AN: Her's the second chapter of the story. Took me a little longer to write some of the Sully/Bosco interaction than I intended. Hope you enjoy.

rubadubdubbs - thanks for the review. I appreciate it! Glad rereading True Love didn't scare you off - reread it myself recently and can think of a whole lot of ways to improve it. I always felt that some of the first season episodes kind of hinted at Bosco/Kim and thought it might be a good way to go when I wrote True Love. Not sure where the idea for this sequel came from but I decided to run with it!

"Think he's really ready to be back on duty."

"I don't know. Let's just hope our paths don't cross his until we know for sure."

Officer Maurice Boscorelli tried to ignore the comments whispered by co-workers as they headed out of the station. They hadn't been the only two whispering such things and it probably wouldn't be the last time he overheard things like that in the days to come. He tried to pretend he hadn't heard them. That he didn't care what his fellow officers were saying about him. Truth was though, it did mater.

"Here you go," Sully said, handing Bosco a radio as he joined him. "Ready to go."

"Yeah," Bosco said. ~At least in the RMP I won't be able to here their whispered comments,~ he thought.

"Want to drive?" Sully asked, against his better judgment. To his relief, Bosco turned him down. At the same time though it worried him. Bosco turning down the keys to a patrol unit was not normal.

The two officers headed out to the patrol car. Outside, Bosco spotted Faith getting behind the wheel of 55-David. She nodded to him, silently sending him the message she had spoken to him only moments before – if he needed anything she was just a call away. He nodded back to her as he followed Sully to 55-Charlie.

The shift had just started but already there was plenty going on in the 55th precinct. Bosco radio central that they would handle the dispute called in at a hardware store a few blocks away. ~Should be something relatively simple to get my feet wet on,~ he thought to himself as he kept an eye on the traffic as Sully drove the car through the streets of the city.

Despite the nerves and the whispered comments from his co-workers, Bosco couldn't deny that this felt right. This was where he belonged.

Two hours later:

"Central, this is 55-Charlie. We are 98," Bosco radioed in as he opened the passenger side door of the RMP.

"10-4, 55-Charlie." the woman at dispatch replied. There was only a slight pause before she was speaking again. "55-Charlie, respond to a call of a warehouse fire. Fire is already en route."

As Sully turned the key in the ignition, the dispatcher rattled off the address. Bosco quickly jotted down the address on a notepad.

~At least I think he wrote down the address,~ Sully thought after a glance at the piece of paper. He wasn't quite sure what Boscorelli had written. A sarcastic comment was on the tip of his tongue. On a normal day, he would have jumped at the chance to bait Bosco. ~But this isn't a normal day,~ the older officer reminded himself. ~The guy has had some rough times and he's got enough co-workers whispering about him. The last thing he needs is me harassing him about his penmanship.~

John Sullivan glanced quickly over at his partner before returning his attention back to the road in front of him. Bosco was gazing intently out the window, his eyes on the traffic they were passing. Even Sully could see this wasn't the same Bosco he had been riding with those couple of days over two weeks ago. That Bosco had been out of control and exhibiting a lack of self-confidence. Not to mention the panic attack that he had while driving the RMP and almost getting them both in an accident. He recalled his comment to Faith about there being something not right with Bosco.

The first couple of calls, Sully had purposely took a step back. Let Bosco take control of the situation. He wasn't ashamed to admit he had been testing his partner. Making sure for himself that Bosco ready to be back on duty like most of his other co-workers were wondering. The difference was, he was willing to give his fellow officer the benefit of the doubt. To give him a bit of help if he wavered a bit. So far, Bosco had kept his cool and shown his old self-confidence while they did their job. Sully had wanted to mention it to him, but wasn't sure how to bring the topic up, especially after Bosco's reaction in the locker room to his suggestion that he might want to ride with Faith.

Reaching the address the two officers found that fire was already on the scene. Another unit had arrived ahead of them and had blocked off access to the one way street the warehouse was located on. Sully pulled the car up to the curb near the scene. Across the street from the warehouse.

"I'll go talk to the fire chief if you want to go talk with the spectators," Sully suggested nodding his head in the direction of the group of people.

"Got it," Bosco replied opening the door.

Sully followed suit. He headed for the fire engine, assuming the chief would be somewhere near there running things. From the looks of things they crew hadn't been on scene long and things were just getting organized.

