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, I have nothing you'd want.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Faith develops a rather unusual ability.
Faith settled down in a chair at the internet cafe she'd found. Sure, she could have used a computer at the station but she knew that meticulous logs were kept of all activity on them. At approximately 10:30 am, Officer Faith Yokas logged in and performed a search on "mind reading". Yeah right.
She wasn't sure how to go about doing this. Did she just type "mind reading" into the search field and hope something useful came up?
Maybe there was someone she could see. Someone that specialized in strange disorders. Oh yeah, she could just hear that conversation. "Well, you see, it's quite simple really. It would appear that I am able to hear my partner's thoughts. Yes, that's right, I'm reading his mind."
Maybe she could go on Jerry Springer or something. "On today's show, we have Officer Faith Yokas of the New York Police Department. Officer Yokas found out some rather sordid details about her partner, Officer Boscorelli when she suddenly found herself able to read his mind."
Faith typed "mind reading" into the search engine and waited while the page loaded. Faith groaned. 37500 hits. She was never going to accomplish anything this way.
______________
"Oh thank God, there she is!"
Faith 'heard' Bosco the second she opened the locker room door. She knew she was running late. She'd stopped by the library after the internet cafe and had lost track of time.
"You're late." Bosco said accusingly, slamming his locker door.
Faith shrugged. "So are you apparently. Late night with Sully?"
Bosco rolled his eyes. "I wish. My damn car broke down."
"The Bosco mobile?! I thought you treated that thing like a baby."
Bosco stuffed his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels. "Hey, even babies get sick sometimes! I had to have it towed, then I took a cab the rest of the way."
Faith grabbed the bottom of her shirt, intending to pull it over her head. Then she stopped. Bosco was watching her. She suddenly felt embarrassed to be changing with him in the room.
"Hey Bos, why don't you head to roll call. I'll be there in a minute."
Bosco frowned. Or maybe it was her imagination.
"Damn. I was hoping she'd at least take off her shirt."
Nope, not her imagination. He definitely had frowned.
"Yeah okay." Bosco said. "I'll tell Lieu you'll be along shortly."
"Damn damn damn da..." Bosco left the room.
Faith quickly changed and shoved her bag into her locker. She was tempted to bring along one of the books she'd signed out from the library, but somehow reading 'Journeys Into the Human Mind' with Bosco in the car just didn't seem like such a good idea. It wouldn't do to arouse any suspicions.
Faith half wondered how Bosco would react if she told him. "Oh hey Bos, I've been meaning to tell you. I'm able to read your mind!" Uh huh, invasion of privacy much?
_____________
"I can't believe we got stuck with hooker patrol!" Bosco complained loudly.
"We were both late." Faith said, trying to be reasonable. "It's not like we're being punished for no reason."
Bosco glanced over at Faith. "I've been meaning to ask you, why were you late anyway?"
Faith shrugged. "I got busy, lost track of time."
"Probably busy with Fred. That lucky son of a bitch."
Bosco's upper lip curled with disgust. Faith smiled. Somehow the thought of Bosco being jealous of Fred made her happy. In a weird, twisted kind of way.
"Now I need new shoes and a new engine."
Faith found it interesting how Bosco's thoughts could segue from her and Fred to needing new shoes.
"Oh crap. It's Charlie's birthday next week. I can't afford to get him anything!"
Faith almost opened her mouth to say that he didn't need to get him anything anyway. However, if he was willing to take up ventriloquism...
"Well, well, well, what do you we have here?" Bosco slowed the car down as they passed by a row of buildings covered with graffiti. "That look like a hooker to you Faith?"
Faith nodded, seeing a young girl standing in the shadows, trying to hide from them. Bosco put the squad into park and grabbed his hat. "This should only take a minute." he said. "You can wait here. I'll take this one, you can take the next one."
Bosco approached the young girl and both began to wildly gesticulate. Faith couldn't hear the conversation or Bosco's thoughts. Apparently the mind reading thing only worked when they were in close proximity to one another with no barriers.
