"I killed her."

"No she's not dead, she's just unconscious you didn't-."

"Oh my god! Oh my God what did I.."

"Ruth!" The grip on her arm intensified, she winced, her head turning to face him at the sound of the name that wasn't her own. Or was it? It was suddenly all very confusing. "I did this."

"But I-." He squeezed tighter.

"I did this!"

"I… she needs help.."

"Say it!" His steely eyes drilled into hers.

"Wha-?"

"FAITH? FAITH WHERE ARE YOU?" Her head swung towards the door when she heard her partners voice. That was her name right? Faith?

"Do as your told." He hissed.

"FAITH?! Answer me!"

"Bosco!" Her eyes never left the other mans.

"I know you trust me." He said softly.

Two lifetimes passed behind her eyes until she wasn't sure of anything any more.

"Bosco.." Her voice was weaker this time, but the door swung open anyway and in he charged.

"Oh my God!" Jordan Cavanaugh's words spilled out in a hushed breath as she dropped beside her friend. "Kate? Call an ambulance. Woody help me."

Her boyfriend dropped beside her, his fingers grazing their coworkers bloody neck in search of a pulse. Owen's clumsily opened his phone and started dialing.

"Get your damn hands off her." Faith jumped as Bosco's hand yanked Jonas' grasp away from her. "Are you okay?" She nodded mutely. He squinted his eyes at hers, as if he saw something he didn't quiet recognize. "Faith?"

"I'm okay." She whispered.

"What happened?" He looked at Switzer and then back to him.

"I didn't know it was her." Jonas said quickly. "She came out of nowhere-."

"Faith?"

"Bosco.."

"You did this?!" Cavanaugh screeched.

"Faith? Faith?"

"Faith? Hey... wake up it's just a dream. It's just a dream.." Bosco's warm hands brushed the hair back from her face on both sides until she jumped slightly. He pulled her close to him, his own body heaving with a sleepy sigh before whispering. "It's okay, it's just a dream."

"I was thinking about her."

"Switzer?" He sighed softly.

"Ruth." His body stiffened around her when she spoke.

"Ruth's not real." He told her calmly, the eerie stillness of his words made her swallow hard.

"Boz it's not that easy.."

"She's not real Faith." He told her blankly, his grasp around her loosening until he could roll away. She followed the movement of his body in the dark until he stilled again, fading into the grays and blacks of the shadowy room.

"She did though. She was real and for a while at least, I was her."

"Stop." He croaked his voice both scared and dismissive.

"They won't stop. They'll keep chasing us. Keep looking.."

"That bastard filled your head with-."

"It's nothing new." Her head shook back and fourth furiously. "Nothing he said was anything new."

"Damn Jack-off Bastard."

"Boz. Listen to me!"

"No."

"They could kill you, or the kids."

"No."

"He'll protect me."

"Like he did Switzer?!"

"I did that!"

"You'd been thought hell." He snapped back in defense, sitting up in the night. "You'd been kidnapped and drugged and experimented on. You'd gone though days of withdrawal and had a baby for Christ sake. You were hardly in your right mind-."

"No. I was in Ruth's!" Faith interrupted.

"Go to sleep."

"Boz."

"Go back to sleep Faith, it was just a dream." He whispered laying back down on the motel bed with his back to her."

"Bosco.." She pleaded, wiping a tear off her cheek. "We need to at least consider it for the kids sake. They'd be safer if-."

"They're safe now, with the two of us here to protect them."

"Bosco if something happened to them, or to you, because of me.."

"I'm not going to let anything happen to any of us."

"So we just keep running?"

"Faith." He whined, flipping from his side to stare at the ceiling. "Please? We can argue about this again in the morning." She sat in the darkness, watching his chest rise and fall for a few minutes.

"Okay." He jumped a little when she finally spoke, easing down next to him on the bed.

They laid there in silence, his rapid breath the only sound between them until her fingers reached across the blanket and tangled with his.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, swallowing back the sudden rush of emotion rising in her throat. His fingers closed tighter around hers for a second before he turned to face her.

"Everything's gonna be okay." He told her confidently. "I'm gonna keep everyone safe."

"I know." She whispered, moving closer to him, letting her lips close over his. He flinched a little his wide eyes blinking up at her in the night. Even after a year of sleeping inches apart from each other they still rarely crossed the line that time and duty had drawn between them. "I know you will."

"Are you serious?" Jordan rolled her eyes into the back of her head.

"I haven't been here in ten years Jordan I'm supposed to know the exact spot?" He called from the bush he was bending into.

