Title: In Cop's Clothing
Authors: Wolfling and James Walkswithwind
Feedback: zortified@fanfiction.net and wolfling@sympatico.ca
Rating: PG
Disclaimers: not ours, no profit made
Notes: A version of this story previously appeared on other lists. This version is gen (not slash).



The day was a boring one. It was slow, with calls for pointless things like prowlers that turned out to be alleycats or garbagemen, and stolen bookbags which turned up in the "victim's" car. Yokas wasn't complaining -- tomorrow it would start to get crazy, and stay that way for the next three nights. Slow and boring was nice, anytime. She glanced sideways at her partner, who was still fidgeting in his seat. He'd been fidgeting all afternoon.

"Is it hot in here?" Bosco asked, squirming in his seat. "Because it feels hot in here."

"It isn't hot in here," she replied for what must have been the fourth time. "If you're hot, why don't you get out and walk? It looks real cool out there." It was September, so it actually *was* cool.

Bosco looked at her surprised. "What's your problem?"

"I don't have a problem," she replied evenly. She knew it would be pointless to argue with him. He got this way every so often; the only way she'd found to deal with it was to ignore him. Besides, tomorrow he was working second shift, then he had two days off. By the time he'd be back, he'd be calmed down. He always was.

"Fine." A moment later Bosco started tapping his hand against his window rhythmically.

Yokas sighed, and refrained from asking him to stop. Mercifully, he stopped when they got a call. The dispatcher reported, "5-5 David, suspicious man reported at 115 Dugan. Woman requests 5-5 David respond to the call."

Bosco rolled his eyes. "Not again. We should arrest her for harassment."

Yokas gave him a brief glare -- brief because she couldn't really blame him. But she acknowledged the call and turned the car towards Ms. Murphy's home.

"You know, what I can't figure out is whether she wants to adopt you or date you."

This time the glare was less brief. "Bosco, can't you find something helpful or constructive to say? Ms. Murphy might actually *have* a lurker. This time." She wasn't sure she believed it, but they couldn't afford to dismiss the possibility until they'd checked it out.

"Yeah, right. And Sully's going to grow fur out of his butt."

"Bosco, one of these days--" She cut herself off. Don't argue with him, she reminded herself. Ignore him and he'll go away. In six more hours....

"One of these days what?"

"Nevermind. Look, just do me a favor and don't give Ms. Murphy a hard time, OK? It isn't her fault she--" sees things, she stopped herself from saying. "She's a nice lady, she just...." Oh, hell. "Sees things."

"She's a total loony."

"Yeah, and she pays taxes, which means she pays your salary. Which means *you* have to be *nice* to her."

Yokas hoped that when her son got older, he was easier to deal with than Bosco. Then again, Bosco was providing her with some good training. Bosco muttered something she couldn't quite hear, but she could guess at the meaning. She hoped her son didn't talk like that either.

And if he did, that he didn't do it loud enough for her to hear, either.

Fortunately, they were approaching Ms. Murphy's place. While she didn't expect Bosco to behave, at least the call would provide some distraction for them both. Bosco climbed out of the car and even made a minimal effort at appearing interested.

Very minimal.

Ms. Murphy didn't seem to notice, keeping her attention on Yokas as they walked up. "Ms. Murphy," Yokas greeted her.

"Officer Yokas, thank God you're here." Ms Murphy's hands fluttered nervously, like agitated birds.

"Yes, ma'am," she replied as calmly as she could. She wanted to give Bosco a swift kick to make him pretend like he was paying attention. "You reported an intruder?"

"Oh yes! He's been creeping around, I heard him at my window." She shivered and moved closer to Yokas.

"Did you see him? Can you describe him?" Yokas waited for the expected reply -- and hoped, for her sake, that it was more imaginative than usual. Otherwise Bosco would be bitching about it for the rest of the day.

"He was big. Very big. And he had on a mask..."

"What sort of mask?" She made notes, ignoring the way Bosco was rolling his eyes behind Ms. Murphy's back.

