Title: Wherever You Will Go series, fic #3: Pain (1/2)

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.

Rating: PG-13

Spoilers: Up through and including "The Unforgiven."

Author's Note: This is the third 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." You may want to read those first before continuing.


Previously:

*Davis was starting to feel impatient but he tried to hide it by looking out the window. "So...you and Tatiana talked then? "
Sully finally gave in. "Yeah. Not for long, but after I got offline, she called. We've agreed to meet for coffee tomorrow since I have the day off."

*"Matt Harrison has been making a wicked homeade ecstacy/heroin combination and selling it to a bunch of junior high and high school kids. Boscorelli, you were late, so you and Yokas may have the pleasure of finding and arresting him." Christopher smirked at Bosco.

*"Where can we find him?" Bosco demanded.
"I dunno man, I heard he does a lotta work up Center Street, 764 North... there's this abandoned building, he'll be there..." Aaron said, his voice trembling.

*Faith quickly headed for the stairs. When she hit the second one, her foot crashed right through the step and she fell against the wall. "Shit!" She looked down at her leg, wincing as she tried to remove her foot from the hole.

*The elevator shook slightly and then stopped without warning.
Faith froze, waiting for the doors to open.
They didn't.
Bosco looked over at Faith, then quickly toward the doors, just waiting for that familiar noise of the doors sliding open. "Oh, don't tell me!"
"Son of a bitch," she muttered quietly.

*"I...I care about you, Faith..."
"I know that, Bosco. I care about you, too."
Bosco met her eyes with a steady gaze. "That's not what I meant..."
She stared at him for a moment, totally confused. "Then, what--?"
He swallowed. "I care, a lot more than I'm supposed to... I..."

*Faith looked down at the floor, unable to meet his eyes. "Bosco, I know that..." her voice trailed off and she swallowed hard again, trying to find the words. "...I'm sorry, Boz," she whispered, tears in her eyes as she finally looked up at him.
He swallowed. "So, this afternoon..."
She bit her lip and tried to hold back the tears. "If things were different....if it was just me I had to think about...you know that..." She shook her head, put her face in her hands, unable to finish.

* * *

Pain (Part One)

Bosco had been lying flat on his back all night long, with his eyes wide open. He couldn't sleep. No matter how he tossed and turned, tried to get into the most comfortable spot on the matress, his eyes just wouldn't shut. And if they did, it was only for a few seconds before he was wide awake again. His every thought was about Faith, back to stuff that had happened to them over the past months, and then yesterday. In the elevator. He closed his eyes as the memory of kissing her flashed before him. As it painfully faded, he opened his eyes, wishing he could have that moment back again.


"That's what I love about you, Faith... you're not like Nicole, you're not like any of those other wannabe's... you're you. You're Faith."

Faith froze at his words. Had he just said 'love?'

"Faith?"

She turned around slowly to face him. "You don't love me."

Bosco stepped over to Faith, leaving only a few inches gap between them. He gently touched the side of her face, nodding. "I do, I love you, Faith..."

"Why?" she whispered, her eyes filled with tears.

"Because you're the best thing in my life...."

Faith was awakened from her dream by the shifting of the mattress. She squinted at the clock. 5:42 a.m. She hadn't fallen asleep until an hour ago when the pain medication the doctor had prescribed finally knocked her out. She felt Fred's hand touch her thigh and his lips nuzzled her neck. Faith cringed slightly and shifted away.

"Aw, come on babe..." Fred reached out to touch her again.

"Not now, okay?" she said, softly.

He ignored her, and wrapped his arms around her. "Come on, just this once."

She closed her eyes as he leaned down and kissed her neck, his hand sliding higher up her leg. She shook her head. "I don't wanna do this right now."

Fred let out a low sigh, but placed kisses from the base of her neck, up to her ear lobe, licking it lightly. "Come on, Faith... the kids are still in bed, and I've got another hour before I have to be up."

Faith opened her eyes again. "My foot hurts, Fred."

"It'll get your mind off it."

"And I barely got any sleep last night..."

He continued kissing her neck, sliding his hand under her nightgown. "Neither did I."

An image of Bosco flashed into her mind, him in front of her, telling her how much he loved her. She shuddered under Fred's touch.

Fred was startled at his wife's shuddering. He removed his hand from her leg and put his arm around her stomach, hugging her. He still continued to kiss at her neck. "I could take the day off work, we could spend all day in bed."

Faith felt tears sting her eyes and she squeezed them shut again, glad she was faced in the opposite direction and he couldn't see her face. She forced herself to take a deep breath, and then pulled away and sat up. "I've still gotta work, Fred."

He sat up behind her, a frown on his face. "What? You hurt your ankle, the doctor said to keep off it," he said, his tone less than pleased.

"I know, but I've already used up all my sick days with the radiation treatments. If I miss it, we lose the money, and we've got too many bills to pay for me to not work."

"Faith, a few days won't matter.... you can't risk doing further damage, the doctor told you that."

"He told me to stay off it for a few hours. I'll be all right." She turned to face him and gave him a forced, but reassuring smile.