The girl scowled at Bosco and stalked off down an alley. Bosco returned to the car with a grin on his face. Faith was almost afraid that Bosco had made a date for later, but that fear was put to rest immediately. "I sent her over to Sully's sector!" Bosco said gleefully. "At least she's not our problem anymore!"
"We're supposed to be getting these kids off the street Bos, not just relocating them." Faith said disapprovingly.
"What do I tell her that won't make me sound like a weenie? She had a gun? Nooo, bad idea. Uh, oh what the hell."
Bosco began driving again. "She has a kid Faith." he said. "She needs the money."
"And leaving her on the street in going to help them? What happens to that kid when the mother is murdered, o.d.'s or gets AIDS? She should be getting a real job if she really cares about that child."
"What do you want me to do?" Bosco asked, recognizing the signs that Faith was about to go off on one of her 'save the world' tangents. "Offer to let her stay with me? Employ her as my maid?"
"Anything is better than having her selling her body on street corners."
"We can't help everyone out here."
"No, but that doesn't mean that we can't try!" Faith spat out.
Bosco shook his head. "Does she seriously think that I don't care? I do care. I'm just being realistic."
Faith looked at Bosco. He didn't look particularly happy. She knew that he had done what he thought was right. "Sorry Bos." she said quietly. "You're right. Even if we had gotten her off the streets, she probably would have been right back out here again tomorrow."
"Did she just say that I'm right?"
"Did you just say that I'm right?" Bosco asked incredulously.
Faith nodded. "Don't get too used to it."
_____________
Maybe it had something to do with the weather. Maybe some freak weather conditions had caused her to gain this new ability.
Faith sat in the restaurant pondering her situation. Bosco was happily nattering away to himself as he ate his hamburger. His current topic of conversation seemed to be about his car, so Faith was tuning him out. She was getting better at that.
Maybe there had been some electrical storm front that moved in and caused her brain to go haywire. Maybe some higher power had deemed it necessary to punish her and was forcing her listen to her partner's innermost thoughts. If that was case, Faith would love to find out what she'd done wrong and remedy it immediately.
Faith didn't even want to get into the really bizarre possible causes. It seemed extremely unlikely that anyone had put a spell on her. She liked the weather or act of God possibilities better.
"You gonna eat that?" Bosco's spoken words interrupted Faith from her thoughts. He was eying her leftover hamburger hungrily.
Faith shook her head. "No, you can have it." she said, pushing it towards him. Bosco snatched it up and stuffed it in his mouth.
Faith sipped at her drink and hearing that Bosco had returned to thinking about his car, she returned to her own musings. What if this was permanent? Could she really spend every day with him, constantly knowing what he was thinking? She might have to request a transfer, work with someone else.
"You gonna drink the rest of that?"
Faith stared at Bosco. He was looking at her drink as though it were prey and he was the hunter. She half expected the glass to take off running for its life.
"No, you can have it." Faith pushed the glass towards him as well. Bosco downed the liquid in several gulps.
"You ready to get back out there?" Bosco asked, wiping his mouth with his napkin. Rather daintily, Faith noted.
"I suppose so." Faith replied dully.
"Faith sure is acting weird. She usually finishes her food before I do."
Great, Faith thought. He loves me, but he thinks I eat like a pig and laugh like a donkey. Bosco headed towards the cash register and pulled a wad of bills from his pocket. Faith caught up to him and grabbed his arm. "I can pay." she said. "I don't need new shoes or have a busted car to fix."
Bosco shook his head. "It's only a few bucks, I've got it. Besides, I ate most of your meal anyway."
The cashier took Bosco's bills. "That's odd. I don't recall mentioning to Faith that I needed new shoes. Maybe I'm walking funny?"
Bosco took his changed and stuffed it into his pocket. Faith was cursing herself for saying anything about shoes. Of course he hadn't said anything. She'd read his mind. Stupid, stupid, stupid!
