Notes: Disclaimers in part one. Thanks again to Angie. Thanks for all
the great comments they have all
been greatly appreciated.
Part Three
Faith struggled against Kim's hold. She needed to get to Bosco.
"Faith, calm down." Kim gently put a hand on her chest. "Doc is taking care of him; don't move," Kim urged.
Faith could hear Doc ripping Bosco's vest off. She also heard him talking to Bosco.
"Bosco, don't even think about!" Doc shouted. "Sully, get over here I need you. Right here, start compressions."
"Kim, go please go help him," she pleaded with her.
"Doc? Need help?" Kim shouted at him.
"Yes!"
Kim grabbed some gauze quickly from her bag and pressed it against Faith's shoulder. She grabbed Faith's other hand and pressed it against the gauze.
"Hold that, Faith, hold it."
Faith nodded as Kim jumped up and jogged across the room to Bosco and Doc.
Faith strained her ears to hear what was going on. She tried to turn so she could see, but her body wouldn't respond to her commands. Then Sully appeared in her line of vision. He gently moved her hand away from the gauze and pressed down on it. He grasped her other hand and held it tightly.
Faith cried out at the sudden pressure and looked into Sully's eyes. She couldn't read them. He was mumbling assurances to her that she couldn't make out. Her ears were strained to hear what was going on across the room. She didn't care what he was saying; the most important thing to her was the sound of Doc and Kim's struggle to keep her partner alive.
"Charge to 100 jules!"
The only sound in the room was the hum of the defibrillator, then the thump as it sent its shock through Bosco.
"Nothing!"
"Charge 200!"
Faith squeezed Sully's hand tightly. As she listened to the hum then the thump again, she prayed that Doc
would get him back.
"Nothing!"
"Again!"
"Wait! Stop! I got it. Weak but its there!" Kim shouted.
Sully looked down at her and grinned. Faith could feel a tear slide down the side of her face as she let out
the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. He was alive. He wasn't going to leave her.
Alex and Carlos were now in the room. Alex bent down next to Sully and smiled at Faith. "Faith, how you doing?"
"My shoulder is killing me," she grunted.
Sully shifted out of Alex's way as she fastened a c-collar around Faith's neck. Then she lifted the bandage and looked at Faith's arm. She replaced the bandage and turned to Carlos. "Start a line. There's no exit wound so let's stabilize the arm and get ready to transport."
Sully was still clutching Faith's hand, he gave it a squeeze. "You're going to be fine, Faith," he told her, then he stood and stepped back to give Alex and Carlos room.
Faith continued to strain her ears to listen to Doc and Kim's rapid words on the other side of the room.
Her body was starting to feel heavy. She heard Doc say something about too much blood. Who had too much blood? Wasn't it a good thing to have blood? Then she allowed the blackness to claim her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Faith felt relaxed and warm. As she slowly became aware, she could hear faint sounds around her. There was an annoying beeping sound and the rustling of something to her left. Something was telling her that she needed to wake up. Was she late for work? What the hell was that beeping?
She tried to swallow, but her throat was to dry. Slowly she opened her eyes and tried to focus on the
unfamiliar ceiling above her. It was then that she realized there was a blurry figure standing over her.
She blinked and Fred's face appeared clearly before her. He was smiling down at her.
"Fred?" She tried to say. But the only thing that came out was 'fffffrrr.'
"Hey, Faith. You need some water?"
He didn't wait for her to answer as he turned and fumbled with something beside her. Faith realized that
she was in a hospital room. How did she get here?
He then thrust a straw at her and helped her take a small sip of the cool water. It felt great to her sore
throat.
"What?" She tried again. At least it came out as a word this time.
"The doctor said you're going to be fine."
She nodded. Well that was good to know, wasn't it? Something was nagging at her. She felt like she was
missing something. She started to ask Fred when another figure appeared over her. A young woman with
short black hair was smiling down at her.
"How are you Officer Yokas? I'm your doctor, my name is Amanda Prather."
"Faith," she mumbled.
Dr. Prather nodded her head and glanced at something above Faith's head then returned her gaze to Faith. "Okay, Faith. You're in the hospital. Do you remember what happened?"
She tried to recall what had happened but she couldn't remember anything.
Faith shook her head. Why couldn't she remember what had happened? It was starting to frighten her. But
there was something else, something important. Why did she feel like she was dreading something?