He didn't believe her, and reached out to touch her hand. "I'll call in sick for you, you're not going to work."

Faith shook her head. "It's not that big a deal, Fred. It was just a cut."

He looked right at her. Who was she trying to kid? he thought. "Yeah, one you needed stitches for," he bit back.

She sighed. "Look, I know you're worried, but I promise you I'll be fine."

Fred let out a sigh, finally nodding. "As long as you promise me that you won't go running around with that partner of yours. Do desk duty or something... please, Faith."

"Like Bosco would let me do anything today besides drive anyway," she said, shaking her head.

He continued looking at his wife, hating how easy it was for her to just talk about *him*, to say his name in front of him. "Up for an early breakfast, then?"

Faith yawned. "Sounds great. What are you fixing?" She smiled.

"I've been told I make a superb omelett, if you want one?"

She nodded quickly. "An omelett would be good."

Fred smiled back at her. "Great, I'll just go whip them up." He climbed out of the bed, smiling back at her once again, before leaving the room.

She smiled back until he left the room. Then the smile faded from her face. She stared at herself in the mirror hanging on the wall. Tears rapidly formed in her eyes and she put her head in her hands for a moment, trying to get control over herself. Just get me through this day, she thought.


Faith took a deep breath and stepped into the locker room, headed straight for her locker. She caught sight of Bosco facing away from her, his shirt off and she swallowed hard, her gaze lingering a few seconds longer than it should have. She scolded herself and quickly averted her eyes, focusing on the lock on her locker. Her hands were shaking slightly.

Bosco turned in Faith's direction, and seeing her standing there, he swallowed. He turned back to his locker for a moment, quickly slipping on his bullet-proof vest and then his shirt before turning his attention back to her. Damn it hurts, he thought. "Need some help?"

She jerked her head up, startled at the sound of his voice. "What?"

He nodded toward her lock and shaking hands. "Need some help with the lock?"

She drew in a deep breath and shook her head, forcing herself to concentrate. The lock popped open finally. "Nope, I got it. Thanks."

He nodded, a sudden tightening in his chest as he watched her. Swallowing hard, he turned back to his own locker, buttoning up his shirt until the last button was done up. He removed his tie, and clipped it on, then took in a breath and turned his head back towards Faith.

Faith felt his gaze on her again and she swallowed hard and shrugged out of her jacket. She stuffed it into her locker and grabbed her vest, pulling it on over her head quickly. She buttoned the shirt of her uniform on over it, biting down on her lip. Maybe I shouldn't have come to work today after all, she thought, wondering if she was going to be able to deal with being around Bosco for the next eight hours.

Bosco swallowed, yet again. He turned his attention back to his locker, and closed it. He stepped over the bench in front of it, and sat down, bending over to do up his shoe laces. He reached for the left shoe, or at least he thought he was, instead he just sat there, looking at her. Realizing what he was doing, he looked away, clearing his throat. "I didn't think you'd be working today," he said.

She glanced over at him. "Yeah, well. I used up all my sick days already, so I didn't have much choice."

He nodded, understanding. "So you'll be on desk duty?"

Faith hesitated for a moment. "No..."

He looked at her again, his eyes not shifting. "Oh..."

She looked away. "If you wanna ride with someone else I'd understand," she said quietly, tying her own shoelaces. She hoped like hell he didn't take her up on that offer. As much as she was afraid of being around him all day, she didn't want to not be around him either.

"No, no way..." he said straight away. "We're a team."

A small smile formed on her lips and she nodded, feeling a tiny bit of relief. She glanced at him and met his gaze. "Okay."

Bosco smiled back, turning his attention back to his own shoelaces, and proceeded to tie them.

She let out a tiny sigh and turned back to her locker, closing it, along with her eyes, very briefly.


The drive out from the precinct was in complete silence. Neither said a word to the other as they climbed in the car, or as they were driving out to their sector. Bosco let out a sigh, looking out his side of the car, before turning to Faith. From the expression on her face, he got the feeling she was determined not to look back at him. So he set his eyes in front of them. Letting out another breath.

"There was this chick at the bar last night..." he said.

Faith carefully avoided looking at him, made no acknowledgement of the new information. What was she supposed to say?

"We had a great time, just talked for hours, danced, talked some more... then we went back to her place."

Her hands tightened on the steering wheel. "Good for you," she muttered, staring out the windshield.

"Her name was Crystal, a real looker, tall, blonde..."

She resisted the urge to tell him to shut up. Instead she gritted her teeth and her hands tightened even more on the wheel. "Fred and I had a lot of fun last night, too," she said, not looking at him, no expression on her face.

He swallowed at *his* name, but nodded just the same, feeling his nails digging into his leg from the tension building up inside him. "Uh-huh...she gave me her number, I'm gonna give her a call on our next break..."

"We're thinking about taking a second honeymoon. Maybe to like Hawaii or something."

"That's nice," he replied, his tone uninterested. "I'd love to take Crystal to Hawaii, not that we'd see much of the island."

