The Witness
Chapter 5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bosco finished the remainder of his shift without talking much. Faith noticed and finally said something.
"Bos?" she said, trying to get his attention as she pulled the car into the station lot. He looked over at her and she chuckled at the sight of his swollen, black eye. "Are you sure your eye's okay?" she asked him for what seemed the hundredth time that night.
"It's pretty sore," he said, even though it wasn't too bad. "I think I'll run over to Mercy and have that x-ray the doc suggested," he said to Faith.
"Want me to drive you over?" she asked him. "I'll wait with you in case you need something done or medicine or something."
"Nah. I'll just have the x-ray to be on the safe side. What the heck, the Department's payin' for it," he said to her smiling.
"Okay. If you're sure. Give me a call when you get home and let me know how you made out," she told him.
"I'll call you tomorrow. By the time I get in there and get seen and home it'll be like 3 in the morning. Fred'd love me to call you at 3:00 a.m.," he told her and she nodded.
"You're probably right. But if it's anything serious, call me anyway," she said, as they got out of the car and went inside to turn in their radios and change in to their street clothes.
"Absolutely," he said to her.
After they changed, they walked out together. "See ya tomorrow," Faith called to Bosco as she headed off for the train.
"You want a lift home first?" he asked her.
"No. You might as well get over to Mercy and get started on your long wait," she said, waving him off.
"Alright. See you tomorrow," he answered, getting into his car and heading off in the direction of Mercy. He didn't really need the x-ray, but he didn't like the look of fear he saw in Cole Taylor's eyes when they talked to him before.
He thought this would give him an excuse to be there and maybe he could just stop in and check on how he was doing.
He thought about what Katy Logan had told them about this kid. He's been on the streets for a little over two years. He's got attitude and he may be getting involved with the Latin Lords. Everything pointed to this kid's early demise. Bosco would sure like to try to help this kid. Along with the fear in his eyes, he'd also seen that lost look - the look he probably had as a kid too. Only, he was lucky. He got straightened out before it was too late. The old man upstairs in his apartment building while he was growing up had seen to that. Maybe Bosco could do the same for this kid somehow. It was worth a shot anyway.
He pulled into the lot of Mercy and parked his car. He looked in the mirror and lightly touched his eye, flinching at the touch. "Hmm. Maybe an x-ray's not a bad idea," he thought to himself as he got out and headed for the ER.
He walked up to the desk and was lucky enough to catch his favorite nurse, Mary Proctor, stopping by on the way to her next patient.
"Bosco. What're you doing here at this hour?" she asked him, looking up at the clock. "Overtime?"
"Nah. I thought I'd take you guys up on the offer for that x-ray. My eye's pretty sore. It probably wouldn't hurt," he said.
She tilted his chin up so that she took take a better look at his eye in the overhead light. She felt around his eye socket, much to his dismay and finally said, "Okay. Fill this out and take a seat. I should be able to sneak you in to the doctor in a couple of minutes." She handed him the ER paperwork to fill out and then added, "Don't worry about filling in the insurance info. We've got all that on the computer for injuries to officers in the line of duty."
"Thanks, Mary. I appreciate it," he said, sitting down to fill out the papers.
True to her words, a few minutes later, he was in an examination room and the doctor came in shortly after.
"Office Boscorelli. Just couldn't stay away, eh?" said the doctor that had been working when he was in earlier to take the report on the Taylor boy.
"Yeah. Well, you said to come back if it was bothering me, so here I am, Doc," Bosco said.
"Okay, let's have a look shall we?" the doctor said, palpating the area around his eye to see if he could feel any factures. "Did you have any bleeding from the nose when this happened?"
"Uh, yeah, but very little - only for a minute," Bosco answered, flinching at each touch from the doctor.
"Blurred vision, headaches, dizziness?" the doctor asked him.
"Well, now that you mention it, I do have a little bit of a headache," Bosco answered.
"Well, I think we should send you for an x-ray for sure. Just to make sure you don't have an orbital fracture," he said, writing in the chart and motioning through the window for Nurse Proctor to come back in.
"Whatever," Bosco said to the doctor.
"Mary, Officer Bosorelli here needs a facial x-ray to rule out an orbital fracture," the doctor said as he wrote out the order. "I'll see you after the x-ray," the doctor said, turning to leave the room.
