rubadubdubbs - Is this quick enough? Next update will probably take longer but I did finally get my new laptop back. Faith working her magic is on tap for next chapter. Meanwhile, hope you enjoy the Bosco angst in this chapter.


Bosco automatically held his hands up, palms open. He didn't need to look at the guy to know he was holding a gun on him as the click had told him that much information. Keeping the guy calm and looking for an opening was his priority now.

"Just take it easy, pal," Bosco told the guy in a calm voice.

"Don't you go telling me what to do," the guy said quickly, a trace of his panic evident in his voice. "If you value your life you'll do exactly as I ask. Now get out of the car slowly."

"Okay," Bosco said, putting one foot slowly out on the ground. He wasn't sure what was going on but the guy was clearly nervous. Bosco had a feeling that this wasn't just a run of the mill mugging.

"Where are the car keys?" the guy demanded, putting the barrel of the gun up against the base of Bosco's neck as the police officer rose to his full height.

~There is no way he'd miss if he pulls that trigger,~ Bosco thought, wondering if he was going to get out of this one. He didn't have Faith around to call for back up like he did when Hobart had held a gun to his head.

"They're in my jacket pocket," Bosco told the guy. He didn't move as he felt the guy's hand go to his coat pocket, looking for the car keys. The police officer knew that he couldn't just rely on the guy making a mistake but was going to have to try to trip the guy up without getting himself shot in the process. "Stealing my car is only going to complicate whatever trouble you're already in."

"How do you know I'm in any trouble. Maybe I just like your car," the guy commented as he took the car keys out of Bosco's pocket.

"You're nervous. You're running from something. Taking my car is just going to give you something more to run from because you're going to have the cops looking for you."

"The cops are already looking for me," the guy replied. The confession didn't surprise Bosco any. It didn't help him much either though. "Step away from the car," the guy demanded. "Move over to the fence," he demanded, waving the hand with the car keys in the direction of Bosco's apartment building.

Bosco moved to comply with the order, stepping around the still open car door and around the front of the vehicle. As they neared the street light, Bosco took a chance and looked over his shoulder to get a look at the guy holding him at gunpoint. It didn't take him long to place the face he was looking at even though he had only seen a picture of the guy - Matthew Larson.

~I can't believe this. Here I spend a good part of my shift looking for this guy, and he ends up finding me first.~

"Don't get any ideas," Larson said, seeing Bosco looking over his shoulder. "Keep walking and keep the hands up," he added, poking the gun into Bosco's back.

"I'm going, calm down," Bosco said, stepping up onto the curb.

Behind him, Larson was paying more attention to his prisoner than where he was walking. Bosco heard the guy stumble. Seeing it as his chance, Bosco spun quickly, striking the wrist of the hand that was holding the gun. The maneuver caused Larson to lose his grip on the gun, which hit the front fender of the mustang and then clattered to the pavement between the curb and the car. The playing field now more even, Bosco threw his whole weight into the bigger guy. Still off guard, Larson stumbled backwards a few steps before recovering.

The two continued to struggle, each of them trying to get the upper hand. Bosco managed to hook the guy's one ankle with his foot, sending the guy to the ground. As Larson fell to the ground, he kept a hold of Bosco and pulled the police officer to the pavement with him. As the struggle continued, Bosco heard sirens in the distance.

~Maybe someone saw the situation and called the police,~ Bosco thought as he fought to get some kind of advantage on Larson. If the guy hadn't planned on killing him before, the police officer knew that had changed now. If he let this guy get the upper hand and get a hold of either the gun by the curb or his own gun, Larson wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger this time around.

Suddenly all thoughts were driven out of his mind as a sudden pain shot through his body. Larson had managed to bring his knee up to make contact with Bosco's groin. As the police officer cried out in pain, Larson pushed him off of him, toward the car parked in front of the mustang. With his opponent lying on the ground, doubled up in pain, the criminal got to his feet and headed toward the curb with the intent of getting a hold of the gun.

Fighting through the pain, Bosco struggled to his knees. He knew he couldn't let Larson reach his gun. The sirens he had heard earlier were definitely getting closer. Pulling out his gun from the holster at his hip, Bosco brought it to bear on Larson.

