Chapter seven

Author's note: Here's another one, you ready? ;) Enjoy, and please tell me what you think, I need to know you're still with me...

***

Faith spent a lot of time on that roof in the following days. Whenever it was too hard to face her friend's concerned faces, or guilt threatened to overcome her, she would go up there and just sit, looking at the sky above her.

Fred had given her his Bible, told her she would find some peace in it. Peace for her soul. She'd tried to read a few pages, but those words hadn't helped her at all. The only thing she needed to hear was her partner's voice. His reassuring words, telling her that it was okay, that he'd forgiven her for that moment of weakness. But he was still fighting for his life in the ICU room a few stories below.

***

Bosco had slipped into a coma right after he'd been transferred from the operating room. The doctors were positive that he would eventually wake up, said he just needed to gather his strength. But three days sound like an eternity when all you have left is time, and a guilty conscience to appease.

"Officer Yokas?" a voice suddenly came from behind.

"Mary?" Faith asked, a mixture of expectation and fear in her voice. "Is something wrong?"

"He's waking up." the nurse smiled.

***

When she arrived in the ICU, Faith was shocked by how pale Bosco still looked. He was off the ventilator and appeared to be sleeping, yet the sight of him lying so helpless in that big hospital bed broke her heart.

"Talk to him." Proctor urged her before leaving the room and closing the door behind her. "It'll help him find his way."

Faith took his hand, a simple gesture she'd become accustomed to since he'd been admitted to the hospital, and started to whisper soothing words.

His sleep was not peaceful. It looked like he was having some kind of flashback of the day he was shot.

"Bosco, it's me. You're at the hospital, and you're going to be okay."

She reached out and gently stroked his forehead, but Bosco suddenly bolted upright in bed. Faith looked at him in shock, startled by his unexpected move, and quickly grabbed him and tried her best to help him lie down before he tore all his sutures. "Boz, it's okay, you're safe. No one's going to hurt you. It's okay." she reassured him.

Bosco desperately tried to figure out where he was, who was in the room with him and what she was saying. But her words didn't make any sense and his eyes wouldn't focus, even though the woman's voice sounded vaguely familiar.

He tried in vain to get his bearings, but an intense pain in his abdomen was making it difficult, a pain that had started when he sat up after that woman touched his face. He couldn't remember what had happened to him, why he felt so weak or it was so hard to breathe.

He could feel a tearing and burning inside his chest and tasted blood in his mouth, but he wasn't going to let this person know he was hurt. He didn't know who she was, or if he could trust her.

"Bosco, please listen to me..." Faith continued, speaking in a soothing voice. "It's Faith. You have to lie still. Everything's gonna be okay." You're scaring the hell out of me, she silently added. "Please calm down..." She wrapped her arms around his shoulder and tried to comfort him.

Bosco's mind was still taunting him with images of the shooting. He could see himself in that alley as the man aimed the gun at him and fired. He remembered trying to reach for his own weapon, the pain in his abdomen, De Marco's threatening words.

He'd been shot. That explained why it hurt so much. He also realized something must have happened when he'd tried to move a few minutes before. Had he torn his sutures trying to sit up? The voice was still talking to him, but he was getting weaker and the taste of blood in his mouth was stronger. Something was definitely wrong.

He moved his hand until he found another one and grasped it tightly, and as he opened his eyes, he finally recognized his partner's face. "Glad... you're... here." he whispered, his voice hoarse.

"That's where I belong, Boz. Right beside you." Faith smiled, sitting down on the chair next to his bed.

"I'm... sorry I let you... down." he spoke again. "You... deserve a real... partner, not a... useless...cop."

"No, please don't say that!" she immediately replied, standing up and leaning on the bed so she could look him straight in the eyes. "Look, I know I hurt you. And believe me I'd do anything to change that. But I don't regret being your partner. Ever. You hear me? I wouldn't change a single moment! Please, you've got to believe me..."

Bosco felt very weak. The tearing and burning in his abdomen probably meant he was bleeding internally. The pain was making it hard to think, let alone talk. So he squeezed Faith's hand with all the strength he had left, hoping the gesture would somehow make up for the lack of words.

Suddenly, his body tensed and he closed his eyes, gasping for breath. He could feel the blood rising in his throat and was losing the fight to stay awake. Then unable to control it any longer, he coughed violently. As the grip on her hand loosened, Faith watched in horror as blood poured from his mouth.

"Bosco? Oh my God!" she panicked. "I need some help in here!"

His heart monitor began to beep faster as an alarm went off and Mary Proctor rushed into the room. "Mary, please, hurry up!" Faith pleaded.

"What happened?" the nurse asked.

"I don't know, he... he was confused and... tried to get up, and then suddenly he started coughing and there was blood all over him..."

Soon Dr. Thomas and another nurse followed into the room. "He must've torn his sutures." Proctor informed him.

"Dammit!" he cursed. "Let's get him back to the OR. Now!" he yelled as they set him up and headed towards the elevator.

Faith found herself alone in the room, the rush of activity of the previous moments replaced by an eerie silence.

"Where is he?" a voice jolted her back to consciousness. She turned around and saw Bosco's brother walk through the door, a worried expression on his face.

She opened her mouth to speak, but was too scared and stunned herself to reply.

"Faith?"

"He... they took him up to surgery. He had some internal bleeding that needed to be repaired."

"Is he going to be okay?"

"I don't know, Mikey." she sighed. "I really don't know."

She looked at him and saw the fear in the young man's eyes. "Look, I'm sorry I snapped at you the other day. I was upset and I couldn't think straight." And I was actually talking to myself, blaming myself for hurting him as much as the guy who shot him.

"It's okay. You were right, this is all my fault. I... I thought I could handle this on my own... you know, do something good for once? But I screwed up and brought him down with me." Mikey said, his eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"He was great to me when we were kids, you know?" he smiled. "He would protect me, or... or cover for me. He even took some beatings for me a couple of times when dad was drunk or upset. He was the man of the family. The one that kept us together... he still is..."

"It's alright, Michael." Faith whispered, softly but confidently, as she put her hand on his shoulder.

"He's going to hate me for that."

"No, I'm sure he won't. He told me, remember? Said it wasn't your fault." she reassured him. "Come on. Let's go upstairs and see how the surgery's going."

As they were walking through the hallway, they spotted Lieutenant Swersky getting off the elevator. "Faith, what's going on?" he asked as he came closer. "I came to check on Boscorelli, and the nurse told me about some kind of emergency..."

"Yes, sir, he... they had to take him back to surgery." she replied, trying not to let her emotions rule her as flashes of her partner's frightened face came to her mind. She could still see him gasping for breath in the room a few minutes before.

"Why, what happened?" he asked again.

"Well, sir, he regained consciousness and was extremely disoriented. I... I think he didn't know where he was at first, or that he'd been shot. So he tried to sit up and tore his sutures." She paused, catching a breath, then continued. "He had no idea he was bleeding internally, and I didn't know anything was wrong until he started coughing up blood."

"God." the older man sighed. "Keep me posted, okay? I want you to call me the minute he comes out of surgery."

"Yes, sir. I will." she promised as they started to leave.

"Faith?" the Lieutenant called again. She stopped and looked at him. "How are you holding up?"

"I... I'm fine, sir. I just need to know he's going to be okay." she whispered.

He nodded his head. "Please tell your mother to call me if she needs anything." he said, looking at Mikey.

"I will. Thanks."

TBC...