Author: Kate Anderson
Email: sam_loves_jack@yahoo.ca
Disclaimer: The characters are not mine! They belong to Edward Allen Bernero and John Wells and um, some other people! No money is being made from this work. Don't sue!
Rating: PG-13, just be on the safe side
Pairing: Bosco/Faith, UST - eventual romance
Spoilers: None, I think (??)
Summary: After a criminal attempts to attack Faith's kids, Faith finds that her life is changing.
Author's Notes: Just a little Christmas cheer a few months early! Enjoy!
"Jingle bells, Batman smells..." Bosco's singing rang out throughout the station house. One of the criminals in lockup flipped the bird to Bosco, but Bosco ignored him and continued his singing.
Lieutenant Swersky rounded the corner and gave Bosco the best stern look he could muster. "Cut it out Boscorelli!" he said. "What are you, eight years old?"
Bosco looked over at Swersky. "Just trying to get some Christmas spirit in this place." he replied. "What's Christmas Eve without a little carolling?"
Swersky rolled his eyes and Bosco continued belting out his song. "Robin laid an egg. The Bat Mobile lost a wheel and the Joker took ballet! Hey!"
The guys and one gal in lockup looked to Swersky for help but Swersky just shook his head and headed back towards the front desk. Bosco moved on to the perennial favourite of 'Walkin' Round in Women's Underwear' and the perps began to rattle the bars of the lockup cells in an attempt to drown Bosco out. Bosco just increased his volume.
Faith Yokas entered the station with her partner Gusler and a very irate man wedged in between them. "Yokas!" Swersky said. "What have you got for us now?"
"Matthew McKenny." Faith replied. "Found him whacking off in front of the nativity scene down at the church. Baby Jesus ain't so innocent any more."
"Take him to lockup." Swersky said. "We've got a special treat there for him tonight."
Faith and Gusler hauled the man up the stairs and towards lockup. As they drew closer Faith had to stifle the urge to laugh as she heard Bosco's loud singing and the clanging of bars. "Later on, if you wanna. We can dress like Madonna! Put on some eyeshade and join the parade! Walkin' round in women's underwear."
"Bosco!" Faith yelled to be heard over the din. "Got another one for you!"
Bosco stopped singing and turned to look at Faith and Gusler. He opened the doors and Faith threw Mr. McKenny inside. "Having a good night?" Faith asked Bosco with a smirk on her face.
"I have to do something." Bosco said. "At least if I have to work Christmas Eve, they could have put me out on the streets."
"Trust me, it's not so bad in here." Faith replied. She turned to look at Gusler. "You wanna get started on the paperwork?" she asked him. "I want to talk to Bosco for a bit." Gusler nodded and hurried away.
"Hey lady cop!" one of the guys locked up yelled. "Thanks for shutting him up!"
"I'm not done yet!" Bosco yelled back and Faith laughed.
"I was thinking." Faith said. "We should do something after work, to celebrate Christmas. And I'm not talking about singing rude songs."
"Have anything in mind?" Bosco asked. "There's nothing much besides the bars that are open that late on Christmas."
"We could hit a bar or two." Faith replied. "Or, we could just head home, if you've had enough Christmas spirit for one day."
"Why don't we just go home? There's still a bottle of wine there, isn't there?"
Faith nodded. "I haven't touched it. It should still be in the fridge."
"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you, did you ever get the presents for Charlie and Em over to Fred?" Bosco asked, jangling the keys for the cells.
"Yeah, I finally caught up with him yesterday. He wasn't too happy to see me, but he didn't say anything about the presents. He had Melissa with him."
"Yeah? What does she look like?" Bosco asked with interest. He still harboured the belief that she was hideously ugly.
"I don't know, she just looked normal. Average height, brown hair. Nothing special really." Faith replied. "Fred said the kids have presents for me, but he didn't know when he'd be able to get them to me."
"That's ridiculous, you should be able to see them on Christmas. Let them give you their presents themselves."
"The custody hearing is next month." Faith replied. "At the rate I'm going with finding my own place and getting settled, Charlie and Em will be 20 before I'm allowed to see them again."
"You're not a bad mom Faith." Bosco said quietly. "The kids adore you. That's gotta count for something."
Faith attempted a smile and then sighed. "I'd better go see how Gusler's doing." she said. "I'll see you later."
Bosco nodded and watched Faith walk away. He silently cursed himself for being so stupid and not telling her what he really wanted to say. "Oh yeah Boscorelli, as if she'd really go for that." he muttered under his breath. "Oh Faith, please stay with me. Don't leave me Faith. You're sad Boscorelli, you know that?"