"Thanks. Oh, Doc?" Bosco said, and the doctor turned back toward him.
"How's that kid from tonight? Cole Taylor? The one that got the snot beat out of him out on Lex?" Bosco said, trying to remind the doctor who he was talking about.
The doctor nodded that he remembered and said, "He's upstairs. They're watching him for signs of needing surgery on that liver laceration. He's got a nasty concussion but no skull fracture. He's got various other cuts and bruises, but I think he'll survive his injuries. I'm not so sure about his addiction," he said sadly.
"Do you know if he's awake?" Bosco asked.
"Not when we sent him upstairs," the doctor answered and turned to walk out.
"I'll check while you're in x-ray, Bosco," Mary offered, knowing what Bosco was thinking. She'd seen this from him before and knew that he had a soft spot for kids in trouble. She knew he'd never let on to his fellow officers, but she'd seen it herself. "Katy called in to check on him too," she added.
Bosco smiled at the thought of Katy Logan. "Thanks, Mary. Are they ready for me in x-ray?" he asked.
"Yeah, I called ahead because I figured he'd order one. Can you get there on your own?" she asked, handing him the paperwork ordering the x-ray.
"In my sleep, Mary. In my sleep," he said, heading out the door and taking a left.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*
Bosco was discharged from the Emergency Room, but not before being told he had a hairline fracture of the bone around his eye. The doctor wanted to put him on light duty, but he'd talked him out of it. He told him he'd lie low from the heavy calls as much as he could, but that he couldn't just ride a desk. The doctor laughed when he told him that he didn't think the Lieutenant would last a week with him in the building and he didn't want to be responsible for the Lieutenant's early retirement.
So, he was discharged home and told to be careful for a couple of weeks. He was told to take Tylenol for the pain and any headaches that may come from the injury and to come back if he had any more problems. Other than that, he should follow up with his own doctor in about two weeks, just to make sure that it healed okay. Bosco didn't say it out loud, but thought to himself, "This place is my own doctor."
He caught up to Mary at the desk and she told him that Cole had woken up. She gave him the room number and said she'd told the head nurse up there that a friend of the patient's who happened to be a cop had just gotten off duty and wanted to stop up and see him even though visiting hours were over. The nurse said she'd make an exception as long as he didn't stay long and was quiet so as not to disturb the other patients.
"Thanks, Mary. I owe you big time," Bosco told her.
"Remember that when you bring me in the fifth drunk of the day next time," she joked with him. "Take care of yourself, Bosco."
"Will do, Mary. You do the same. Hope you have a quiet shift tonight," he said.
"That's it. Now you jinxed it. We're gonna get slammed for sure now!" she said, rolling her eyes.
"I forgot. Sorry," he said, walking down the hallway as the telemetry radio crackled to life with an incoming trauma patient's information and vitals.
*^*^*^*^*^^*^*
Bosco made his way up to the floor that Cole was on and stepped off the elevator. The nurse looked at him and he took out his wallet and showed her his badge. She took in his appearance and motioned toward Cole's room. "Mary told me you had a bad day too."
"Yeah. Thanks. I'll only be a minute. I just want to see if he needs anything or wants me to call anyone for him," he said.
"Okay. Take your time, just try to keep the noise down," the nurse said. Mary had filled her in on Bosco's real mission and the nurse liked the idea that someone was trying to help this kid so it softened her up on the rules.
Bosco walked to the doorway and let his eyes adjust to the darkness of the room. After a moment he walked into the room and quietly up to the bed. He saw that Cole's eyes were closed and he waited for a moment without hearing the rhythmic breathing of someone asleep. "He must just be resting his eyes," Bosco thought to himself as he cleared his throat.
"Cole Taylor?" Bosco asked quietly. The boy's eyes opened, but he didn't react. He didn't recognize Bosco without his uniform on.
"Yeah. Who wants to know," the boy replied with attitude. Bosco smiled and thought to himself, "Here we go."
"My name is Maurice Boscorelli. You can call me Bosco. Most people do," Bosco started.
"Whatta you want?" asked the boy meanly.
"I was just wondering if there was anyone I could call for you. Your Mom or someone?" Bosco said, immediately wanting to kick himself when he remembered that the boy's mother gave him up at birth.
"No. Nobody," Cole said. "I just want to go to sleep," he said, turning his head away from Bosco.