As he approached the engine, Sully spotted found Lt. Johnson by the engine. The police officer stood back for the moment, seeing that the lieutenant was busy given order to his men. Johnson glanced in Sullivan's direction and gave him a nod to acknowledge his presence. Once he had given his fire fighters their orders, Johnson addressed Sully.

The call had come in from someone passing the warehouse who had seen smoke. The warehouse had been closed for the day and there wasn't anyone in the building now. Other than crowd control there wasn't anything for Sully and Boscorelli to do. With a nod, Sully headed back to the RMP.

~At least there aren't many spectators,~ Sully said, looking over to where Bosco was still talking with the group. Things looked relatively calm. Deciding the younger officer had things under control Sully decided to start getting a police line set up. Just because it was a small group now didn't mean things would stay that way.

Finishing the police line, Sully headed back toward the car, noting that Bosco was now walking back across the street. Bosco walked around the front of the squad and then leaned against the passenger side door.

"Just your usual bunch of gawkers over there. Saw the smoke, don't have anything better to do with their life, so they're hanging around to watch. Probably hoping someone gets hurts. No one claims to have seen anything or be around before the fire started."

Sully nodded, ignoring Bosco's personal assessment of the crowd. It was pretty much as he expected.

There wasn't much for the two to do now except make sure no one got too close to the fire. Those watching looked content to keep their distance. The two officers alternated by watching the progress of the fire crew and keeping an eye on the police line set up to make sure no curious civilians or media tried to duck under it.

~If I was with Ty, we'd be discussing some random topic the kid would bring up,~ Sully thought. He glanced over at Bosco. Leaning against the RMP Bosco didn't look like he was much up for talking. ~Though if it were Faith here now instead of me, I bet he would feel differently,~ Sully mused.

When Bosco finally did comment, not only the sound of his voice but the topic brought up took Sully by surprise.

"Look, Sully about earlier, back in the locker room, I shouldn't have jumped on you like that. I was out of line and I shouldn't have just jumped to conclusions, like I did."

Sully nodded. He knew how much it took for the younger man to make the apology. He wasn't the best at apologies himself. Sully also didn't have any hard feelings about the incident. The veteran cop knew it hadn't been personal. At the same time, he didn't want to just let things go and this was the perfect opening for bringing up the things he wanted to discuss.

"I know coming back after the things that happened wasn't easy. It wouldn't be easy for any cop. I figured you'd rather have Faith as your partner your first day back. That's all there was to the suggestion. If I had problem about riding with you I would have went to the captain myself and requested the change."

"I think most people would have."

"You're probably right," Sully admitted, never having been one to sugar coat things. Rumors about Bosco had been circulating the 55 since the first day of his suspension. Some were founded and others were completely off basis. The fact that the reason behind the extended leave was kept quiet, didn't help matters. Sully had heard everything from Bosco having been admitted to a psych ward to that he had been fired. "I've been in too many situations with you over the years to write you off that quickly though."

"They've been talking about me at the station while I was out, haven't they. Speculating that I may have gone off the deep end or something. Faith's denied it but I think she was just trying to protect me. I've heard some of the whispers today about me."

"Yeah, they has been talk. Faith, Ty and I've tried to defuse it the best we could without breaching your privacy but . . . people talk. It'll past. As soon as they see what I've seen today. See that you haven't lost your edge."

"It's like I'm a rookie again and I need to prove to everyone that I belong here."

"You've got nothing to prove to anyone, Bosco. They wouldn't have let you come back if they didn't think you were up for this."

"Part of me is surprised they let me come back given everything that happened."

"If your referring to the panic attack while driving, no one knows about it except for me. I didn't tell anyone."

Bosco looked at Sully, surprise clearly written on his face. "Why?"

"I was going to. The way you were heading . . . well I thought you might get yourself or someone else hurt. Then I saw the chewing out you were taking from hitting that bank robber suspect and I figured you were in enough hot water for the time being. Not to mention I felt a bit responsible for not stopping from hitting that guy."

"That was my own doing, Sully. I'm responsible for my own actions no matter how idiotic they are," Bosco commented, glancing over his shoulder at the crowd that was behind him. It looked as though a few people had gotten tired of the show and had left the area.