"That's okay." Dr. Prather patted her arm and continued. "You were shot. The bullet went in your upper right shoulder and lodged in your muscle there. We had to take you to surgery where we were able to extract the bullet just fine. It looks like you were pretty lucky; there was no nerve damage but you did loose a significant amount of blood. You also have two cracked ribs and a slight concussion. But overall everything looks pretty good."
She was about to thank the doctor when she heard Bosco's voice in her mind, "I'm your partner Faith;
I'm not going to let him hurt you." She gasped as it all came flooding back to her. Seeing Hobbs pull the
trigger and feeling the slam of the bullet. Then watching Bosco fall to the ground before her. Then she
could heard Doc shouting that he lost the heartbeat.
"Faith! Faith! Look at me."
Faith blinked and looked up at concerned Doctor and a frightened Fred.
"Where's Bosco?" she asked quietly.
Dr. Prather looked confused and turned to Fred.
"Her partner."
"Oh, yes. Officer Boscorelli was in critical condition when the two of you were brought in. He was rushed into surgery. Would you like me to check on him?"
"Yes, please," Faith pleaded with her.
She smiled at Faith then asked. "Okay, I'll go find out how he's doing."
When Dr. Prather left the room, Fred sat down on the side of her bed and took her hand. "Geez, Faith, you scared me."
"I'm sorry. Fred, did you see Bosco? He's not dead. He can't be dead."
Fred sighed and let go of her hand. He ran his hand through his hair and gave her an angry look. Why
was he mad at her?
"Faith, why is it you care more about your damn partner than me? Don't you love me, Faith?"
The words stunned her. What was he talking about? Why was he trying confusing her? Of course she loved him; he was her husband, he was the father of her children. They had been through so much together. They had fought hard to keep their family together.
"What?" she asked.
"Bosco. You will do anything for that guy. Why? Is there something you're not telling me?"
Now he was really confusing her. Bosco was her partner, her friend; she loved Bosco. He was there for
her. Bosco didn't let her down.
"Fred, what do you want me to say? I don't understand. Bosco's my partner. You can't understand," she
whispered.
"Make me understand, Faith." He was standing over her with his jaw tightly clenched. His eyes were hard.
She sighed. "You can't, Fred. You don't have my job. You can't understand what it's like to have someone that you depend on for your life and have him depend on you for his. We only had each other in there, Fred. I had to kill someone for him."
She stopped suddenly as that memory came rushing back to her. She was crying now. Tears were running down her face. She wasn't sure when they had started to fall, but she couldn't get them to stop. Fred looked away. How could he understand what she had gone through today? He just couldn't.
"Don't you get it? There is a part of my world that you will never understand. Bosco is part of that world
and you have no right accusing me of something just because you don't understand."
Fred turned back to look at her. He had a pained look on his face he took her hand again. "I'm sorry, Faith; I just don't want to be left out."
Faith sniffed. "No one is leaving you out, Fred. You're the one that is making my partner an issue," she told him firmly.
Fred opened his mouth to say something else when Dr. Prather stepped in the room. She paused and looked from Faith to Fred. She looked like she was going to turn and leave when Fred motioned for her to come over.
"How is he?" Fred asked, then turned back to Faith and smiled at her. Faith smiled back then looked at the Doctor.
Dr. Prather pulled a spiral notebook from her coat pocket and opened it.
"Maurice is in the ICU. I located his mother in the waiting room and she told me I could give you any
information I found out. He came into the ER with a concussion and was in shock from severe blood loss
The ER staff located a knife wound to the lower back. He went into emergency surgery as soon as they were able to stabilize him. The knife lacerated his spleen, but the Surgeon was able to repair the damage without having to remove it. The paramedics said he arrested once on scene. He also coded in surgery but they were able to bring him back." She paused and looked up at Faith, "He must be stubborn."
Faith chuckled. "You have no idea."
"He's in ICU now. He's not out of danger yet, but it's a good sign that he has made it this far. It's amazing with the amount of blood he has lost. The next few hours will tell us more, " Dr. Prather said as she closed the notebook and slid it back into her coat.
"Can I see him?" Faith pleaded.
Dr. Prather studied her for a minute then sighed. "Not now, he's not conscious anyway."
Faith opened her mouth to object but Dr. Prather raised her hand to stop her. "Faith, let's make a deal. You have just been through a very traumatic experience. Your body needs time to rest. I'm going to give you something to sleep and when you wake up I'll speak to his doctor and see what I can arrange."
