Title: Journey to Nowhere - Chapter Three
Author: Lynne Facella
Category: Drama/Angst
Email: lynne1919@aol.com
Spoilers: Through current season 4
Disclaimer: All characters are the property of John Wells and Edward Allen Bernero. I wish they were mine but unfortunately they're not.
Summary: A trip takes a deadly turn for Bosco, Faith, Sully and Ty.

*****

The first thing he heard as he began to awaken was the soft chirping of birds high up in the trees. Ty slowly opened his eyes and found himself staring up at a breathtakingly beautiful sunrise. The rich orange, yellow and red hues in the sky were absolutely magnificent. He had certainly never seen anything like it before. He pulled himself up into a sitting position and threw the last remaining sticks onto the fire to ward off the early morning chill. A quick glance around the campsite showed the others to still be asleep. Since they were out of firewood, Ty decided he would get some. He wouldn't go far. He'd just get enough to keep the fire going until they got some more wood later. He stood up and carefully started to stretch out his muscles. Sleeping on the ground was definitely not the most comfortable thing in the world. He grabbed his gun, just in case he ran into any kind of trouble, and with one last glance at the others, started off to gather some wood.

*****

A loud growling sound, somewhere off in the distance, woke Bosco abruptly. What the fuck was that? He could hear something rushing towards them, crashing through brush and branches and then a bone-chilling roar.

Sully and Faith both awoke just in time to see the large ferocious-looking bear storming through the brush right towards them. Bosco was the first to react. With lightning-fast reflexes, he grabbed for his gun and just started firing. The bear roared again, still coming towards them, but finally it fell to the ground, dead.

"Oh my God..." A bleary-eyed Faith uttered as she stared at the bear in shock.

Sully shook his head in disbelief. "Man...I didn't think bears were so aggressive like that...I sort of thought if you left them alone, that they'd leave you alone too, you know?"

"Yeah well that bear was definitely not gonna leave us alone," Bosco said, staring at the giant animal he had just brought down. "That thing was out for blood."

"Thank God you got him, Bos," Faith said, her voice a little bit shaky. "I...I don't even want to think about what it could have done to us. Bears...I wasn't even thinkin' about bears...I guess we should have been..." Dear God...what kind of a place were they in?

Suddenly, Sully realized that Ty's voice had been absent from the conversation. He turned to where Ty should have been sleeping and saw only the rumpled blankets. "Where's Ty?"

"Ty?" Faith turned in confusion towards Sully and shook her head. "I...I have no idea. Bos?"

"I didn't wake up until that bear was practically on top of us," Bosco stated, neglecting to mention he'd been awake practically the whole night. "He must be around...He can't have gone far."

"Ty!" Sully shouted, his voice echoing in the early morning stillness. "Where the hell can he be?" he asked, already feeling his body tensing up with anxiety. "Why the hell would he have gone off by himself?"

"Sully, calm down. We'll find him," Faith said, trying to reassure herself, as well as Sully. She really didn't understand why Davis would have gone off alone.

"Maybe the guy just had to take a leak or somethin'." Bosco refused get all worked up over this just yet. For all they knew, Davis had been gone for only a few minutes.

"Ty! Davis, where are you?" Sully shouted again. All he could think about was that the bear had attacked his partner and mauled him to death. "Dammit. I'm going to go look for him." He wearily got to his feet, inwardly filled with fear. They'd been awake for only a few minutes, had narrowly escaped being attacked by a bear and now Ty had gone missing. It was going to be a really swell day...

"We'll all go." Faith crawled out from underneath the blankets and zipped her jacket up underneath her chin. She then reached for her gun, not wanting to be caught unprepared, just in case there were any other angry bears roaming around out there.

Bosco glanced over at Sully and could just see the intense worry etched on the man's face. "Sully, it'll be okay." He and Faith exchanged glances and he knew she was worried as well. He glanced over at the dead bear again and hoped to God that Ty hadn't ended up tangling with it. "Come on...we should go. We can go in different directions, but just make sure we keep each other in sight."