"Give me a bobby pin and I'll have the thing open in like ten minutes." She growled.

"I'll find it." He called back, rummaging further until he was practically under the porch. She leaned against the column of the long wrap around deck, rolling her eyes at his occasional yelps and the sound of rustling leaves.

"How do you know Cal didn't move it?"

"It's been in the same spot for fifty years why would he-? Ah ha!" He bounded up the steps with a dirty key in his grasp, raising his eye brows at her as he jumped onto the porch and swung open the screen door. She waited for him to undo the lock, lazily turning her eyes to the pasture behind her. "There you go." He called, grabbing her around the waist and swinging her towards the entryway. "Home sweet home."

She took a few steps into the farm house, slowly looking around.

"I feel like a Walton." She teased. "Goodnight John Boy."

"It's not Boston." He said softly, looking past her into the family room that looked exactly the same as his grandmother left it. She bit her lip reaching out and touching his arm.

"It's… charming." She told him softly, tugging until his arms where back around her waist. She slunk her hands up his back and fingered his hair. "Reminds me of an Inn I stayed in once."

"Yeah?" He grinned at her knowingly before kissing her neck.

"Romantic." She whispered. "Almost got killed there."

"Let's hope this works out better for you." He nodded.

"I don't know Detective I think that worked out okay for me too." She purred.

"Well then let me show you to your room Ma'am." He hummed back sweeping her off the floor and into his arms before stopping.

"What?" She blinked at him, yelping as he tossed her over one shoulder and locked the door, securing the deadbolt and chain lock before swinging her back down.

"Safety first." He mumbled.

"We're going to be okay here." She told him softly, brushing her hair from his neck.

"We're going to be more than okay." He nodded, pressing his mouth firmly to hers.

"Room.." She muttered, pointing her finger absently up the steps, as she turned her head into his kiss. He nodded turning back to the steps and starting up them.

She'd reread the letters a thousand times, laying them out in neat lines on the table. Her dry eyes stung almost as badly as her damp cheeks. She couldn't cry anymore, there was nothing left.

Crossing the small motel room to where her three children lay curled together on the second double bed she settled down behind them, stroking hair off of their small faces and gulping back threatening sobs until Mya's bright eyes slipped open and into her mothers'.

"You know." Faith whispered to her youngest. "You know it has to be this way."

The baby studied her for a second before reaching out a chubby hand. Her mother caught it, kissing the babies fat fingers before nodding.

"Be a good girl." She whispered, slipping off of the bed. Mya sat up, watching Faith intently as she stopped next to her partner, pressing her lips to his forehead. "God, don't let him hate me."

She swallowed again, casting a glance back at her daughter.

"Mommy loves you." She whispered. "Be a good girl."

"Woody!" Hoyt rubbed his eyes, turning towards Jordan's voice as she flipped on the light. "I'll call Nigel. You can't panic though. You have to stay where you are and not panic." She clutched the phone to her ear, her wide eyes seeking out his.

"Kate?" He muttered, watching her shake her head ferociously.

"Stay where you are Bosco!" Jordan warned, cupping her hand over the receiver and looking at her boyfriend. "Faith left."

"Left?"

"Garrett called her yesterday afternoon and she left in the middle of the night." She winced pulling the phone back from her face before addressing the caller. "Bosco let Nigel track her. Just stay there with the kids!"

Woody picked up his phone and started dialing Nigel's number.

"We'll find her Bosco."

Her fingers shook when she dialed.

"Bledsoe." His voice was steady even this early.

"How does this work?" She asked flatly.

"Just come here."

"Where the hell is that?" She groaned, pushing her hair back off her face.

"You know the way." He told her as a matter of fact. She swallowed hard, her foot tapping against the base of the phone booth door. "Just come."

"How the hell am I supposed to know the way?" She snorted, rolling her eyes.

"How in the hell did you know the number to call me?" The air forced out of her body when his even voice reached her ears. She'd just dialed. "You know the way Ruth."

She didn't know how long she stood there until the phone started it's dull tone of protest in her ear. Slowly she hung it back on the receiver and walked out into the still dark morning.

"Can I help you miss?" The old man looked up at her in concern when she came through the bus depot doors.

"West." She said with a certainty not her own. "I need to go West."

He nodded.

"Where abouts?"

"Southern California." She told him.

"Okay." He pulled out a form, giving her an unsure grin. "Name?"

"Truewell, Ruth Truewell." Her tongue darted out over her lips in an attempt to make herself feel more confident. It was the last bit of Faith Yokas she would reveal for a very long time.