The three women heard shuffling and banging noises from the other side of the door.
"What the hell is that guy doing?" Alex asked, still seeming undaunted.
"He's gotta be getting ready for Bosco and Jimmy." Faith suggested.
"The only way Jimmy would be called would be if there was…" Kim's lip started to tremble.
"Don't go there Kim, we don't know anything." Alex reassured her friend.
'Thank God Ty is on chauffeur duty. He won't be anywhere near here to get hurt.' She thought to herself. They all sat in silence and continued to read the clippings pasted to the walls. All of them featured rescues performed by either Bosco or Jimmy. Since they were two of the biggest risk takers on the job, it followed that they would both be heralded as heroes by the papers on nearly a weekly basis. Faith sniffed the air.
"What's that horrible smell?" she asked. Alex sniffed hard, trying to smell what Faith was talking about through the clotted blood in her nose.
"Uh oh." She said.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Kim asked, starting to panic. "'Uh oh' is not information, what do you mean 'uh oh'?"
"Well…" Alex was hesitant to share her bad news.
"C'mon Taylor, spit it out." Faith encouraged.
"It's, uh… well, it's a chemical accelerant." Alex finally managed to inform them. Kim's jaw dropped and she started gasping for air.
"We're going to burn alive in here. And Jimmy will come to try and rescue us and he'll…Oh God." Kim curled up into a ball and started to break down. Her experience with Bobby's death had shaken her enough mentally that she was not equipped to be in such an extreme situation.
"No, no no no. Kim, sit up ok?" Faith tried to counsel her back into coherence.
"Kim, you have to be brave if we're going to get out of here ok?" Alex added. Kim sniffed and slowly sat up again.
"You're right; I am not letting this bastard take away everything it has taken me so long to get. I am finally happy, so screw him!" she said.
"That's my girl!" Alex tried to give Kim a high five but stopped and looked embarrassed when she realized her hands were still tied. They all started to giggle in spite of themselves.
"Man Alex, you're gonna have a nice shiner!" Faith commented.
"I am going to look hideous!" Alex started to laugh.
"No way, it'll look cool!" Kim chipped in. They all broke into out of control laughter, finally cracking under the stress of their predicament. Faith was the first to calm down.
"We've gotta get out of here, we're running out of time." She sighed, sobering the other two. They continued to wrack their brains but couldn't come up with a way to escape.
"I guess we'd better hope someone comes looking for us, and soon." Alex said.
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Finally free of the traffic blockage, Bosco was roaring toward the apartment. Jimmy was close behind the RMP despite Bosco's attempts to lose him.
"It's for his own good." He'd explained to Davis when his partner questioned him. They finally pulled up outside the building and the two cops jumped out of the squad car. Jimmy started to follow them but quickly stepped back when Bosco shouted at him,
"Doherty? What the hell did I tell you? Let us do our job! If the building catches fire, then you can go in." Jimmy walked back over to the RMP as Bosco and Davis approached the entrance to the apartment. Jimmy gripped the roof of the cruiser, his knuckles turning white.
"Damn it Boscorelli, you have to let me in there!" he said to himself, although deep down he knew he was out of his element and was better to leave this job to the cops. Despite how he hated to admit it, if he couldn't save Kim himself, Bosco would be his second choice in a situation like this. There was no doubt that he would risk his life to save her.
*******************************
Bosco and Davis entered the building and started the march to the seventh floor. When they reached 7b Davis knocked on the door as Bosco yelled,
"Police! Open up!" They heard footsteps coming toward the door and it slowly creaked open.
"We'd like to speak with you about the paramedics that were here earlier." Davis informed him, his hand on his gun.
"Fine, fine, come on in. Did something happen to them?" he asked.
"Uh, sort of…" Davis started.
"Look jag-off, where are they?" Bosco yelled.
"I don't know what you mean officer Boscorelli." The man said serenely.
"How the hell do you know my name?" Bosco grilled.
"Your badge officer." The man answered, still seeming unfazed by the cops in his living room.
"Oh, right. Mind if we look around?" Bosco asked.
"Be my guest." The man laughed. Bosco and Davis made eye contact, both understanding what each was about to do. Bosco jumped on him and knocked the man to the floor while Davis held a gun on him. Bosco grabbed the man's arms and brought them painfully behind his back. He reached back to his belt and handcuffed the man's hands.
"Where are they?" he yelled.
"Shhh" Davis hissed at him. I think I heard something. He set off to look while Bosco continued to grill the kidnapper.
"You'd better hope they are ok or you are a dead man." He hissed.
"I wasn't counting on you coming with a friend Boscorelli." The kidnapper said.
"What the hell do you mean? You're one sick puppy you know that, and as soon as we find them, we're taking your ass to jail." Bosco taunted
"Good luck getting out." Kidnapper sneered. Bosco started to notice a strange odor in the air.
"What's that smell psycho?" he asked.
"Well, my friendly neighborhood hero, it is a highly flammable accelerant." The kidnapper answered.
"You do realize if you set this place off you'll die too?" Bosco asked in disbelief.
"Perhaps. But that is a small price to pay for revenge on you." He answered.
"What'd I ever do to you?" Bosco looked even more confused.
"I had to deal with your and Doherty's constant taunting and pranks for almost six months, not to mention the constant heroics. You made my life a living hell!" the kidnapper snapped as a horrified look of recognition crossed Bosco's face as he remembered the awkward young fireman he and Doherty gave a pretty rough time to.
"We were just joking around, everyone gets hazed. And we just do our jobs; we can't control what the papers print." Bosco said.
"You cost me my life! My fiancé left me because she said I wasn't a real man, not like you or Doherty. My career ended because I couldn't face coming to work anymore, all because of you, you cocky asshole and that fire buddy of yours! Well say goodbye super-cop, it's almost time to die."
'I've got to get Faith out of here.' Bosco thought. 'This guy is on the edge.' In his haste to find her he threw the handcuffed prisoner on the couch and yelled for Davis.
"Have you found them yet?"
"I think they're in here, but I can't get to them." He replied. Bosco walked up to the door, counted to three and both cops kicked at it as hard as they could. The door splintered and flew off the hinges.
"Bosco, thank God you're here!" Faith yelled, never so relieved in her life.
"He's planning to blow the place up; we have to get out of here!" he told her. He and Davis rushed in and began untying the three women.
"What are you doing here?" Alex asked Ty.
"Bosco needed a partner, so I got relieved of chauffeur duty." He explained as he worked to free her. "What happened to your nose?"
"It's ok. I just got smacked for making a smart ass comment." She replied.
"I'm gonna kill that guy." Davis said under his breath.
"Where's Jimmy? This guy said he was after him too." Kim piped up, worry in her voice.
"He's waiting for you outside" Bosco replied gently, aware of the tiny spot he still had in his heart for her. Kim felt a wave of relief wash over her at the thought of being in Jimmy's strong arms in a matter of moments.
"We have to hurry; this place is going to be up in flames pretty soon." Alex reminded the group. Prodding them to leave and save talking for later. Davis ran out of the room first to make sure it was safe. He was followed by Alex and Kim who nearly ran into him as he stopped short. Bosco and Faith noticed the same thing as they entered the room; the kidnapper was gone.
"Damn it!" Bosco yelled and punched the back of the couch.
"You didn't secure the prisoner? What were you thinking?" Faith yelled at him.
"I was too worried about you! I wasn't thinking!" Bosco said, turning red with embarrassment at admitting he'd be worried about Faith. He ran for the door and tried to open it but it wouldn't budge. Suddenly, Bosco's head snapped around,
"Oh sh…" the rest of his phrase was covered by the sound of a massive explosion.
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