Faith started to argue but then she looked from the doctor to Fred. Both looked like there was going to be no arguing about this. She nodded ,accepting that agreeing to the deal was the quickest way she was
going to be able to see her partner.
Dr. Prather smiled, and pulled out a needle from the other coat pocket. She stepped close to Faith's bed and injected the needle into the IV tubing hanging near Faith's head.
"How did you know I was going to agree to the deal?" Faith asked.
Dr. Prather laughed. "Just call it a hunch. You should get sleepy right away. I'll fix everything with his doctor so don't worry."
Faith felt the familiar warm feeling from earlier start to work its way through her body. Fred reached
down and brushed a few strands of hair out of her face and then bent down and kissed her.
Her last thought was a prayer that Bosco would continue to be his stubborn self and hold on until she
was able to get to him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next time she woke up it was darker in the room. She could see dark shadows on the ceiling over her.
She wondered what time it was, or even what day.
Faith swallowed and licked her dry lips.
"Hey, want some water?"
She recognized Sully's voice but was confused as why she was hearing it.
"Yeah," she managed to whisper.
Sully appeared over her with the cup and straw that Fred had offered her earlier. She took two swallows of the water and nodded that she was done. He took the cup away and set it down on the table.
"Fred went home with the kids for a while. They'd been here most of the day with a bunch of cops, so they were kind of wired with junk food," he told her with a smile.
"You've been here all night?"
"Most of it. Ty and I left this morning and I came back after my shift was over. Today was my day off."
He shrugged as he told her matter-of-factly.
Faith thought that was sweet of him, but Sully looked a little embarrassed, so she didn't say anything else
about it.
"You missed the Lieutenant. You also slept through the Mayor; he came with the Captain."
"The mayor was here?" she asked, surprised.
"Yeah, ugh I guess it's an election year so he came by to check on the two wounded heroes. The press heard about it and was hanging around downstairs in the lobby before we made them leave. I hope they got my good side for the news."
Sully paused for a second then grinned.
Faith moaned.
"Doctor Prather said that if you wanted, I could take you to see Bosco when you felt ready." Sully nodded
and smiled at her. "I don't suppose.."
She grinned back at him. "I'm ready, are you kidding?" Then she was suddenly frightened of what was waiting for her. "How does he look?"
Sully pulled a wheelchair up next to her bed. "Better than he did" was all he said as he grabbed her robe
and helped her put it on. Then he helped her get into the wheelchair.
Faith felt light-headed but she wasn't sure if it was from the pain that was throbbing in her head or from the knot of fear in her belly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bosco's room was one floor up and Sully and Faith said nothing to each other as they made their way to it. Bosco was in the ICU. He really didn't have a room; it was just a small space crammed with equipment with a bed in the center surrounded by curtains on all sides.
Sully stopped at the edge of the curtain and let Faith get her first look at her partner. At first she
thought there was some mistake; Sully had taken her to the wrong room. The man in the bed looked incredibly pale and he looked too small to be Bosco. She gasped slightly as she realized it really was him. Her full-of-life partner was reduced to a very still form lying in the bed before her.
Sully put a hand on her shoulder. "You okay?"
Faith nodded, but didn't trust herself to say speak. Sully pushed her further into the room. He parked the
wheelchair next to the left side of Bosco's bed and then patted her on the shoulder.
"I'll be outside," he whispered then walked out.
Faith studied Bosco's face for a second. He had a bandage wrapped around the left side of his head and face where Hobbs had struck him. Her gaze fell to his chest and then down towards his stomach. She could see bandages under the thin hospital gown. They were wrapped around his lower chest and continued lower down his body until they disappeared under the blanket that was pulled up to just above his waist. Wires and tubes snaked out from every possible place and lead to various machines around the bed.
Faith forced herself to turn away from the machines and look at Bosco. His eyes were closed and he looked peaceful and very pale. He was too still. Faith couldn't remember a time when she had ever seen her partner so still. She reached up with her left hand and took his hand in hers.
What if he didn't make it? Would she be able to go to work every day knowing that the job had killed her
best friend? That thought surprised her, but she didn't know why it should; he was her best friend, after all, and she needed him. She knew that he needed her, too.
Faith lowered her face until she felt his hand under her cheek. She laid there feeling his hand pressed
into her cheek and tears began to flow down her face. Everything that had happened came flooding back to her all over again and she couldn't stop it. At some point she fell asleep clutching his hand.