"Stop where you are," Bosco demanded. "You're under arrest."

Larson glance back quickly at the officer and then down at the gun that he wasn't far away from. From his position, Bosco couldn't see the gun. He also knew that if Larson were to go for it, the other guy would have the advantage as he could take cover behind the mustang. Before Larson could make up his mind, Bosco pulled the trigger of his gun. The bullet hit the curb just in front of Larson, who jumped.

"I purposely missed that time. The next one won't so how about you back away from the gun," Bosco told him as a police car came screeching to a halt in the street.

"Both of you, hands up," came the shout from one of the officers, as they got out of the car. Bosco recognized the voice.

"Sully, its me," Bosco called out, even as he slowly raised his hands for the second time that evening, as more cop cars joined the scene.

Near the sidewalk, Larson decided to make a run for it. He jumped up on the curb and made a sprint down the sidewalk, coming to an abrupt stop when he ran into a couple of foot patrol cops, just coming on scene.

"You okay, Bosco?" Ty asked as he and Sully approached their fellow officer, putting their guns away.

"I've definitely felt better but I'll live," Bosco said as he got slowly to his feet. "Quite a turn out," Bosco commented, taking in the number of police officers that had arrived on the scene as he put his gun back in the holster.

"We got a call from a Mrs. Murphy of an off duty police officer being held at gun point," Sully told him.

"My land lady," Bosco said, for once thankful that she had nothing better to do than to watch the coming and goings of her tenants from her own apartment on the first floor. "The guy's gun is on the ground over there between the car and the curb," Bosco commented, gesturing with one hand in that direction. Ty went to retrieve it.

"Maybe you should sit down. You look a little pale, are you sure your okay?" Sully commented.

"Yeah. Larson just got in a low blow so to say," Bosco replied ignoring the older officer's suggestion that he sit down.

"So what happened here?" Sgt. Jacob Hughs, the first watch field sergeant asked, as he approached Sully and Bosco.

~Looks, like its going to be a long night,~ Bosco thought as he started telling the sergeant what had happened when he had arrived home.


He heard his mother's scream as the sound of glass breaking found its way to him. Mikey moved closer to him, even as his father's shouts reached them. Moments later the door slammed and the apartment fell silent. Letting go of his brother, Maurice Boscorelli slowly moved from his bed and crept slowly toward his bedroom door. Cracking it, his mother's sobs drifted to his young ears.

His mother's bruised face looked up at him from the kitchen floor. Her latest boyfriend was snoring peacefully on the couch. She held her arms out to him, and letting his backpack fall to the floor, he went to her, his own tears joining hers. Once again he hadn't been able to protect him. With his Dad living elsewhere, he was the man of the house and he was failing miserably.

His mother's bruised face faded away to be replaced by Wendy's. The young woman looked at him. "Matt is a good guy. He didn't mean to hurt me," she told him even as her face faded away to be replaced by Kim's. Blood joined the bruises. Blood running from the slash across her face, tears running down her cheeks and mixing with it. "You're a good man, Maurice. I know you didn't mean to do this," she told him, quietly. He looked down and saw the bottom of a broken glass grasped in his hand.

Bosco felt a sharp pain go through his right temple. The pain was enough to bring him out of the restless sleep he had been in. As he started to become aware of his surroundings, he found it hard to move. Starting to feel some panic rising within him, he opened his eyes. The lamp, usually on the night stand, was lying on its side on the floor. It's light still cast a glow on the area of the room beside him. Glancing down, he saw that his movement was being restricted by the sheet he was tangled up in.

Bosco took a deep breath and let it at slowly as he began to unwind the sheet from around him. Once that task was completed, he got to his feet, tossing the balled up sheet onto the bed. He ran his fingers through his hair, glancing at the clock. Ten minutes to seven. He had managed to get less than four hours of sleep and even those few hours had been far from restful. He reached out and picked his cell phone up from the night stand.

He listened to the phone ring waiting for it to be answered. He heard the fourth ring and thought he was going to get Faith's voice-mail, when she finally answered.

"Hello."

"Faith, can you come over after you get the kids off to school?" he asked, too upset to worry about the courtesy of a proper greeting.