Sully and Faith nodded and the three set off into the woods, calling Ty's name. Sully hadn't gone very far at all when he spotted Ty's familiar form, lying face down on the ground. He was surrounded by the pieces of scattered firewood that he had obviously been gathering. "Over here! I found him!" Sully's heart went into his throat as he ran towards Ty, fearing the worst. He reached his partner and dropped to the ground beside him. "Ty. Ty. Can you hear me? Ty?"

Ty let out a low groan when he heard Sully's voice. "Sul?" he whispered weakly as he struggled to open his eyes.

"Yeah it's me. Don't try to talk. You're going to be okay." Sully reached under the young man's chest and supported his head as he gently rolled him over onto his back. Then he saw the source of the trouble. Ty's right shoulder was bleeding badly. "Guess you tangled with that bear," he murmured, then shouted, "Bosco, I need help!"

Bosco and Faith had already been racing towards Sully and arrived just as he shouted. . "What happened to him?" Faith asked. "Was it the bear?" She didn't know what else it could be. There was blood everywhere.

"Yeah...he must have gotten into a tangle with it," Sully replied.

"We should get him back to camp. We need to stop the bleeding," Bosco stated, quickly assessing the situation.

"I know. You get his legs," Sully directed as he cradled Ty in his arms, lifting his upper torso off the ground. The two men then carefully managed to carry Ty back to the campsite. Faith rushed on ahead of them and fashioned a cushion out of blankets for them to lie Ty down on. Bosco grabbed the first aid kit while Sully unzippered Ty's jacket and gently removed it. "God he's really bleeding," he murmured under his breath. "Ty? Ty you with me here?"

Ty's eyes remained closed, but he moaned softly in response to Sully's question.

Bosco handed Sully a pair of scissors from the first aid kit and Sully began to cut Ty's shirt around the site of the bleeding. Then he carefully lifted the material up and away from the area and stared down in silent shock.

Faith had been watching Sully work on his partner and saw the change in expression on his face. "Sully, what?" she asked as she looked down at Ty's shoulder and her eyes widened as she realized what had happened. "Oh..."

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Bosco gave Sully a look of disgust and grabbed the field first aid dressing. Was Sully waiting for Davis to bleed out? He shoved in between Sully and Faith, all set to apply pressure to the wound himself, but he froze when he saw the unmistakable evidence of a bullet wound.

"I've got it." Sully forced himself back into action again as he pulled the dressing out of Bosco's hands and placed it on the wound, pressing his hand down firmly against it.

Bosco stumbled away from the scene feeling sick to his stomach. He was suddenly bombarded with memories of his temporary partner, Benny Ross, dying on the pavement after being shot. Now it was happening again, except this time, the bullet had come from Bosco's gun.

"Bosco? Bos?" Faith immediately followed after her partner and tried to put her arm around him. "Bos...it was an accident. It wasn't your fault. Ty will be alright."

"I don't wanna talk about this." Bosco roughly pulled out of her grasp and started to walk away, but Faith was not to be deterred.

"Bosco...come on. You didn't know Davis was out there. He wasn't supposed to be there. You saved us. Who knows what that bear would have done? You didn't panic and you acted quickly. We're lucky you did."

"Oh yeah. I'm sure Davis thinks he's real lucky right now," Bosco scoffed. "It's not every day one of your fellow officers shoots you."

"He'll be alright."

"You don't know that." Bosco turned towards Faith with a look of pure anguish on his face. "You don't know that, Faith. Out here, with no proper medical attention...he could die..."

She stood silently, unsure of what, if anything, she could say to help her partner. Neither said a word until Sully came up to them a while later. "I managed to stop the bleeding. He's resting now."

"Was there an exit wound?" Bosco asked bluntly.

Sully shook his head. "No...the bullet's still inside him." He paused and then went on. "You know...what Faith said is true, Bosco. This wasn't your fault. You couldn't have known Ty was out there. He should have been here. He shouldn't have gone off without telling us."