"It was one of those... sports masks... like they wear playing hockey..."

"A goalie mask," Bosco said. He turned to Yokas. "There was a Friday the 13th marathon on last night."

*Another* brief glare, then she turned to ask Ms. Murphy, "Was he carrying anything?" It sounded harsher than she'd intended. Sometimes she wished she didn't have to be the nice one. Bosco was right -- every time the woman described her suspiscious lurker, it matched the starring villian in last night's horror movie.

What she wanted to know was how Bosco always knew which horror movie had been *on*, since they were usually on duty at the time.

"I think so, yes," Ms Murphy was saying. "Some kind of big knife, oh what's it called." She frowned as she thought. "A machete, that's it!"

Yokas stopped writing. "And what was he doing, exactly?"

"Well he wasn't doing anything. It's what he was planning to do. I mean you don't go wondering around in a mask with a machete if you're not planning to do something horrible."

"Or going to a costume party as Jason," Bosco threw in.

This time Ms. Murphy sent Bosco the glare.

"Ms. Murphy, how long ago did you see him?" She figured they'd end up wandering around a little, pretending to look for the fictional intruder, before reassuring her and leaving.

Just like every other time.

"Less than an hour ago. You've got to find him, Officer Yokas, before he does something...."

"Yeah, yeah. Before he starts chasing and chopping up cheerleaders," Bosco muttered.

"All right, Ms. Murphy, we'll take a look around." She closed her notebook and gave Bosco a nod.

"Well that was a colossal waste of time," Bosco said as they walked away.

"Just look around, OK? One of these times it's going be for real."

"Yeah, some out-of-work bad guy from a slasher film is going to come re-enact his moment of glory on Ms. Murphy." He snorted. "We should get so lucky."

"You wanna be the one responsible when she ends up being killed?" Truth was, she didn't believe it would happen, but sometimes she just wanted to wipe that smug grin from Bosco's face. It didn't help that she knew he didn't really mean what he said.

"Don't tempt me."

"Go look around." She gave him a not-to-gentle nudge in the opposite direction she was heading.

"Yeah, yeah." He stopped and grinned over his shoulder at her. "If you run into any machete-wielding maniacs, just scream."

Yokas rolled her eyes and decided to take her time looking. A few minutes' peace was all she needed.

*********

For Bosco, the shift couldn't end fast enough. He knew he was getting on his partner's nerves, but he couldn't help it. As always, this time of the month he felt like a stranger in his own skin, felt like that skin should belong to someone else.

Under these circumstances, Yokas was lucky he was only fidgety.

"See you in three days," she told him, sounding relieved, though she was trying to hide it.

"Yeah," he responded, feeling a little guilty about how annoying he'd been. But what could he say? It wasn't like he could tell her what was really going on. She was already heading off, though. Fortunately, by the time he was back on third shift, everything would be back to normal.

That was when Carter tapped him on the shoulder. "Lieu wants to see you."

"Um, sure." Bosco headed for his superior's office wondering what this could be about.

The lieutenant barely glanced up at him from the piles of paperwork. "You're working your regular shift tomorrow, Bosco," was all he said before dismissing him again.

For a moment, Bosco stood stunned. "But I can't!" he finally said.

"Tough. Now beat it, I was supposed to be home hours ago."

The lieutenant stood up and walked off while Bosco was still standing in shock, his mind trying to come up with a reason why he couldn't work third watch the next night.

Well, a reason other than the actual reason.

It was entirely too late to appeal to the Captain. He'd have left hours ago -- so the question was, did he dare call the man at home?

At this hour? After all the trouble he'd gotten into the last two months?

After the incident with the Captain's daughter in the police car?

Oh, he was sunk.

There *were* other options, however. He thought it over, frantically.

Weren't there? He just couldn't think of any. Maybe he'd call the Captain.

Nah, the Captain would kill him. Maybe he should just hide, and call in sick.

Actually, that wasn't a bad idea. It was even kinda true, in a weird sort of way. Feeling reassured, he decided to head for home.

END CHAPTER ONE