"Yeah, but partners look out for one another. Try to keep them from doing stupid stuff. I've wondered at times if Yokas had been with you . . ."

"I don't think it would have mattered." Bosco told him. The two of them stood in silence for a few moments. "What about now, Sully?"

"What do you mean?"

"You could still bring the driving episode up."

Sullivan shook his head. He had thought about it over the last couple of weeks. After Faith had said that Bosco was working through things, his decision had finally been to wait and see how things went when Bosco came back.

"I haven't seen anything today that would warrant me bringing it up. We all make mistakes. I would like a promise from you though."

"What?"

"don't let things build up like that again. This job is stressful for all of us and its easy to let it get to us. Given your current status with our co-workers, its probably going to be more so for you the next week or so. Just remember your no alone. You've got Faith, Ty and myself. Just don't push us away."

"Thanks, Sully," Bosco responded, which Sully took as the closest thing to a promise that he was going to get from the younger officer.

Two hours later:

"Great, I thought we asked for back-up, not a liability," officer Blair whispered to Jackson as Bosco and Sully hurried toward them. As he was behind Bosco, Sully figured Bosco had overheard the remark just as he had. The other officer chose to ignore it though as he took the four front steps of the townhouse in two bounds and took a position across from Jackson.

"What's the situation?" Bosco asked in a hushed, tone directing the question toward Jackson.

"Central go a call from this address for a domestic. Apparently an eight year-old called it in. Says his Dad is yelling and throwing things. May have hit the mother. Kid was in hiding. We heard loud voices and banging when we got on scene. No answer to our knock though several shots were fired following. It's been quiet since."

"The shooter leave through a back door, maybe?" Sully questioned.

"Possibly. We didn't want to split up not knowing exactly what we were getting into."

"Okay. Bosco and I will check out the situation out back. If we don't find anyone out back then we'll enter the building from both entrances at the same time."

"Agreed. We'll wait to hear from you then."

Sully hurried back down the few stairs and headed down the row of houses. He heard Bosco's footsteps behind him as they made their way down the street. Reaching the end of the line of houses, the started down the alley between them and the next set. As they got further away from the street, the light from the street lamps faded away. Bosco moved closer behind Sully, both officers keeping a close eye on the shadows.

Reaching the end of the alley, they found a line of fenced in backyards. Scattered outside lights illuminated some of the yards while others remained hidden in shadows. Sully scanned the yards on either side of them. There was no sign of any movement in any of the yards.

"Let's head toward the house, but stay alert. If someone did come out this way there is no telling where he might be hiding."

"I'm right behind you, Sully," Bosco replied.

Sully headed for a gate for the first yard. Slowly, he opened the gate and stepped through. The two officers carefully made their way through the back yards, toward the house where Jackson and Blair were waiting out front. One house away, Bosco noticed a slight movement from a tarp in a back corner of the yard.

"Sul, the tarp moved."

"You sure?" Sully looked toward the tarp in question. Nothing looked amiss.

"Positive."

Sully nodded. Checking it out wasn't going to hurt. He brought his gun up and pointed it in the direction of the tarp. He glanced over toward Bosco, to make sure he was ready. "Police! Come on out with your hands where we can see them."

With a speed that surprised both officers, a figure darted out from under the tarp, and jumped the fence. Quickly getting over their surprise, Bosco holstered his gun and headed for the fence. As the younger officer cleared the fence and started in pursuit of the suspect, Sully head for the gate in the fence.

"55-Charlie in pursuit of a suspect on foot. We're headed east through the backyards of the town houses."

"I'm heading that way now. If he comes up an alley I'll try cutting him off," Blair radioed back.

"55-David. We're a block away. Heading that direction to back them up."

Sully heard central's confirmation as he hurried through the back yards, trying to keep his eyes on both the fleeing suspect and his partner. To Sully it looked as if Bosco was closing the distance between the two of them. As the suspect cleared the final fence in the row of townhouses he took a sharp left up the alley.

"Blair, suspect is headed up the alley at the end of the row."

"Copy that," came Blair's slightly out of breath response.

The radio transmission was just ending when Sully saw Bosco go down trying to clear the final fence. Muttering a curse, Sully hurried a bit faster through the final couple of yards. Bosco was starting to get to his feet as the older officer hurried through the last gate."

"Bos?"

"Go. Blair might need back-up," Bosco replied, waving Sully off.