To be continued…
been greatly appreciated.
Part Three
Faith struggled against Kim's hold. She needed to get to Bosco.
"Faith, calm down." Kim gently put a hand on her chest. "Doc is taking care of him; don't move," Kim urged.
Faith could hear Doc ripping Bosco's vest off. She also heard him talking to Bosco.
"Bosco, don't even think about!" Doc shouted. "Sully, get over here I need you. Right here, start compressions."
"Kim, go please go help him," she pleaded with her.
"Doc? Need help?" Kim shouted at him.
"Yes!"
Kim grabbed some gauze quickly from her bag and pressed it against Faith's shoulder. She grabbed Faith's other hand and pressed it against the gauze.
"Hold that, Faith, hold it."
Faith nodded as Kim jumped up and jogged across the room to Bosco and Doc.
Faith strained her ears to hear what was going on. She tried to turn so she could see, but her body wouldn't respond to her commands. Then Sully appeared in her line of vision. He gently moved her hand away from the gauze and pressed down on it. He grasped her other hand and held it tightly.
Faith cried out at the sudden pressure and looked into Sully's eyes. She couldn't read them. He was mumbling assurances to her that she couldn't make out. Her ears were strained to hear what was going on across the room. She didn't care what he was saying; the most important thing to her was the sound of Doc and Kim's struggle to keep her partner alive.
"Charge to 100 jules!"
The only sound in the room was the hum of the defibrillator, then the thump as it sent its shock through Bosco.
"Nothing!"
"Charge 200!"
Faith squeezed Sully's hand tightly. As she listened to the hum then the thump again, she prayed that Doc
would get him back.
"Nothing!"
"Again!"
"Wait! Stop! I got it. Weak but its there!" Kim shouted.
Sully looked down at her and grinned. Faith could feel a tear slide down the side of her face as she let out
the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. He was alive. He wasn't going to leave her.
Alex and Carlos were now in the room. Alex bent down next to Sully and smiled at Faith. "Faith, how you doing?"
"My shoulder is killing me," she grunted.
Sully shifted out of Alex's way as she fastened a c-collar around Faith's neck. Then she lifted the bandage and looked at Faith's arm. She replaced the bandage and turned to Carlos. "Start a line. There's no exit wound so let's stabilize the arm and get ready to transport."
Sully was still clutching Faith's hand, he gave it a squeeze. "You're going to be fine, Faith," he told her, then he stood and stepped back to give Alex and Carlos room.
Faith continued to strain her ears to listen to Doc and Kim's rapid words on the other side of the room.
Her body was starting to feel heavy. She heard Doc say something about too much blood. Who had too much blood? Wasn't it a good thing to have blood? Then she allowed the blackness to claim her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Faith felt relaxed and warm. As she slowly became aware, she could hear faint sounds around her. There was an annoying beeping sound and the rustling of something to her left. Something was telling her that she needed to wake up. Was she late for work? What the hell was that beeping?
She tried to swallow, but her throat was to dry. Slowly she opened her eyes and tried to focus on the
unfamiliar ceiling above her. It was then that she realized there was a blurry figure standing over her.
She blinked and Fred's face appeared clearly before her. He was smiling down at her.
"Fred?" She tried to say. But the only thing that came out was 'fffffrrr.'
"Hey, Faith. You need some water?"
He didn't wait for her to answer as he turned and fumbled with something beside her. Faith realized that
she was in a hospital room. How did she get here?
He then thrust a straw at her and helped her take a small sip of the cool water. It felt great to her sore
throat.
"What?" She tried again. At least it came out as a word this time.
"The doctor said you're going to be fine."
She nodded. Well that was good to know, wasn't it? Something was nagging at her. She felt like she was
missing something. She started to ask Fred when another figure appeared over her. A young woman with
short black hair was smiling down at her.
"How are you Officer Yokas? I'm your doctor, my name is Amanda Prather."
"Faith," she mumbled.
Dr. Prather nodded her head and glanced at something above Faith's head then returned her gaze to Faith. "Okay, Faith. You're in the hospital. Do you remember what happened?"
She tried to recall what had happened but she couldn't remember anything.
Faith shook her head. Why couldn't she remember what had happened? It was starting to frighten her. But
there was something else, something important. Why did she feel like she was dreading something?
