator wouldn't let her smile, but Kel could see it in her eyes. He bent down and gently kissed her forehead. Then, with a spring in his step,he went to page Joe.

*******************************************

One week later . . .

"Okay Dixie, now I need you to cough as I remove the ventilator. Can you do that?" asked Joe.

Dixie coughed as he pulled the offending tube from her throat. Most of the equipment was gone. Only heart monitor and IV stands remained.

Kel was standing behind Joe as he worked.

"Hey, Kel," said Early. "Why don't you help Dixie with some ice chips to ease the sore throat I know she must have."

Dixie gave Joe a grateful look as he left the room. Then she looked at Kel. "Hey, beautiful," he said gently as he helped her with a spoonful of ice.

She closed her eyes in relief as the ice melted and the water soothed her raw throat.

"You don't know how much I needed that," she rasped. "Kel, why hasn't Roy come to see me? Are you sure he's all right?"

Brackett's mouth twitched as he helped her with more ice.

"Roy's been beating himself up over this. You know how he is. Problem is, he won't listen to anyone when they tell him it's not his fault. He's afraid you'll blame him. I think he's afraid of you hating him for something that wasn't his fault--or was his fault if you listen to him."

"That's ridiculous! I could never hate Roy. He's one of my favorite people! Besides, it wasn't his fault! Tell him I want to see him and if he won't come here, then as soon as I get out of here I'll go to him."

She lay back, exhausted from the longest sentence she had spoken in over a week.

Kel smiled and offered another spoonful of ice.

***************************************

The next day, Roy knocked on the door to Dixie's room. He poked his head in and she smiled.

"Hey Roy. I thought you didn't like me anymore. You didn't come to see me."

Roy looked at the ground, "I was afraid you wouldn't want to see me, Dixie."

"Roy DeSoto! You can't tell me you were blaming yourself for what happened in that store!"

"If only I had gone home to change clothes, they wouldn't have tried to shoot me and you wouldn't be here now."

"Roy, it wasn't your fault. I don't blame you for the decision made to push you out of the way. It was my decision. It wasn't your fault the guy didn't recognize a firefighter's uniform and fired the gun. And it sure as hell wasn't your fault that I wasn't faster than a speeding bullet."

Roy smiled a little at the last statement. Then he looked uncomfortable, like what he wanted to ask was the worst possible thing he could say.

"Um, Dix? I have to know one thing. Why did you do it?"

"You're not supposed to die on your anniversary, Roy. Besides, you think you've had a guilt trip? Can you imagine mine if I just stood there and let you die? I had to do something."

"You did it for my anniversary?" asked Roy incredulously.

"I knew I wouldn't have been able to face Joanne if I hadn't done anything. He was firing from almost point blank range. The bullet would have killed you instantly. I knew I had half a chance at surviving if I was at an awkward enough angle. I didn't want to be shot. I didn't want you to be shot, Roy. I knew, though, that if one of us had to be shot, I had a better chance at surviving."

Roy's voice was a whisper as he stepped forward to hug Dixie. "Thank you."

"Hey, Dixie!" Johnny shouted as he bounded into the room. He stopped short when he saw his partner hugging her. He smiled, realizing Roy was finally on the path to recovery. He was starting to think the survivor's guilt was going to destroy his partner.

Roy looked up with his first true smile in a week. "Hey, Junior! Don't you know you're not supposed to yell in a hospital?"

Johnny snorted. "I wasn't shouting. I was just talking. Anyway, I thought you guys would like to know, they caught the bastards that did this."

Dixie gasped. "They caught them? They're sure they got the right ones?"

Johnny was positively bouncing off the walls. "Yup! Both the manager and sales clerk identified them."

"That reminds me, Roy. The manager from the store wanted to reward you guys for scaring those guys off before they got any of the jewelry."

Roy blushed. "We didn't do anything but walk in."

"Yeah, but you were in uniform. When the one guy realized his partner had shot at a cop--okay, cop look-alike--they both took off without grabbing the bag the girl had filled."

"Anyway, the manager is out in the hall. You up to seeing him, Dix?"

Dixie nodded. Johnny stepped out into the hall and came back in with Jack. He held two small boxes in his hand.

"I just wanted to thank you guys personally for what you did. If it weren't for you, I would've lost over $50,000 in merchandise. I'd like to give you a small token, if I could."

He held out a small box to Dixie. When she opened the box, she gasped. She was looking at a pair of the most beautiful diamond earrings she had ever seen.

"I can't accept this!" she said. "It's too much."

Jack smiled. "It's not nearly enough. Please take them. I insist."

After Dixie reluctantly agreed to keep them (okay, she was secretly thrilled), he turned to Roy and said,

"Your partner told me you were in my store to find an anniversary gift for your wife. Will this do?"

He handed the other box to Roy. When Roy opened it, he saw a diamond tennis bracelet. Roy offered the token protest and was firmly rebuffed by Jack. He also was secretly thrilled. It was perfect for Joanne and he couldn't have afforded it if he wanted to buy it.

All in all, a good day.

********************************************

One more week later . . .

Dixie was sitting on the bed impatiently waiting for the nurse to come in with a wheelchair and her discharge papers. 'I finally understand how Johnny feels.' she thought to herself. 'I can't imagine doing this waiting as many times as he has.'

Just as all this was running through her head, the door to her room opened and in walked Kelly Brackett with a wheelchair, her discharge papers and a dozen red roses.

"Kel! They're beautiful!" she jumped off the bed and hugged him.

He held her tightly. His eyes closed, he was relishing the feeling of having her in his arms. A feeling he didn't think he'd ever have again.

He knew what he was had to do. He pulled back, looked deeply into her eyes, and kissed her gently. Then he sat her down in the wheelchair and put the flowers in her lap. He knelt down to put himself at her eye level.

"Dixie, when you were in ICU, I was so afraid I was going to lose you and I'd never get to tell you how I really feel."

Dixie was losing herself in his eyes. She knew what he was going to say and she was thrilled.

Kel took a deep breath and said, "I love you, Dixie McCall. I've learned that's something I can't ever take for granted again."

Dixie's eyes were shining as she said quietly, "I love you too."

As he kissed her again, she felt him slip something onto the ring finger of her left hand. She pulled back in shock. She looked down at the diamond on her finger and then looked at Kel with a question in her eyes.

"I couldn't let a total stranger give you diamonds when I've never given you any." he said lightly. Then his tone changed.

"Dixie McCall, will you marry me?"

'I thought he'd never ask!' thought Dixie to herself.

"Yes."

Kel kissed her again and knew this was the beginning of happily ever after.

End