______________
"Hey Faith! I think you dropped something!" Bosco bent over and picked up a book that had fallen from Faith's bag.
Their shift was over - several hookers had been evicted from their respective street corners and Faith had a pounding headache again. She turned around and found Bosco looking at a book. Oh no...
"'Telepathy, Telekinesis and Other Tricks of the Mind'? You taking a course or something?" Bosco asked, flipping through some pages.
Faith grabbed the book from his hand. "Uh no. It's for Emily." she said quickly. "She's doing a school project and asked me to check out some books for her."
Bosco nodded. "Sounds interesting. I've always wanted to be able to read people's minds. That would be cool. You'd always be one step ahead of the other person."
"Yeah, real cool." Faith replied.
"Are you sure that I can't get you a cab or something? You look terrible."
"Thanks, but maybe some fresh air will do me good." Faith said. And some peace and quiet, she added to herself.
"I hope she's not sick again."
Bosco put a hand on her arm. "Are you...alright?" he asked, his voice filled with concern.
"I'm fine Bosco. I just haven't been sleeping much lately."
"Are you and Fred having problems again?"
"No! No, everything is fine. It's just insomnia." Faith lied.
Bosco pursed his lips and gazed intently at her. Faith had to look away. "I'd better get going." she said, not looking at him.
Bosco squeezed her arm gently. "Okay." he said and Faith tucked the book back into her bag and walked away. Once she was outside, she breathed in deeply several times. The night air seemed cool and refreshing.
A squad car pulled up and Faith watched as Sully and Davis emerged from it, good naturedly ribbing one another.
"Hey Faith!" Ty called. Faith smiled and waved.
"You guys are getting in late." she said.
Ty laughed. "Sully here decided it would be a good idea to wedge the squad into a parking space, to you know, teach the other driver a lesson in parking."
Sully shot Ty a dirty look. "How was I supposed to know that we'd get towed? You aren't supposed to tow police cars!"
Faith chuckled. "Sounds like something Bosco would do." she said.
"Hey, what sounds like something I would do?" Bosco had just stepped outside and was standing on the steps.
"Sully got our squad towed!" Davis called over to him. "We had to go to the impound lot and get it out!"
Bosco walked over and joined the small group. "I would never do something that stupid." he said.
Faith cocked her head. "Oh no? What about the time that retarded guy boosted our squad? Remember that?"
"That's different!" Bosco said indignantly.
"Sure Bos." Faith said. His thoughts were streaming into her head again and she began to inch away. "I'm taking off now. I'll see you guys tomorrow!"
As Faith walked away, she heard Bosco laughing with Sully and Davis and she smiled to herself. Despite what he sometimes thought, he really did get along well with those two. Even Sully.
_____________
Faith unlocked the door and stepped inside. Fred was sprawled out on the couch watching infomercials again. The phone was sitting on the coffee table and Faith felt a surge of fear. She really didn't need a super powered food processor or lipstick that never faded.
"Hey babe." Fred said sleepily. He sat up. "How was your day?"
"Fine." Faith replied. She hung her jacket up and kicked off her shoes.
"Just fine?" Fred asked. "Nothing else?"
Faith shook her head. "No, just fine. I'm going to bed."
Fred scowled. It really wasn't a becoming look on him. "You never talk to me anymore Faith. Is everything alright?"
"It's fine Fred. I'm just tired!"
"You running marathons at work now?" he asked. "Because I don't get how you could be tired. You were completely zonked out last night. You didn't even move when I came to bed."
"Yes Fred. Bosco and I ran a marathon today." Faith said. "Then we swam 20 miles and biked 30. It was the freaking Iron Man."
Fred laid back down on the couch. "Fine, you don't need to get snippy!" he said. "So sue me for wanting to actually talk to my wife."
Faith shook her head and hurried down the hall to the bathroom, dropping her bag off in the room on her way by. She shut the door and gazed at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were rimmed with red and were bloodshot. No wonder Bosco thought she looked terrible. This had to end. Soon.