"Well, I'd like to try to help you if I could," Bosco offered. "My friend Katy - I think you've met her before. I think we could help you if you'd just let us," he said, waiting for some kind of response.
"Katy? Katy who. I don't know any Katy," Cole replied, still nasty.
"Katy Logan, from Child and Family Services. Do you remember her?" Bosco asked, seeing a look of agitation come across Cole's face.
"Now I recognize your voice. You're the cop from this afternoon," he said, trying to sit up. "Look, I don't wanna talk to any cops. I CAN'T talk to any cops!" he said, becoming more upset.
"Okay, okay. Just calm down, Cole. I'm only trying to help you. I can help you if you'll let me. I know you're afraid..." Bosco said, only to be interrupted.
"I'm not afraid of anything. Just leave me alone!" he yelled again, this time bringing the nurse into the room.
Bosco held up his hand to let her know that he understood they were being too loud and she stopped at the doorway and waited.
"Okay, Cole. I'll leave. But, please let Katy help you. Please talk to her. Or you can talk to me. I'll leave my card with the nurse," he said, handing his card to the nurse. "She'll put it in your chart. You can call me anytime; day or night," Bosco offered.
"Look! Just leave me alone!" Cole yelled.
"I'm really going to have to ask you to leave, Officer Boscorelli," the nurse said.
"I know. I'm going. I'm sorry if I disturbed any patients," Bosco apologized. As he started to leave the room he turned back to the boy and one more time said, "I mean it Cole. Anytime. There's nothing so bad that it can't be fixed and I'd like to help you." That said, Bosco walked out of the room, followed by the nurse.
"I think what you're doing is good, Officer. I just wanted you to know that. Don't give up on him. I see it in his eyes. He's alone and he's scared," the nurse said.
Bosco nodded and offered her another card with his home number on it also. "Could you just put this on the table next to his bed. It's got my home number on it too."
"Sure. Goodnight, Officer," said the nurse as she went to see if Cole had settled down any.
Bosco got on the elevator and pressed Lobby. Suddenly the late hour and the events of the day had caught up with him and he felt exhausted. He realized his head was pounding and he couldn't wait to get home, take some Tylenol and fall into bed. He felt like he could sleep for a week.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TBC...
Chapter 5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bosco finished the remainder of his shift without talking much. Faith noticed and finally said something.
"Bos?" she said, trying to get his attention as she pulled the car into the station lot. He looked over at her and she chuckled at the sight of his swollen, black eye. "Are you sure your eye's okay?" she asked him for what seemed the hundredth time that night.
"It's pretty sore," he said, even though it wasn't too bad. "I think I'll run over to Mercy and have that x-ray the doc suggested," he said to Faith.
"Want me to drive you over?" she asked him. "I'll wait with you in case you need something done or medicine or something."
"Nah. I'll just have the x-ray to be on the safe side. What the heck, the Department's payin' for it," he said to her smiling.
"Okay. If you're sure. Give me a call when you get home and let me know how you made out," she told him.
"I'll call you tomorrow. By the time I get in there and get seen and home it'll be like 3 in the morning. Fred'd love me to call you at 3:00 a.m.," he told her and she nodded.
"You're probably right. But if it's anything serious, call me anyway," she said, as they got out of the car and went inside to turn in their radios and change in to their street clothes.
"Absolutely," he said to her.
After they changed, they walked out together. "See ya tomorrow," Faith called to Bosco as she headed off for the train.
"You want a lift home first?" he asked her.
"No. You might as well get over to Mercy and get started on your long wait," she said, waving him off.
"Alright. See you tomorrow," he answered, getting into his car and heading off in the direction of Mercy. He didn't really need the x-ray, but he didn't like the look of fear he saw in Cole Taylor's eyes when they talked to him before.
He thought this would give him an excuse to be there and maybe he could just stop in and check on how he was doing.
He thought about what Katy Logan had told them about this kid. He's been on the streets for a little over two years. He's got attitude and he may be getting involved with the Latin Lords. Everything pointed to this kid's early demise. Bosco would sure like to try to help this kid. Along with the fear in his eyes, he'd also seen that lost look - the look he probably had as a kid too. Only, he was lucky. He got straightened out before it was too late. The old man upstairs in his apartment building while he was growing up had seen to that. Maybe Bosco could do the same for this kid somehow. It was worth a shot anyway.