"That's okay." Dr. Prather patted her arm and continued. "You were shot. The bullet went in your upper right shoulder and lodged in your muscle there. We had to take you to surgery where we were able to extract the bullet just fine. It looks like you were pretty lucky; there was no nerve damage but you did loose a significant amount of blood. You also have two cracked ribs and a slight concussion. But overall everything looks pretty good."
She was about to thank the doctor when she heard Bosco's voice in her mind, "I'm your partner Faith;
I'm not going to let him hurt you." She gasped as it all came flooding back to her. Seeing Hobbs pull the
trigger and feeling the slam of the bullet. Then watching Bosco fall to the ground before her. Then she
could heard Doc shouting that he lost the heartbeat.
"Faith! Faith! Look at me."
Faith blinked and looked up at concerned Doctor and a frightened Fred.
"Where's Bosco?" she asked quietly.
Dr. Prather looked confused and turned to Fred.
"Her partner."
"Oh, yes. Officer Boscorelli was in critical condition when the two of you were brought in. He was rushed into surgery. Would you like me to check on him?"
"Yes, please," Faith pleaded with her.
She smiled at Faith then asked. "Okay, I'll go find out how he's doing."
When Dr. Prather left the room, Fred sat down on the side of her bed and took her hand. "Geez, Faith, you scared me."
"I'm sorry. Fred, did you see Bosco? He's not dead. He can't be dead."
Fred sighed and let go of her hand. He ran his hand through his hair and gave her an angry look. Why
was he mad at her?
"Faith, why is it you care more about your damn partner than me? Don't you love me, Faith?"
The words stunned her. What was he talking about? Why was he trying confusing her? Of course she loved him; he was her husband, he was the father of her children. They had been through so much together. They had fought hard to keep their family together.
"What?" she asked.
"Bosco. You will do anything for that guy. Why? Is there something you're not telling me?"
Now he was really confusing her. Bosco was her partner, her friend; she loved Bosco. He was there for
her. Bosco didn't let her down.
"Fred, what do you want me to say? I don't understand. Bosco's my partner. You can't understand," she
whispered.
"Make me understand, Faith." He was standing over her with his jaw tightly clenched. His eyes were hard.
She sighed. "You can't, Fred. You don't have my job. You can't understand what it's like to have someone that you depend on for your life and have him depend on you for his. We only had each other in there, Fred. I had to kill someone for him."
She stopped suddenly as that memory came rushing back to her. She was crying now. Tears were running down her face. She wasn't sure when they had started to fall, but she couldn't get them to stop. Fred looked away. How could he understand what she had gone through today? He just couldn't.
"Don't you get it? There is a part of my world that you will never understand. Bosco is part of that world
and you have no right accusing me of something just because you don't understand."
Fred turned back to look at her. He had a pained look on his face he took her hand again. "I'm sorry, Faith; I just don't want to be left out."
Faith sniffed. "No one is leaving you out, Fred. You're the one that is making my partner an issue," she told him firmly.
Fred opened his mouth to say something else when Dr. Prather stepped in the room. She paused and looked from Faith to Fred. She looked like she was going to turn and leave when Fred motioned for her to come over.
"How is he?" Fred asked, then turned back to Faith and smiled at her. Faith smiled back then looked at the Doctor.
Dr. Prather pulled a spiral notebook from her coat pocket and opened it.
"Maurice is in the ICU. I located his mother in the waiting room and she told me I could give you any
information I found out. He came into the ER with a concussion and was in shock from severe blood loss
The ER staff located a knife wound to the lower back. He went into emergency surgery as soon as they were able to stabilize him. The knife lacerated his spleen, but the Surgeon was able to repair the damage without having to remove it. The paramedics said he arrested once on scene. He also coded in surgery but they were able to bring him back." She paused and looked up at Faith, "He must be stubborn."
Faith chuckled. "You have no idea."
"He's in ICU now. He's not out of danger yet, but it's a good sign that he has made it this far. It's amazing with the amount of blood he has lost. The next few hours will tell us more, " Dr. Prather said as she closed the notebook and slid it back into her coat.
"Can I see him?" Faith pleaded.
Dr. Prather studied her for a minute then sighed. "Not now, he's not conscious anyway."
Faith opened her mouth to object but Dr. Prather raised her hand to stop her. "Faith, let's make a deal. You have just been through a very traumatic experience. Your body needs time to rest. I'm going to give you something to sleep and when you wake up I'll speak to his doctor and see what I can arrange."