The guys in the lockup cell behind Bosco groaned when Faith walked away. A few even pleaded with her retreating form to come back. Bosco turned to look at them and then began to sing with renewed vigour. "Chipmunks roasting on an open fire...hot sauce dripping from their toes..."
____________
"He always that bad?"
Faith glanced over at Gusler and then back out onto the street ahead of her. "Bosco?"
"Yeah. How can you stand to live with him?"
"He's only like that when he's bored." Faith replied. "The rest of the time, he's not so bad."
Gusler made a small coughing noise and Faith looked over at him curiously. He was fiddling with his hat that he held in his lap. "Something else you wanted to say?" Faith asked.
"No. Well...it's probably none of my business, but are you and him...you know?"
"Are Bosco and I having a relationship? Is that what you're trying to ask me?" Faith asked, sounding exasperated.
"Yes." Gusler squeaked. "But never mind!"
"You're right, it is none of your business, but no, we're not. We're just living together until I can find a place of my own." Faith replied. She was getting tired of saying that, it made her sound like a broken record. And besides, she was almost starting to think it was a lie.
"No offence ma'am." Gusler said and Faith winced at his use of ma'am. He hadn't done that for weeks now. "But shouldn't you have found a place already if you were really looking?"
"What do you mean by that?" Faith asked abruptly.
"I just mean that if you were serious about finding a place of your own, you would have gotten one by now. It's not that hard to find a place to live around here. Even a good place for you and your kids."
Faith opened her mouth to reply but knew that he was right. She could have found a place of her own by now, but the truth was, she was happy living with Bosco. "Just forget about it, okay Gusler?" she said.
"Alright, but just for the record; you and him make a cute couple."
Faith was tempted to throw something at her partner, something large and something very heavy. A call coming through from dispatch stopped her though and soon 55-David was racing towards the site of a drunken brawl.
_____________
Faith threw off her jacket with disgust and kicked her shoes across the locker room floor. The door opened and Bosco dodged a shoe sailing in his direction.
"Oh God." he said, making a big deal of holding his nose. "What's that smell?"
"It's me." Faith said. "Some drunk asshole puked all over me."
"You do realize that you're taking a shower before we leave. There's no way that you're getting in my car smelling like that!"
Faith pulled a face and grabbed a towel and a change of clothes from her locker. "I'll be fast." she said. "Can you make sure that no one goes near the showers?"
"I'll do everything in my power to preserve your dignity, m'lady." Bosco replied.
"You could rinse out my jacket if you want to be really helpful." Faith said and ducked around the corner. Bosco looked at her jacket laying on the floor and decided that trashing it would probably be the most useful thing he could do, but then Faith would most likely kill him.
The shower began running and Bosco gingerly picked up Faith's jacket and dumped it in a sink. He poured water over it and left it to stew while he got changed into his civvies. After he pulled on his shirt, Bosco began looking for something long to poke Faith's jacket with. He spotted her nightstick still on her belt and picked it up.
As Bosco stood poking the jacket in the sink, the locker room door opened and admitted Gusler. "Don't go near the showers." Bosco said, not bothering to look up. "Faith will kill, or severely maim you."
"Is she gonna be much longer?" Gusler asked.
Bosco looked up. "Oh God, you too?"
"The guy had a lot to drink." Gusler replied, sitting down on a bench and pulling his jacket off.
"I'm not rinsing out your jacket." Bosco said. "So don't even think about asking."
Bosco set the nightstick aside and grimaced as he pulled the jacket from the sink. He let the stopper out and the dirty water ran down the drain. "I think Faith's almost done with the showers." Bosco said and ran more water over the jacket.
Sure enough the shower shut off and Gusler breathed a sigh of relief. Bosco draped Faith's jacket over a paper towel dispenser and glanced over at her shoes. Maybe she could be persuaded to just throw those out and get new ones.
A few minutes later, Faith walked out into the main area, with her wet hair hanging around her shoulders and her uniform balled up with her towel in her hands. "The shower's all yours Gusler." she said and Gusler took off running.
"What did you say to him?" Faith asked once Gusler was out of hearing range.
"Nothing." Bosco said. "I told him not to go near the showers and that I wasn't washing his jacket too."
"So why did he look so scared?" Faith asked and then noticed her jacket dripping by the sinks. "Thanks for washing the jacket by the way."
Bosco shrugged. "Must be my intimidating physique." he replied.
Faith guffawed and Bosco shot her a dirty look. "You weren't singing again were you?"
"No, I worked my way through my repertoire already. You ready to go?"