He pulled into the lot of Mercy and parked his car. He looked in the mirror and lightly touched his eye, flinching at the touch. "Hmm. Maybe an x-ray's not a bad idea," he thought to himself as he got out and headed for the ER.
He walked up to the desk and was lucky enough to catch his favorite nurse, Mary Proctor, stopping by on the way to her next patient.
"Bosco. What're you doing here at this hour?" she asked him, looking up at the clock. "Overtime?"
"Nah. I thought I'd take you guys up on the offer for that x-ray. My eye's pretty sore. It probably wouldn't hurt," he said.
She tilted his chin up so that she took take a better look at his eye in the overhead light. She felt around his eye socket, much to his dismay and finally said, "Okay. Fill this out and take a seat. I should be able to sneak you in to the doctor in a couple of minutes." She handed him the ER paperwork to fill out and then added, "Don't worry about filling in the insurance info. We've got all that on the computer for injuries to officers in the line of duty."
"Thanks, Mary. I appreciate it," he said, sitting down to fill out the papers.
True to her words, a few minutes later, he was in an examination room and the doctor came in shortly after.
"Office Boscorelli. Just couldn't stay away, eh?" said the doctor that had been working when he was in earlier to take the report on the Taylor boy.
"Yeah. Well, you said to come back if it was bothering me, so here I am, Doc," Bosco said.
"Okay, let's have a look shall we?" the doctor said, palpating the area around his eye to see if he could feel any factures. "Did you have any bleeding from the nose when this happened?"
"Uh, yeah, but very little - only for a minute," Bosco answered, flinching at each touch from the doctor.
"Blurred vision, headaches, dizziness?" the doctor asked him.
"Well, now that you mention it, I do have a little bit of a headache," Bosco answered.
"Well, I think we should send you for an x-ray for sure. Just to make sure you don't have an orbital fracture," he said, writing in the chart and motioning through the window for Nurse Proctor to come back in.
"Whatever," Bosco said to the doctor.
"Mary, Officer Bosorelli here needs a facial x-ray to rule out an orbital fracture," the doctor said as he wrote out the order. "I'll see you after the x-ray," the doctor said, turning to leave the room.
"Thanks. Oh, Doc?" Bosco said, and the doctor turned back toward him.
"How's that kid from tonight? Cole Taylor? The one that got the snot beat out of him out on Lex?" Bosco said, trying to remind the doctor who he was talking about.
The doctor nodded that he remembered and said, "He's upstairs. They're watching him for signs of needing surgery on that liver laceration. He's got a nasty concussion but no skull fracture. He's got various other cuts and bruises, but I think he'll survive his injuries. I'm not so sure about his addiction," he said sadly.
"Do you know if he's awake?" Bosco asked.
"Not when we sent him upstairs," the doctor answered and turned to walk out.
"I'll check while you're in x-ray, Bosco," Mary offered, knowing what Bosco was thinking. She'd seen this from him before and knew that he had a soft spot for kids in trouble. She knew he'd never let on to his fellow officers, but she'd seen it herself. "Katy called in to check on him too," she added.
Bosco smiled at the thought of Katy Logan. "Thanks, Mary. Are they ready for me in x-ray?" he asked.
"Yeah, I called ahead because I figured he'd order one. Can you get there on your own?" she asked, handing him the paperwork ordering the x-ray.
"In my sleep, Mary. In my sleep," he said, heading out the door and taking a left.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*
Bosco was discharged from the Emergency Room, but not before being told he had a hairline fracture of the bone around his eye. The doctor wanted to put him on light duty, but he'd talked him out of it. He told him he'd lie low from the heavy calls as much as he could, but that he couldn't just ride a desk. The doctor laughed when he told him that he didn't think the Lieutenant would last a week with him in the building and he didn't want to be responsible for the Lieutenant's early retirement.
So, he was discharged home and told to be careful for a couple of weeks. He was told to take Tylenol for the pain and any headaches that may come from the injury and to come back if he had any more problems. Other than that, he should follow up with his own doctor in about two weeks, just to make sure that it healed okay. Bosco didn't say it out loud, but thought to himself, "This place is my own doctor."
He caught up to Mary at the desk and she told him that Cole had woken up. She gave him the room number and said she'd told the head nurse up there that a friend of the patient's who happened to be a cop had just gotten off duty and wanted to stop up and see him even though visiting hours were over. The nurse said she'd make an exception as long as he didn't stay long and was quiet so as not to disturb the other patients.
