Title: Wherever You Will Go series, fic #5: Fear (1/4)

Authors: Demelza and X_tremeroswellian

Email(s): demelza81@yahoo.co.nz and X_tremeroswellian@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: The characters don't belong to us. They belong to Edward Allen Bernero and John Wells and a bunch of other people that we've never met before. Please don't sue. Lyrics belong to the amazing singer Sarah McLachlan. Song is "Fear" and can be found on "Fumbling Towards Ecstacy," and "Mirrorball."

Summary: In a twist of fate, an unarmed Bosco and Faith end up being hostages for three bank robbers whose leader has a deep hatred of women.

Rating: Serious R for language and sexual content (mostly the language, which is very, very bad)

Spoilers: Up through and including "The Unforgiven."

Author's Note: This is the fifth story in a series of Third Watch fics we're writing titled "Wherever You Will Go." The first one is "Confessions," the second is "Here With Me," the third is "Pain" and the fourth is "Tears." You may want to read those first before continuing.

Fear (Part One)

* * *

Previously:

*"Where's he been dealing lately?" Faith questioned.
Aaron's voice was shaky as he spat more blood, a piece of chipped tooth amongst it. "St. Elizabeth's Elementary... I swear, he goes there every day at quarter to ten, and just after three."
Faith turned visibly pale. "What?"
Instantly, Bosco jerked his head in Faith's direction. That was Emily's school.

*She closed her eyes for a second, then looked at him again. "It would never work, Bosco," she said softly.
"Yes, it would," Bosco answered, sounding hurt.
"No, it wouldn't...because I'm not the person you think I am."

*"I can't hide how I feel, Faith... you can't ask me to."
Faith let go of the door handle and turned to face him directly. "Do you know what this is doing to me? It's killing me, Bosco. Do you think I want it to be like this? That I ever wanted it to--" her voice broke and she cursed herself silently.
"What? What were you going to say, Faith?"
"I wish I'd met you first, okay?" She reached up and angrily swiped away her tears. "I wish I'd met you first, instead of Fred. But I didn't. I can't go back and change that now, no matter how much I want to. I married him...we have kids together. You and I..." She shook her head, unable to finish.

*"Don't judge me, Bosco," she said, a touch of warning in her voice. "You don't know where I've been." Her voice dropped to a whisper again.
He kept his voice calm, looking straight at her. "So tell me, Faith. I want to know about your past, about this side of you, that I don't know."
She shook her head. "Why?"
"Because you mean that much to me."
Faith shuddered. "You really don't want to know, Bosco...trust me."
When he spoke again, his voice was firm and sure. "Yes, I do. Tell me, Faith... tell me what was so bad about your past?"
For a split second, looking into his eyes, she considered telling him everything. She swallowed hard and a wave of panic washed over her. She grabbed the door handle. "I can't. Not now. I'm sorry, Bosco." She opened the door quickly and bolted out of the car.

* * *

Morning smiles
Like the face of a newborn child
Innocent unknowing
Winter's end
Promises of a long lost friend
Speaks to me of comfort

But I fear
I have nothing to give
I have so much to lose
Here in this lonely place
Tangled up in our embrace
There's nothing I'd like
Better than to fall

* * *

Faith sighed as she climbed out of the taxicab and looked up at the darkening sky. It was going to storm again. Maybe if she was lucky, she would make it into the bank and in and out of the grocery store before the sky opened up and poured down on her. She felt a drop splash on her hand and she shook her head. No such luck.

She shut the door of the cab and walked toward the door slowly, her ankle still not healed fully yet. It had been four days since she'd been to work, and she and Fred were still having problems about her last day on the job. She hoped he'd get over it soon. She closed her eyes briefly as another drop splashed down on her.

She was so tired. Faith opened the door to the bank and stepped inside, groaning when she saw only two tellers and a long line of people already waiting. Served her right for waiting til the last minute before the damned place closed.

Bosco turned at the sound of the bank door opening. He'd been waiting in line the last half hour, wanting to cash his pay check, when his eyes caught sight of Faith. His stomach started to knot as he looked past the three other patrons behind him and in her direction.