Faith shoved her uniform into a plastic bag and looked at her shoes. "Maybe we'll just toss these." she said and bent down to pick them up. "I have another pair."
Bosco grabbed his jacket and slammed his locker shut. Faith threw the shoes into the trash and grabbed her own jacket. "Cold out?" Bosco asked as they headed out into the hallway.
"It's a little nippy." Faith replied. "Not as bad as it has been though."
"Can we make a detour past lockup?" Bosco asked. "I gotta say goodnight to my boys."
"Your boys?"
"Oh yeah, we're best pals now." Bosco replied. Faith laughed and followed Bosco down the hall towards the cells.
____________
Bosco unlocked the door to the apartment and he and Faith stepped inside. They both dropped their bags and kicked them aside and proceeded to take off their jackets. "We should plug in the lights." Faith said.
"I still don't know why we had to have a tree." Bosco said. "We're hardly ever here."
"You have to have a tree for Christmas." Faith replied. "It's tradition and besides, we've been over this a hundred times!"
"Fine, you plug in the tree, I'll get the wine."
Bosco opened the fridge and took the bottle of white wine out. He then grabbed two glasses and headed over to the couch where Faith was sitting, admiring the lights.
Bosco glanced over at the clock on his stereo as he sat down. "You do realize it's Christmas now." he said.
"Well then, merry Christmas." Faith said quietly and watched as Bosco poured some wine into a glass and handed it to her.
"So, what are some of your Christmas traditions besides the tree?" Bosco asked as he sipped his wine.
Faith shrugged. "When the kids were really little, we'd let them both open one gift on Christmas eve. Of course then they'd grab for another gift and get the wrapping off before Fred or I could stop them."
"I used to leave milk and cookies for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph." Bosco said. "The next morning, they'd be gone and there would be a note left on the plate, thanking me. I never realized it was my mom's writing."
Faith laughed. "I used to leave milk and cookies, but never a carrot. Charlie and Em did the same thing until Emily figured out that Santa didn't exist."
Bosco smiled. "How old was she?"
"Seven." Faith replied. "She finally caught on that Santa's writing looked a lot like Mommy's."
"She's smarter than I was." Bosco said. "I was ten and had to hear it from my friend Tommy. I was heartbroken."
"Charlie was seven too. Emily told him." Faith said. "I asked her not to, but she decided that it was only fair that Charlie hear it from her at the same age she was."
Faith sipped at her wine and gazed at the tree. "It's not the same." she said softly. "I should be filling up stockings for the kids tonight, not sitting here drinking wine and talking about my kids as though they were dead."
Bosco winced. "Tell me about Christmas morning." he said.
Faith smiled. "The kids always get up way too early and come bouncing into the bedroom. Fred usually tells them to get their asses back to bed until a decent hour, but he'd always relent and we'd all go into the living room together."
"Sounds nice." Bosco said. "Mikey and I would get up early too, but when dad told us to go back to bed - we went."
"The kids would empty their stockings first." Faith said, continuing with her story. "Then Fred would cook pancakes and we'd eat breakfast before opening presents. I'd put the turkey in the oven and try to ignore the mess of wrapping paper and ribbons strewn about the house and then that night, we'd all sit down together and have our dinner."
"I see why you always wanted Christmas Day off." Bosco said.
Faith nodded. "What about you Bos? What do you do for Christmas?"
"Sit at home and drink." Bosco replied. "Sometimes my mom might call or maybe I'd have a girl over. I was always happy to work Christmas though."
"You've got your wish." Faith said sadly. "We're on tomorrow."
Bosco took Faith's glass that she'd emptied and refilled it. "You should be with your kids." he said. "Not at work."
"What am I supposed to do?" Faith asked. "Sneak into the apartment and then be arrested for breaking and entering?"
"I don't know." Bosco said. "But you'll see them, even if I have to kick Fred's ass to do it."
Faith chuckled. "Thanks Bos."
Bosco put his wine down and stood up. "Before I forget." he said. "I have something for you."
"You got me a present?" Faith asked.
Bosco nodded. "It's in the bedroom. I'll go and get it."
Bosco took off down the hall and Faith heard drawers being opened in the room and something thump on the ground. He returned a few moments later, looking triumphant with something clutched in his hand. He sat back down and passed the small wrapped present over to Faith. Faith took it and looked at it.
"I didn't think to get you anything." she said. "Now I feel guilty."
Bosco shook his head. "Don't worry about it. You did enough for me while I was in the hospital, I consider that an early Christmas gift. Open it!"
Faith picked at the tape and carefully unwrapped the present. It was a small box and Faith flipped the lid open and let out an involuntary gasp. "Oh Bos." she said, looking up at him. "You shouldn't have."