Faith rolled her eyes, unable to contain her disgust. "Yeah, you've known her all of what? Like two seconds?" she snapped.

Bosco shot her a look, grinding his teeth. He looked out his side window. "Yeah, well she's special, okay?"

She considered pulling off the road and getting out of the car, away from him. "Whatever," she muttered.

He crossed his arms over his chest, refusing to look back at her. "Fine," he muttered back.


Bosco sat in the passenger side of the squad car as Faith drove. Every few minutes or so he'd look in her direction out the corner of his eye. He was worried, worried because they'd hardly spoken, and worried because she shouldn't have been working today, anyway. Not with her ankle damaged as it was.

He looked out along the road, watching everyone as they walked past. His attention was diverted to his radio when a call came through about Darryl Winslow, the perp they were looking for in connection to Matt Harris from their shift the day before.

"Central to 55-David. Darryl Winslow is on foot, eastbound on 22nd," the dispatcher called in over the radio.

Faith turned the sirens on and floored the gas pedal, zooming around two slow-moving cars ahead of them.

He kept his eyes peeled on the road. "55-David in pursuit, Central," he called back into the radio.

She narrowly missed a guy switching lanes ahead of her. "Sonofabitch!" she said, jerking them into the next lane quickly.

Bosco bit back a laugh. He was looking up ahead when he saw their guy. "There!" he said, pointing towards the guy.

She yanked the car off the road and slammed on the brakes, throwing it into park. She took her seatbelt off and jumped out of the car. "Hey!" she shouted at the man.

He was out of the car the moment the car stopped and was running after the guy. The son of a bitch was fast, and cut the corner up ahead. He turned back to Faith momentarily. "You go that way!" he shouted, pointing to a short cut to the left of them, and continued on ahead, until he reached the corner and turned it.

Faith sprinted down the alley as fast as she could, but just as she reached the end of it, a searing pain jolted through her ankle. She let out a muffled cry as she fell onto someone in the intersecting road.

Bosco fell backward at the impact, landing flat on his ass, his wind knocked out of him. His eyes closed at the impact, and it was only when he opened them that he saw who it was. "Faith?" he asked, trying to get his breath back.

She bit down on her lip so hard, she drew blood, not yet realizing who she'd fallen on. Her ankle hurt so much she couldn't think about anything else. Tears stung her eyes and she fought to catch her breath from the sharp pain.

He held onto Faith, getting her to look at him. "Faith, are you okay?" he asked, seeing the tears in her eyes.

She shook her head slightly, still unable to speak. One of the tears fell down and splashed on his shirt. She laid her head down on his chest for a moment, trying to gather up enough breath to speak. Finally she was able to do so. "Go after him," she said, her words coming out somewhere between a sob and a gasp.

He didn't want to leave, not when she was in pain. He looked in the direction they were chasing the guy, to see he was now long gone. "We'll catch him later."

Faith didn't have the energy to fight him on it. She swallowed hard, trying to hold back the rest of her tears.

Bosco helped her carefully sit up, so that he was sitting up in front of her. "You okay?" he asked again, concern showing in his voice.

She leaned her forehead on his shoulder, shaking her head. "I don't think so, no."

He put his arm around her. "Your ankle?" he asked, knowing.

She nodded, trying to get her breathing stabilized again.

"Okay, let's get you to the hospital." Bosco reached for his radio, but she caught his hand.

"Don't." There was a hint of pleading in her tone.

He looked back at her for a moment before lowering his hand. "We need a bus."

"Please." She didn't want to explain it to him, didn't want him to have more reason to dislike Fred.

Reluctantly, Bosco nodded. Trying to understand, even if he didn't know why she was hesitant about riding in a bus. "We'll take the squad, then..." he said, not letting her argue with him on that decision as he put his arm around her, and helped her carefully rise to her feet.

Instantly the pressure on her foot made her feel sick and she doubled over, breathing hard, trying not to throw up. "I think I'm gonna be sick."

Bosco began to panic a little, but without a second thought, he lifted her up in both his arms and hurried down the footpath, toward the car.

"Bosco, what are you doing?" she asked, feeling dizzy and shocked.

"Getting you to the car."

"I'll be fine in just a minute. I'm way too heavy for you to carry. Put me down!" she said, protesting.

Bosco ignored her, carrying her along the sidewalk. "I'll put you down when we get to the car," he replied, ignoring her request.

Faith closed her eyes, embarrassed. I'm such an idiot, she thought, shaking her head.

He carried her around the corner, until he reached the car, where he set her down carefully on her good foot, and opened the door for her to get in. With tears in her eyes, she quickly climbed in the car, trying to brush them away before he saw.

As soon as she was in, Bosco closed the door and hurried 'round to the driver's side and climbed in. He started the engine, his hand on the ignition, when he turned to Faith once more. He could see her eyes were red from tears.

She quickly looked away, out the window, biting down on her lip again. She swallowed back the sobs she felt building. She wasn't going to breakdown again.

Bosco put the car in drive, and peeled away from the curb.

End Part 1