He swallowed hard, his hands buried deep in his coat pockets, clutching at the crumpled paycheck in his hand.

Faith took her place in the back of the line and glanced up just in time to see Bosco turn around and look at her. Her heart skipped a beat and she stared at him.

He probably hates me, she thought.

It was the first time she'd seen him since he'd taken her home from having her stitches redone. And they hadn't exactly parted on good terms.

Bosco saw her look back at him, but painfully looked ahead as the line moved forward. Feeling so guilty, for hurting her like he had, he looked back at her, swallowing again, just wishing everything that had been said had been said like he had planned.

Faith took a deep breath, refusing to look away from him. "Hey," she said, her voice just loud enough for him to hear her.

Bosco smiled slightly. "Hey," he said back, not taking his eyes off her, either.

"You didn't work today?"

He shook his head. "Nah, took the day off. How's the ankle?"

"Getting better."

He nodded, so unsure of what to say. "When you coming back to work?"

Faith looked away. "Couple days. How's it been? Work?"

Bosco shrugged. "Slow, Gusler's been nagging my ass about some stupid test he's taking. That boy never shuts up."

She smiled. "He's really not that bad."

He smiled back. "Worse, actually. I think he's worried about his test."

"What test is he taking?"

Bosco shrugged again. "I dunno, I try to block him out when he talks."

She laughed, shaking her head. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

He laughed with her, but only for a short moment. Hating the distance between them, even if only by a few people, he moved past them and back to where Faith was. "Easier to talk this way," he smiled.

She nodded in agreement. "So it's been okay, then?"

"Has had its ups and downs, but yeah. I guess," he said, his voice quiet.

Faith looked at him briefly. "Any word on Harris?"

Bosco shook his head. "Nothing. We put out an APB, went back to the building, but he'd skipped on us. Probably cleared out when he saw our car pull in, engineers say the elevator was stopped manually from the controls up stairs."

As soon as he said the word elevator, her gaze lifted to his face again, her mind echoing with bits of the conversation they'd had that night.

*"You don't love me."
He gently touched the side of her face, nodding. "I do, I love you, Faith..."*

Bosco noticed a change of look on her face. "We'll catch him, Faith. He's not going to get away with it."

She blinked a couple of times, trying to shake herself out of her own memory. "Uh..yeah. Yeah," she said, feeling both guilty and stupid for not paying attention to the matter at hand.

"So what've you been doing? I mean with your time off work?"

Faith hesitated a moment, then shrugged slightly. "Just, uh...just stuff around the apartment. Laundry, dishes, cleaning. Stuff like that."

He nodded, noting her hesitation. "I've missed you."

The breath caught in her throat and she swallowed hard. "Yeah. Me too," she admitted softly.

A small smile appeared on his lips, and he nodded. "So..." He let out a breath, but was unable to find any other words to say.

She took a deep breath and looked down at her hands. "Bosco, about the other day..."

"I pushed you, I know... I..I'm sorry," he said, the tone of his voice lowered.

She looked up at him, surprised, not expecting that response. "No, that's not what...I'm sorry. I sort of freaked out on you and..." She shook her head. "...I just wanted to apologize. That's all."

He shook his head, looking right at her. "Don't apologize, Faith. I pushed you for answers, pushed for a reason, and...and I'm sorry, I just...I really care, and I don't..." he wanted to finish, but if he did, it would just start another argument, so he shut up.

Faith closed her eyes for a moment. "I know."

"Man, I wish this wasn't like this...between us."

She nodded, feeling the tremendous sadness she'd been fighting off for the past few days threaten to take over. "Me too," she whispered.

He took in a low breath, and let it back out. Burying his hands deeper into his pockets. "I'm sorry."

She cringed. "It's not your fault."

"Yeah, it is. If I hadn't opened my big mouth--"

She couldn't help but smile. "You wouldn't be you."

He caught himself laughing at her comment, before smiling back at her. "Yeah, that's true, I guess... but it's not what I meant."

Faith met his gaze. "Yeah, I know what you meant."

