When I'm in a writing slump I like to do these little one-shots. Maybe this will get me going again....
"You ready?" Bosco huffed with a grimace, slowly shifting his weight onto his opposite leg. He cast a cautious look at the woman before him and sighing in relief when he realized she didn't notice.
He wanted Chinese Chicken, at the restaurant, in a booth. He knew she would use the fact that his leg was bothering him make him order pizza and sit on the couch. Probably the couch in her office.
"Yeah, almost." She huffed pinching the bridge of her nose. "Hold your horses."
"I'm hungry." He whined dropping into a chair in her office with a wince he cast another look at her.
"You woke up at seven pm and had breakfast, how hungry could you be by eleven?" She countered, never looking up from the paper in front of her. If he wasn't really excited about the possibility of Chicken in a booth he might be offended at her lack of observation tonight. He was wincing in pain and she hadn't even noticed that he was clearly favoring the leg, The leg he got shot in. The leg he got shot in diving to protect her from machine gun fire. He scowled at her for a second. She didn't notice that either.
"Faith?" Swertsky stuck his head in the door. "Hey Bosco."
"Hey Boss." When had his visits become so routine that they were less a return from the dead and more like a visit from the mailman? He narrowed his eyes.
"Yoka-!" The older man shook his head. "Mitchell."
Bosco's smirk returned, he did that all the time. It was nice to see someone else fumble with what to call her. Old habits die hard, isn't that what they say? Faith had told him that while he was out she called in her and Jelly as 55-David once. While he was out. That's what she called it. Like he was back in now. Like he'd been at the bank and she'd written his messages on one of those yellow pads with the boxes you check. While you were out. She must have run out of the While you were comatose in the hospital with a gunshot wound to the face ones.
"Yeah Lieu?" Faith's answer shakes him out of it and he looks back at her, head still down. He wonders what in the hell could be so damn interesting. He's starting to think she's playing that Sudoku crap she and his mom got into while he was still… Out. She'd tried to explain it to him, but all it did was frustrate him. She teased him that the bullet damaged the part of his brain that could figure it out. No big loss, he figured.
"I need your CPR re-certification." Swertsky said a bit more firmly than Bosco thought necessary. Her head jerked up, suddenly paying close attention. Bosco's eyebrows furrowed at the slight look of alarm on her face. "I mean it this time Faith, by Friday."
"Boss I-." She looked back at her desk, trying to pretend like she was looking at something. Bosco watched with interest.
"No more excuses Yokas-. Sorry.. Mitch-."
"It's okay Sir." She closed her eyes and shook her head at the uselessness.
"Faith, you know you have to have this stuff current." She nodded at him. Swertsky gave her another meaningful glance before wrapping his knuckles on the door. "Good to see you Bosco."
"Thanks." He called absently his eyes now glued on the woman at the desk. "What was that?'
"What was what?" She avoided his gaze. "I thought you were starving? Let's go." She folded up what she'd been working on and moved back the filing cabinet.
"Whoa! What the hell was that?!" His voice was full of antagonistic curiosity as he stood up slowly.
"What? My CPR expired. I've been busy. I need to do it. End of story." She folded her arms across her chest defensively lifting her chin. It was by no means, Bosco decided looking at his former partners face, the end of the story.
"You want egg roles? " She asked him, her eyes fixed on the menu she knew by heart. He watched her, running his hand over the soreness of his inner thigh. A soreness that was getting worse by the minute. A soreness she had still yet to notice.
"I don't like egg roles." He shook his head.
"You've been getting them for like ten years and all the sudden you don't like them?" She huffed, flipping the page of a menu he knew she could recite to him to the tune of New York, New York. She was really starting to piss him off.
"You like them." He muttered. "I get them for you."
She blinked a few times, closing the menu and looking at herself in the shiny black Formica of the table.
"I do like them." She said softly.
"You wanna tell me what's wrong?" He dared, testing the gentleness of her voice.
"Nothing." Equally soft. He may be making some progress here.
"Faith.." He shook his head. "What's the big deal?"
"I don't want to take the stupid class." She shrugged her shoulders, not coming with in a mile of pulling off nonchalant.
"We've taken it every two years for like.. Ever."
"I know." She let her gaze sail past him to the ceiling. He leaned in closer trying to catch it. "I don't need it. We hardly ever used it." Her breath quickened as her eyes swept back down to the table.
"That's not true." Bosco shook his head, leaning back into the booth. "We used it a bunch of times. That old lady at the hair salon, the guy who fell off the ladder on King. Benny Ross." He checked them off flipping up a finger with each one. "Hell you used it on Fred."
"Yeah." She scoffed a little. "Lotta good that did me.." He smiled a little before continuing.