"Boz, what's wrong?"

"I need someone to talk to, Faith. Can you come?" he asked again, having no desire to talk about anything over the phone. He needed to be face to face.

"Yeah, sure. I'll be there just as soon as the kids are picked up," Faith replied. Even over the phone he could hear the concern in her voice. "Do you want me to stay on the line with you for awhile."

"No, you've got things to do. I really shouldn't be calling you this early . . ."

"Boz, don't even go there. You know you can call me anytime for any reason," Faith said, interrupting him. "I'll be there as soon as I can. Try to take it easy until then."

"I will," Bosco told her. "See you soon," he told her before ending the call. He put the phone back down on the night stand, looking around the room. Seeing the lamp still on the floor, he picked it up, placed in its rightful place, and turned it off.

He knew he should try to get some more rest, but he just couldn't bring himself to even close his eyes again. The images of the recent nightmare were still haunting him while he was awake. Kim's words to him still clear. He had know doubt that they would be even more vivid if he tried to rest. It was something that he wanted to avoid.

Instead, Bosco headed for the bathroom. He turned on the shower and then stripped off the shorts that he usually slept in. He then stepped into the shower and entered the stream of water face first, closing his eyes as the hot water cascaded down around him. The sound of the falling water filled his ears but didn't drown out the haunting words from his dream. At least he hoped that was all it had been. Just a dream and not a premonition.

It was a fear he had lived with ever since he was a teenager. Ever since he had heard a teacher say that kids grew up living what they saw. That thought had terrified him then and to this day it still did. He already knew he was capable of violence. How many suspects had he hit even after they had been subdued? He had put that jagoff, Skagett, in the hospital after he had found out the guy had beat his mother up. Then there was that suspect he had hit while the guy was handcuffed. If he was capable of those things, how much further was it before he crossed the line and became just like his father. Like Skagett.

Bosco turned around, letting the streaming water hit his back. He lowered his chin to his chest, letting the warm water massage the tense muscles of his neck.

He wasn't sure how long he stood there, but when he finally reached to turn the water off, it was starting to cool. He reached for his towel, drying off as he stepped out of the bath tub. The shower had relieved the physical tension in his body, but had done nothing to clear his head.

After dressing, Bosco went to the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee. He had absolutely no appetite, and so he leaned against the counter, watching the water trickle down into the glass pot as the coffee brewed. It was so trivial but focusing on the dark liquid filling the glass container gave his mind something to do other than wandering to things he did not want to think about.

As soon as the coffee was done, he poured a cup, deliberately grabbing a mug other than the one Joey had given him. As he looked down into the dark liquid the mug changed shaped. Once again he was looking down at his hand grasping the broken glass. He opened his hand, wanting to get rid of the offending object.

Bosco yelled out, as the scalding liquid hit his hand he cried out in pain, instinctively jumping back from the counter as the mug hit the edge, breaking. A little of the liquid ended up splashing onto the t-shirt and pants he was wearing. Moving toward the sink, Bosco turned the cold water on, and placed his scalded hand under the cool flow of water just as there was a knock on the door.

"Faith, is that you?" he called out.

"Yes."

"If you have the key, use it," he called back to her, not wanting to take his hand out of the soothing stream of water.

It wasn't long before he heard the sound of the key in the lock. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Faith step into the apartment. As she shut the door behind her, she glanced in his direction.

"Are you okay?"

"Just a bit of an accident," he told her. "I dropped the coffee mug and scalded my hand."

Faith hurriedly walked in his direction, placing her pocket book on the counter as she passed by. "Let me see," she told him, when she was standing next to him. She reached out and took his right hand in both of hers, moving it out of the stream of water. The skin had a pink hue to it, where the hot liquid had it. "It doesn't look too bad. Keep running cold water over it for a bit longer and hopefully it won't blister," she told him, turning her head to look at him. "Where did the bruise come from?"

"What bruise?"

"This bruise," she asked gently touching his right temple.

Bosco remembered the pain that had woken him from his fitful sleep. "I think I hit my head on the night stand when I fell out of bed this morning," he told her.

"Fell out of bed?"