Bosco shrugged and tried to look nonchalant but a grin broke out on his face. "I saw it and I couldn't resist. I've heard you complaining about never having any nice necklaces to wear, so I thought, what the heck, why not?"
"It's beautiful." Faith said and lifted it out of the case. "Can you put it on me?"
Bosco nodded and took the necklace from her. Faith swept her hair up and Bosco fastened the chain around her neck. His hand gently brushing her skin.
"Merry Christmas Faith." he said. "It looks great on you."
Faith wiped away a tear that had trickled down her cheek and cursed herself for being so emotional. Bosco looked embarrassed and handed her a tissue from the box on the coffee table. He hated it when women cried, especially Faith.
"Want to sing some carols?" Bosco asked, not knowing what else to say.
"I thought you said you were through your repertoire!" Faith said, laughing through her tears. "And besides, you really don't want me to sing."
"I've heard you." Bosco said. "You're not that bad."
"I don't want to sing Bosco." Faith said.
"We could see if there's any movies on tv. I've always liked the Grinch and Scrooge."
"Yeah, you would." Faith replied.
Bosco pretended to be insulted. "Oh, you wound me Faith." he said. "I have plenty of Christmas cheer."
"Cheer that includes singing about men wearing women's underwear?" Faith asked, remembering Bosco's song from earlier.
"Alright, we can just sit here then, admire the tree and drink our wine. Speaking of which, you ready for another refill? What did you do, inhale the last glass?"
Faith shrugged and handed Bosco her glass again. "I don't think drinking yourself into a stupor is going to help." he said as he poured a small amount into her glass.
"Can't hurt." Faith replied sullenly.
Bosco looked at Faith as she sipped her wine. The lights from the tree reflected off her hair and her sad eyes, casting her face in an odd reddish glow. She set the glass down on the end table and yawned. The light caught her necklace and winked.
"Faith..." Bosco said quietly.
"Yeah?"
"What would you do if I told you that I don't want you to leave?" Bosco asked, praying that she wouldn't run away screaming.
Faith looked at Bosco and smirked. "You sure you haven't been drinking more wine than you think?"
"I'm serious Faith, what would you do?" Bosco asked again. Part of him was wishing he'd never opened his mouth.
"I don't know, laugh at you maybe?"
Bosco closed his eyes and Faith immediately felt bad. "Bosco...oh my God, you are serious."
He opened his eyes and looked at her. He nodded, not knowing quite what to say. Faith covered her mouth with her hand, her blue eyes wide.
"I'm sorry." Bosco said quickly. "Forget I ever said anything."
"No! No, don't forget it Bosco. We have to talk about this." Faith said. "We should have talked about this a long time ago."
"I don't want to talk about this." Bosco said, sounding a bit like a small, petulant child.
"We have to. I mean, I knew something was going on, but I didn't know what. I need to know Bos."
Bosco, not knowing what to say, leaned towards Faith and gently brushed his lips against hers. He could taste the wine on her. Faith pulled back, putting her fingers to her lips. Bosco stood up. "I'm sorry." he said again. "Look, I'll just go to bed and..."
Faith pulled him back down onto the couch. This time she pressed herself against him and kissed him fully, deeply. "We need to talk." she said after they broke apart.
Bosco nodded mutely and picked up the wine bottle again. It was almost empty. "More wine?" he asked and poured himself a glass full.
Faith shook her head. "No, no more wine, thanks."
Bosco took a large mouthful of wine and swallowed it. "So, uh..." he began. "That was nice."
"Nice." Faith repeated. "Yeah it was."
"You wanna try it again?" Bosco asked.
Faith cocked her head and tried to suppress a grin. "Maybe later. Bos, when you asked me that question, did you mean that you want me to stay here? Stop looking for my own place?"
"That's generally what it means when someone says they don't want you to leave." Bosco muttered.
"Are you sure this is what you want?" Faith asked. "Because I will stay. If that's what you want."
"Is it what you want?" Bosco asked, not wanting to rush her into something that she didn't want.
Faith nodded. "I'm willing to give it a try - if you are."
Bosco finished the wine that was in his glass and set it down on the coffee table. "I want you here Faith. These last few months, they've been great. Maybe not so great for you, but for me, yeah."
Faith smiled. "It could have been worse." she said. "A lot worse. You've been wonderful Bos."
Bosco blinked a few times and looked over at the tree again. Faith followed his gaze and then reached out and put her hand on the back of his neck. She played with the small hairs there and Bosco turned his gaze back to Faith and nodded. "Let's try it." he said and kissed her again.