Bosco took in a breath, just looking back at Faith. He went to open his mouth and say something more, when he caught sight of three dark figures approaching the main doors to the bank. Oh shit, he thought, finding himself unable to warn everyone as the three masked robbers came bursting in through the front doors, wielding what looked like shotguns, and one who carried an Uzi.

"Oh, fuck..."

At Bosco's utterance, Faith turned and saw the people at the doorway. "Oh, my God," she muttered.

"Everybody down on the fucking ground! Right now!" The leader hollered, his gun held high.

Bosco dropped to his knees, bringing Faith down with him. He turned behind him, to see some stupid fuck still standing there, his hands in the air. "Get down!"

The same leader moved closer to the people, closer to the tellers and pointed his gun at the woman behind the desk. "You! Open the fucking cash registers!" He turned to look around the room to make sure everyone was on the ground, then turned back to the teller, who seemed to be frozen. "Do you want me to kill you, bitch? Open the damned registers!"

The teller stammered in fear, "I...I don't have the key."

Faith turned to look at Bosco, her eyes wide. "We have to do something," she whispered.

The robber stared at the woman, then leaned forward. "Excuse me?"

Bosco looked back at Faith, then over at the masked man by the teller. "Yeah, if we had our damn guns... shit, what the fuck are we gonna do? This is bad."

"Very bad," she agreed, turning her gaze back to the hostile robber.

"You two, shut the fuck up!" The second robber, a woman, hollered at Bosco and Faith.

"I don't have the keys...only the manager has them," the teller told the leader.

"It's true..." the second teller said.

The leader whirled around, glaring at his female partner. "Did I fucking give you permission to speak?"

She looked back at him, and immediately shook her head, shutting her mouth.

He turned his attention back to the tellers. "You better learn to open them real damned fast without a key, then," he said, his tone warning.

The second teller looked towards his colleague. "Do it..." he said, but directing his eyes toward the alarm button, then looking back at her.

She hit the silent alarm button with her heeled shoe and looked nervously at the robber. "We could call the manager..."

"Why don't they give them the fucking money already?" Bosco asked Faith in a lowered voice.

Faith shook her head, wondering the same thing herself.

This time, it was the third robber who went over to where the two of them were, the uzi in his hands pointed directly at them both. "I swear, if you don't shut the fuck up..."

Faith looked up at him. "We're sorry."

"Just shut the fuck up!"

She nodded quickly.

"Is there a problem back here?" the leader demanded angrily.

"These two won't shut the fuck up," the female of the three replied.

The leader pointed his gun at the tellers, and nodded for the other male robber to switch places with him.

Doing as told, the third robber ran over to where the leader was, sticking the Uzi in the teller's direction. "Open the damn register."

The leader walked back to the back of the line where Faith and Bosco were. "So you like to fucking talk, huh? How would you like a fucking bullet in the head?"

Bosco looked back at him. Damn he wanted to just shoot his mouth off at this son of a bitch. "We'll shut up."

"Well you fucking better!" the female robber shouted.

Faith swallowed hard and nodded her agreement.

The leader glared at them before returning to the counter. "If you don't open these registers right the fuck now, I'll kill you both!" he shouted.

"Like Nina said, only the manager has the keys," the second teller told him, his voice trembling.

Just then, the wail of police sirens rang through the air.

The leader leaned across the counter, furious, and grabbed the female teller by the collar of her shirt, pulling her forward. "What the fuck did you do, bitch?"

"Leave her the hell alone!" the male teller shouted.

He let her go, then aimed his gun at the other teller. "You better shut the hell up!"

The third robber started pacing a bit behind the leader, before stopping right behind him, putting his hand on his shoulder. "They're here man, they're fucking here! The cops! Aw hell, we're gonna fucking die!"

"Would you shut the fuck up? I'm trying to think here!"

Faith looked at Bosco and nodded slightly toward the glass window panes where she could see police cars pulling up out front.

The female robber looked out behind her, seeing two, no three cops cars come screaming to a halt, followed by two more. "This ain't good, Trent! Fuck it!"

Bosco looked out the window at Faith's insistence, a small sigh of relief coming over him as he saw them. But they were out there, not inside.

"No shit, Jamie! You think I don't fucking god-damned know that?" Trent sneered.