"It's been a long night, Faith," Bosco told her with a sigh.

"Obviously," she replied, looking at her friend and searching his face for things that he wasn't telling her. She could tell he hadn't slept well, and she could see emotions on his face that she hadn't seen since the night he had come to her apartment and broken down in front of her. "Well, let me get this mess cleaned up and get us both some coffee and then we'll sit down and you can tell me about it."

Fifteen minutes later the two were seated on the couch. After spending a little time trying to decide where to start, Bosco finally just started with telling Faith about his run in with Larson on returning home from work the night before.


Faith closed her locker and looked again at the clock. Bosco still had ten minutes but she debated whether she should call him again. When she had left his apartment earlier that day, he was sleeping. After spending a lot of time talking, she had gone to the kitchen to make an early lunch as he hadn't eaten breakfast. Faith had only grabbed some toast while trying to get the kids ready for school.

By the time she had finished, Bosco was asleep on the couch. Rather than wake him up, she had left him sleep. Faith had put the food away, retrieved the alarm clock from the bedroom and set it in time for Bosco to get up for work. After leaving him a note, she had quietly left, locking the door behind her. She had called him ten minutes after the time she had set the alarm for just to be sure he was up.

The locker room door opened and Davis and Bsoco walked into the locker room together.

"What did you do, have another run in with Doherty?" Davis was asking.

"What?"

"The bruise. Where did it come from?"

Bosco reflectively brought his hand up to gently touch his bruised temple. "I woke up with it. Must have happened during my run in with Larson last night," Bosco replied, glancing in Faith's direction, silently asking her not to say anything about the real origin of the bruise.

Faith gave him a slight nod. What he wanted to tell their co-workers about how he got the bruise was his business. With everything else that had gone on later, she could understand how he wouldn't want to tell them the truth. ~Hell, if I fell out of bed I probably wouldn't want to admit to it,~ she thought as she started for the door. "I'll see you in roll call," she told her partner passing behind him.

"Right," Bosco replied.

Faith left the locker room and headed for the roll call room. She was one of the first ones there and she took a seat in the back of the room. It wasn't long before the rest of the third watch started to file into the room. Bosco slipped in shortly before Swersky entered the room, taking an empty seat a few rows in front of her.

Swersky went through the routine information of assignment and meal times and then moved on to new information and updates on current things that had been happening within the precinct. The arrest of Larson the night before was mentioned, along with Swersky's commendation of Bosco's actions in the arrest.

"Faith, give me a few minutes," Bosco said as the two of them walked away from radio check out a few minutes after roll call had ended.

"Sure. I'll meet you out at the car," Faith told him. Bosco nodded and headed back toward the locker room while Faith headed out to the RMP.

Stepping out of the station house, Faith looked across the street at the fire house. A couple of the firefighters were out front, tossing a football back and forth. Faith noticed Jimmy Doherty among them.

After her talk with Bosco this morning, Faith knew she had to talk to Kim as she wasn't getting anywhere with her partner. She had always been a good terms with the paramedic but the two of them had gotten to know each other better over the past year. Faith was sure Kim would at least be open enough to hear her out. Whether she would accept her advice or not, Faith wasn't sure but she had to try.

~With any luck I'll get a chance tomorrow while we're at the park,~ Faith thought, walking down the steps and toward 55-David. ~And if it doesn't happen than I'll just have to arrange a time for Kim and I to get together.~

Reaching the squad car, Faith checked the back seat, and then climbed behind the wheel. A few minutes later, Bosco joined her.

"Everything okay?" Faith asked him as she pulled the car away from the station house.

"Yeah. I just wanted to try getting a hold of that social worker to set up a meeting with her."

"Did you get a hold of her?"

"Yeah. I'm going in to meet with her next Thursday. Guess I better be on my best behavior that day, huh."

"Just be yourself, Boz. You try being someone you're not and you're going to end up making things worse."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"Just that if you start trying to tell her what you think she wants to hear, she's going to see right through it. You care about both Kim and Joey and that will show through if you just be yourself."

The conversation was interrupted by a call for them to report to the scene of a multi-car accident. After acknowledging the call, neither officer picked up their previous conversation and the subject was dropped as they started another shift.