"Thanks, Mary. I owe you big time," Bosco told her.
"Remember that when you bring me in the fifth drunk of the day next time," she joked with him. "Take care of yourself, Bosco."
"Will do, Mary. You do the same. Hope you have a quiet shift tonight," he said.
"That's it. Now you jinxed it. We're gonna get slammed for sure now!" she said, rolling her eyes.
"I forgot. Sorry," he said, walking down the hallway as the telemetry radio crackled to life with an incoming trauma patient's information and vitals.
*^*^*^*^*^^*^*
Bosco made his way up to the floor that Cole was on and stepped off the elevator. The nurse looked at him and he took out his wallet and showed her his badge. She took in his appearance and motioned toward Cole's room. "Mary told me you had a bad day too."
"Yeah. Thanks. I'll only be a minute. I just want to see if he needs anything or wants me to call anyone for him," he said.
"Okay. Take your time, just try to keep the noise down," the nurse said. Mary had filled her in on Bosco's real mission and the nurse liked the idea that someone was trying to help this kid so it softened her up on the rules.
Bosco walked to the doorway and let his eyes adjust to the darkness of the room. After a moment he walked into the room and quietly up to the bed. He saw that Cole's eyes were closed and he waited for a moment without hearing the rhythmic breathing of someone asleep. "He must just be resting his eyes," Bosco thought to himself as he cleared his throat.
"Cole Taylor?" Bosco asked quietly. The boy's eyes opened, but he didn't react. He didn't recognize Bosco without his uniform on.
"Yeah. Who wants to know," the boy replied with attitude. Bosco smiled and thought to himself, "Here we go."
"My name is Maurice Boscorelli. You can call me Bosco. Most people do," Bosco started.
"Whatta you want?" asked the boy meanly.
"I was just wondering if there was anyone I could call for you. Your Mom or someone?" Bosco said, immediately wanting to kick himself when he remembered that the boy's mother gave him up at birth.
"No. Nobody," Cole said. "I just want to go to sleep," he said, turning his head away from Bosco.
"Well, I'd like to try to help you if I could," Bosco offered. "My friend Katy - I think you've met her before. I think we could help you if you'd just let us," he said, waiting for some kind of response.
"Katy? Katy who. I don't know any Katy," Cole replied, still nasty.
"Katy Logan, from Child and Family Services. Do you remember her?" Bosco asked, seeing a look of agitation come across Cole's face.
"Now I recognize your voice. You're the cop from this afternoon," he said, trying to sit up. "Look, I don't wanna talk to any cops. I CAN'T talk to any cops!" he said, becoming more upset.
"Okay, okay. Just calm down, Cole. I'm only trying to help you. I can help you if you'll let me. I know you're afraid..." Bosco said, only to be interrupted.
"I'm not afraid of anything. Just leave me alone!" he yelled again, this time bringing the nurse into the room.
Bosco held up his hand to let her know that he understood they were being too loud and she stopped at the doorway and waited.
"Okay, Cole. I'll leave. But, please let Katy help you. Please talk to her. Or you can talk to me. I'll leave my card with the nurse," he said, handing his card to the nurse. "She'll put it in your chart. You can call me anytime; day or night," Bosco offered.
"Look! Just leave me alone!" Cole yelled.
"I'm really going to have to ask you to leave, Officer Boscorelli," the nurse said.
"I know. I'm going. I'm sorry if I disturbed any patients," Bosco apologized. As he started to leave the room he turned back to the boy and one more time said, "I mean it Cole. Anytime. There's nothing so bad that it can't be fixed and I'd like to help you." That said, Bosco walked out of the room, followed by the nurse.
"I think what you're doing is good, Officer. I just wanted you to know that. Don't give up on him. I see it in his eyes. He's alone and he's scared," the nurse said.
Bosco nodded and offered her another card with his home number on it also. "Could you just put this on the table next to his bed. It's got my home number on it too."
"Sure. Goodnight, Officer," said the nurse as she went to see if Cole had settled down any.
Bosco got on the elevator and pressed Lobby. Suddenly the late hour and the events of the day had caught up with him and he felt exhausted. He realized his head was pounding and he couldn't wait to get home, take some Tylenol and fall into bed. He felt like he could sleep for a week.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TBC...