Bosco looked at Faith, touching her arm to get her attention, his voice lowered as he spoke. "That's the same fucking Jamie that Christopher was telling us about the other morning."

Faith looked at him, the name clicking in her mind, and she nodded in agreement.

Trent turned and pointed his gun at the male hostage that was right behind Bosco. "You! Get your ass up there and close those fucking blinds!"

"Y-yes..." The male hostage stood up, shaking as he climbed to his feet and rushed over to the windows.

Trent pointed his gun at Bosco next, and Faith's heart nearly stopped. "Get up and lock the fucking foyer doors!"

Bosco looked up at him, rising to his feet and walked over to the doors. He turned the lock and tested the doors before turning around, but not without looking at the gathering of police and FBI units. He walked back to where Faith was and sat down beside her.

The male hostage was shaking severely, and as he grabbed hold of the knob to shut the venetian blinds, his shaking made them clatter against the wall in a horrible racket.

Trent whirled to face the hostage he'd sent to close the blinds. "What the fuck is wrong with you, you fucking idiot? Can't you even close a god-damned blind?!"

The male hostage turned to him with an uncontrollable shaking, he turned back to the blinds and quickly closed the rest of them along that wall before running back to his seat on the floor. His shaking worsening as he tried not to look at Trent.

Faith looked over at the hostage sitting only feet away from her and gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

The hostage tried to smile back, but it only made him heave from tears he was trying not to cry. His eyes filled with tears, and he quickly wiped them away, so that his captor wouldn't see.

The third robber started pulling at the mask he was wearing. " Got to get the fuck outta here man! SHIT!"

"This wasn't meant to happen damnit, Trent!! You said it fucking wouldn't!" Jamie cried.

He stomped over to her. "I swear to God if you don't fucking shut the hell up--"

Faith was unable to stay silent any longer. "Hey, just calm down, all right?" she said, her voice calm and steady.

Trent spun around to glare at her. "Excuse me? Did you just talk again?"

Bosco felt rage surge up through him seeing the stupid son-of-a-bitch glaring at his partner. "Leave her alone, pal," he warned.

"We're all gonna god-damned die!! This is a total fuck up!" The third robber screamed in the background.

Trent let out a laugh. "Awww, ain't that sweet?" His laughter died and he stormed toward them. He reached down and grabbed Faith's arm roughly, jerking her to her feet. "You get the fuck over there," he shouted, pointing across the room to a spot on the floor. "Rodney, shut up!"

Faith winced as he yanked her arm and she quickly did as told.

Bosco went to rise to his feet.

She turned back to look at Bosco, swallowing hard. She shook her head quickly, frantically. Don't stand up, she thought, willing him not to do it.

He wanted to, and he was damned well gonna let that son of a bitch know he was NOT gonna get away with hurting Faith like that.

Faith's eyes were wide. Bosco was going to confront him, she could see it in his eyes. Her heart began to pound. How do I stop him? she thought, her mind racing furiously.

Bosco stood right in front of Trent now. "You son of a bitch..."

Trent turned his attention back to Bosco. "Sit your ass down," he commanded, aiming his gun at Bosco.

He swallowed, shifting his eyes toward Faith. Her eyes still pleading with him to do as he was told. So he did. But only for her...not for this damn, 'Trent' guy.

Faith felt a wave of relief wash over her and she closed her eyes for a moment, saying a silent prayer of thanks.

"This is the police. The building is surrounded. Come out with your hands in the air," came a voice from outside over the bullhorn.

Rodney came over to Trent and Jamie, and ripped off his mask. "We're all gonna fucking die, you son of a bitch!" he shouted at Trent.

"Calm the fuck down!" Trent took off his own mask and threw it on the ground, rubbing a hand across his face.

Rodney stood in front of him, his breathing deep. "I trusted you! But this is shit! A load of fucking shit!"

"We're gonna get out of this," he said, sounding confident.

"Like last time? Last time we were lucky!"

"Yeah, but this time is different," he smiled. "We've got a room full of hostages."

Oh fuck, Bosco thought, looking over at Faith.

Faith met his gaze from across the room. What the hell do we do? she thought.

Go to Part 2

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