Sully hurried past Bosco and down the alley way. Near the end of the alley, silhouette by the lights from the street, the suspect was standing still, Blair standing in front of him, gun drawn. As he got nearer, Sully could see that the suspect had pulled a gun of his own.

"Drop the gun," Sully ordered, coming to a stop behind the guy, his own gun drawn.

His attention riveted on the suspect in front of him, Sully heard Faith's call to central that they were getting ready to enter the house the call had originated from.

The suspect, glanced over his shoulder at Sully and then back at Blair. Sully couldn't see the guy's features in the dim light. "It's over," Sully told him. "Make it easier on yourself and drop the gun."

After a moment more of hesitation the guy did just that, tossing the gun to his right.

"Now move against the wall," Blair ordered, gesturing toward the wall away from the gun. The guy complied moving slowly. With Sully keeping his gun on the suspect, Blair holstered his own and walked toward the suspect. Moments later he had him cuffed and quickly read him his rights as Sully put away his own gun and went to retrieve the suspects.

"Nice of you to finally join us, Boscorelli," Blair said, as Bosco made his way slowly toward his fellow officers. "You're a little late for the party," he added, before he started leading the suspect back up the alley.

Over the radio, Faith was radioing for an ambulance for a gunshot victim within the residence.

"You okay?" Sully asked Bosco, noting the slight limp. The light from the street didn't allow him to get a good look at his partner but he could tell the left pant leg was ripped.

"I caught my leg on a wire or something going over the last fence," Bosco told him. Sully moved to give the younger officer some assistance and was waved off. "I'll be fine."

Choosing not to push the point, Sully backed off. The two started following Blair back toward the squad cars, Sully letting Bosco set the pace. By the time the two of them had reached the house they had been called to, the paramedics were bringing the victim out. Sully noted that it was Doc and Carlos as they loaded the patient up in the ambulance.

As Bosco leaned against the hood of 55-David, the closest patrol car, Sully also noted that Blair had deposited the suspect they had apprehended in the back of 55-Bravo. The other officer was talking with the suspect but from the looks of things wasn't getting anywhere.

"I'm gonna go check with those in the house and see what's going on," Sully told Bosco, who nodded but didn't say anything.

Sully made his way into the residence, calling out his presence as he entered. He heard Faith call that she was in the living room, as he heard footsteps coming down the nearby stairs. He glanced in that direction to see Johnson coming down cradling a baby.

"The kid who called is with Faith and Gussler," Jackson replied to Sully's unasked question. "Found him hiding in the hall closest. Faith has been able to get a partial description of his father from the boy. The kid's pretty shaken up. Hopefully, its the guy you and Blair caught. Hate to think the guy who beat up and then shot this woman in front of his kid is still out there."

"I hope so too," Sully said, as he followed Jackson toward the living room.

When she saw Sully, Faith handed the other kid over to Gussler and came over to him. She began to tell him the description of the father that she had been able to get out of the guy. From what she reported it sounded like the guy Blair had out in the back of his squad.

"With any luck the wife will make it and be able to make a more positive id. I'd hate to think he'd have to id his own father," Faith said, glancing with sympathy over at the little boy. She dropped her voice lower, "Where's Bosco?"

"Out front. Hurt his leg in the pursuit, not sure how bad it is. I think he's trying to be macho man in front of Blair. He's going over to Mercy and letting them check it out even if I have to knock him out and drag him in there."

Faith nodded as Blair entered the room.

"Detectives are on their way to take over the scene, Jackson," Blair said coming into the room. "Central wants to wait for them to get on the scene and then bring the prisoner in. Yokas, Social Services is asking that you meet a social worker at Mercy to turn over the kids."

Faith responded an affirmative.

"You guys need us for anything?" Sully asked, looking toward Jackson who was the senior partner of the two.

"No, we'll be fine. Thanks for the backup, Sully."

"Anytime," Sully told him, with a nod. He started out of the house, Yokas and Gussler not far behind him. The three officers headed toward 55-David, where Bosco was still leaning against the squad, Sully radioing to central his intentions of taking Bosco to Mercy to be checked out.

"We're done here, Bosco," Sully informed him. "I'm gonna run you over to Mercy so the docs there can take a look at you." Sully expected an argument from the younger officer and was surprised when Bosco just nodded.