Faith started to argue but then she looked from the doctor to Fred. Both looked like there was going to be no arguing about this. She nodded ,accepting that agreeing to the deal was the quickest way she was
going to be able to see her partner.
Dr. Prather smiled, and pulled out a needle from the other coat pocket. She stepped close to Faith's bed and injected the needle into the IV tubing hanging near Faith's head.
"How did you know I was going to agree to the deal?" Faith asked.
Dr. Prather laughed. "Just call it a hunch. You should get sleepy right away. I'll fix everything with his doctor so don't worry."
Faith felt the familiar warm feeling from earlier start to work its way through her body. Fred reached
down and brushed a few strands of hair out of her face and then bent down and kissed her.
Her last thought was a prayer that Bosco would continue to be his stubborn self and hold on until she
was able to get to him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next time she woke up it was darker in the room. She could see dark shadows on the ceiling over her.
She wondered what time it was, or even what day.
Faith swallowed and licked her dry lips.
"Hey, want some water?"
She recognized Sully's voice but was confused as why she was hearing it.
"Yeah," she managed to whisper.
Sully appeared over her with the cup and straw that Fred had offered her earlier. She took two swallows of the water and nodded that she was done. He took the cup away and set it down on the table.
"Fred went home with the kids for a while. They'd been here most of the day with a bunch of cops, so they were kind of wired with junk food," he told her with a smile.
"You've been here all night?"
"Most of it. Ty and I left this morning and I came back after my shift was over. Today was my day off."
He shrugged as he told her matter-of-factly.
Faith thought that was sweet of him, but Sully looked a little embarrassed, so she didn't say anything else
about it.
"You missed the Lieutenant. You also slept through the Mayor; he came with the Captain."
"The mayor was here?" she asked, surprised.
"Yeah, ugh I guess it's an election year so he came by to check on the two wounded heroes. The press heard about it and was hanging around downstairs in the lobby before we made them leave. I hope they got my good side for the news."
Sully paused for a second then grinned.
Faith moaned.
"Doctor Prather said that if you wanted, I could take you to see Bosco when you felt ready." Sully nodded
and smiled at her. "I don't suppose.."
She grinned back at him. "I'm ready, are you kidding?" Then she was suddenly frightened of what was waiting for her. "How does he look?"
Sully pulled a wheelchair up next to her bed. "Better than he did" was all he said as he grabbed her robe
and helped her put it on. Then he helped her get into the wheelchair.
Faith felt light-headed but she wasn't sure if it was from the pain that was throbbing in her head or from the knot of fear in her belly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bosco's room was one floor up and Sully and Faith said nothing to each other as they made their way to it. Bosco was in the ICU. He really didn't have a room; it was just a small space crammed with equipment with a bed in the center surrounded by curtains on all sides.
Sully stopped at the edge of the curtain and let Faith get her first look at her partner. At first she
thought there was some mistake; Sully had taken her to the wrong room. The man in the bed looked incredibly pale and he looked too small to be Bosco. She gasped slightly as she realized it really was him. Her full-of-life partner was reduced to a very still form lying in the bed before her.
Sully put a hand on her shoulder. "You okay?"
Faith nodded, but didn't trust herself to say speak. Sully pushed her further into the room. He parked the
wheelchair next to the left side of Bosco's bed and then patted her on the shoulder.
"I'll be outside," he whispered then walked out.
Faith studied Bosco's face for a second. He had a bandage wrapped around the left side of his head and face where Hobbs had struck him. Her gaze fell to his chest and then down towards his stomach. She could see bandages under the thin hospital gown. They were wrapped around his lower chest and continued lower down his body until they disappeared under the blanket that was pulled up to just above his waist. Wires and tubes snaked out from every possible place and lead to various machines around the bed.
Faith forced herself to turn away from the machines and look at Bosco. His eyes were closed and he looked peaceful and very pale. He was too still. Faith couldn't remember a time when she had ever seen her partner so still. She reached up with her left hand and took his hand in hers.
What if he didn't make it? Would she be able to go to work every day knowing that the job had killed her
best friend? That thought surprised her, but she didn't know why it should; he was her best friend, after all, and she needed him. She knew that he needed her, too.
Faith lowered her face until she felt his hand under her cheek. She laid there feeling his hand pressed
into her cheek and tears began to flow down her face. Everything that had happened came flooding back to her all over again and she couldn't stop it. At some point she fell asleep clutching his hand.
To be continued…