"That little girl. You saved her life didn't you? What was her name?"
"Rebecca." Faith whispered, swallowing painfully.
"Yeah, she was the last one." He wiggled his thumb at her as he eyes flicked up to his. "What?" Her painful attempt at smile made his stomach drop. He hated that look. That look meant something hurt her. "What?"
"That wasn't the last one." She murmured.
"Who then?" He looked at her blankly. She gave him another failed smile before shaking her head.
"I'm gonna order." She said quickly rising to her feet and starting towards the counter. He looked at his hand, puzzled by the five extended fingers.
"You want me to go with you?" He asked spontaneously as they walked slowly back towards her apartment.
"You are going with me."
"To the CPR class."
"No." She said too quickly. "We should have taken a cab, you're really limping now."
"Thanks for finally noticing." He spat before continuing. "Really. I can go with you."
"I don't want you to go with me!" He raised voice made him stop dead in his tracks. "I don't want to go at all! I-." She shook her head. "And of course I freaking noticed Bosco, just like I notice every time you cough I'm sure you have pneumonia, or when you ask me for an aspirin cause your head hurts I'm sure you're having an aneurysm! I notice okay? I fucking notice."
"Faith!" He called after her as she practically jogged away from him and pushed through the door of her apartment building. He followed behind, painfully pulling himself up the stairs. "Damn it! Yokas what's your problem?"
The door was still cracked open when he finally made it. He shoved it the rest of the way letting it smack against the small table behind it.
"Don't do that!" He shook his head at her, curled up on the couch hugging her knees. "Don't walk away from me when you know I can't follow you."
"Bosco…"
"No. What the hell's your problem? What the hell was that?"
"You." She said softly.
"Me?" He repeated shaking his head in confusion.
"I'm not sure how long it was before you stopped." She pushed her hair back from the sides of her face, leaving her fingers intertwined with the strands.
"Stopped?" He stood before her on the couch, to mesmerized by her bizarre behavior to realize how badly he wanted to sit.
"At first you were making this wheezing sound and I could count how many breaths you took but-."
"Christ.." His eyes shut as he realized what she was saying.
"Then they just stopped and I don't know how long I just stared before I-." Her voice choked half way through before becoming silent. He dropped beside her on the couch, lifting his arm slowly towards her and yanking the top of her shirt sleeve until she let her body fall towards his.
"Faith.." He closed his eyes, letting his head drop into hers.
"I.. there was so much blood.. I was scared to do compressions.., but I knew if I didn't.." He kissed the top of her head, leaving his lips pressed in her hair as he pulled her tighter. "I couldn't feel your pulse cause all I could feel was my own..I." She gasped a few breaths before pulling up to look at him. "I tried to go to the class.." She swallowed hard. "When she started with the dummy I panicked. I went to the bathroom and never went back." She bit her lip. "I can't go back." Her head dropped back against him.
"Yes you can." He listened to the way his voice rasped out of his scared throat before swallowing hard and kissing her hair again. "I'm gonna call that girl, the one that you found to come to my apartment that time I let mine expire and Swertsky threatened to suspend me." He leaned back for a second shooting her a look. "Remember?" She nodded. "She can come here. We'll do it together."
"Boz.." She shook her head.
"It's not like you won't pass." He interrupted. "I mean I'm here aren't I? You do good work."
"That's not funny."
"It is too. I mean we've like totally made out and I got nothing'. I'm sorry I missed it." He raised an eyebrow playfully, her eyes rolled back in her head.
"Stop." He got the smile he wanted.
"Really I mean I'm sure it wasn't my greatest performance but-."
"That's the understatement of the century."
"I'll make it up to you." He decided, his eyebrows lifting slightly.
"What? You gonna give me CPR?" She smirked, rolling her eyes again.
"Bet I can make you need it." He lowered his voice, leaning forward. He intended to be much closer to her face when her eyes unrolled.
"Yeah?" She flinched a little when she realized how close he was, her eyes settling on his.
"Yeah.." He whispered brushing his lips with hers, glancing at her face. She met his eyes, blinking carefully at his questioning expression before closing them again. He grinned moving his mouth back to hers as his hand slipped behind her head. Her hand fluttered up to his face, closing gently around his scarred face. "Where's the kid?"
"Fred's." She huffed, before bringing her body back to his.
"Thank God." He brought his hands down her back, as she carefully maneuvered herself away from his injured leg. "So.. My carrying you to the bedroom's pretty much out."
"I could carry you." She teased moving her mouth to his throat.
"Huh." He gripped the edges of her shirt. "Or we could just stay right here."
"I like it here." She told him simply.