"So it's his fault?" Bosco asked with a scornful laugh. "That makes me feel loads better, Sully. Gee thanks."

"It's no one's fault. It was an accident. Shit happens, Bosco. We've got to deal with it."

"Yeah well you deal with it your way and I'll deal with it mine," Bosco snapped. "I'm going for a walk, and don't worry. I won't get lost, I'm going myself."

"Bos..." Faith implored futilely. She watched as Bosco stormed off.

"Let him be for now," Sully stated. "He just needs to calm down and clear his head." Sully turned away and headed back to where Ty appeared to be sleeping peacefully. Sully covered the young man with another blanket and sat on the ground beside him. "You just hang in there, buddy. Hang in there..."

******

Bosco stormed through the woods, walking as fast as he could, until he was finally winded and stopped to catch his breath. Damn. He couldn't believe he'd shot Davis. He just couldn't believe it. Accident or not, he'd shot him and he didn't think he could cope with it if anything happened to him. He turned around and slowly started walking back towards camp, picking up firewood along the way. When he had almost more than he could carry, he arrived back at the campsite.

"You alright, Bos?" Faith gave him a worried look as he walked past her to the rapidly diminishing campfire.

Bosco didn't answer her question. He dropped his stack of wood onto the ground and began to feed the fire. "How is he?" he asked Sully in a choked voice.

"He's doing alright. He's still asleep."

"We need to keep him warm," Bosco stated. "And someone should always be with him in case he needs us. We should take shifts during the night."

Sully nodded. "Yeah...yeah that's a good idea. We'll do that." He knew that Bosco was feeling responsible for what had happened and needed to feel in charge of the situation.

Bosco finished with the fire and stared up at the sky for a few long moments. "How is anyone ever gonna find us out here?" he murmured, shaking his head.

"We just have to hope they will," Sully answered quietly, glancing down at his sleeping partner. The situation was much more ominous now. There was a sense of urgency that hadn't been there before. He wasn't sure how long Ty could go on without proper medical attention.

It's startin' to cloud up," Bosco observed, his eyes still gazing upward. "We ought to have some shelter in case it rains. I'm gonna go back to the plane. See if there's somethin' we can use."

"I'll go with you." Faith quickly got to her feet, not willing to let him go off on his own again.

"I can go by myself," Bosco replied testily. "Besides, you injured your head. You shouldn't be runnin' around the way you've been doing."

"I feel fine, Bosco. No arguments...I'm goin' with you." Faith stared back at him stubbornly and he finally just nodded. It wasn't that he necessarily wanted to be alone anyhow. He didn't know what he wanted right now, except for Ty to be alright and for all of them to be safely back in New York.

"Don't be gone too long," Sully said quietly with an underlying note of concern in his voice.

"We won't." Faith smiled encouragingly down at Sully and started after Bosco who had already begun walking. She quickly caught up to him and they continued walking silently. Faith hated seeing him this way, so quiet and subdued...so guilt-ridden. He was a far cry from the carefree, boisterous partner she was used to.

"So you really think it's going to rain?" she asked, unable to think of anything else to say and needing him to say something...anything at all.

"Yeah. It is going to rain," Bosco snapped, glaring at her. "And if we don't get up some kinda shelter, Davis is probably going to catch pneumonia and die."

"Well that's thinkin' positive, Bos."

"What the hell is there to be positive about?" he snarled. "You of all people shouldn't be positive. You might never see your kids again, Faith. Have you stopped to think of that?"

"Of course I've thought of that. It's all I've been thinkin' about." Faith found that she was begining to get angry and forced herself to calm down. He was just upset. She knew he didn't mean half of what he was saying.

Bosco was silent for a few minutes and then finally gave his partner a sidelong glance. "I'm sorry, Faith. I know you love your kids...I know you've been thinkin' of them. I just...I'm just actin' kind of crazy right now."

"It's fine, Bos...I understand..." She breathed a sigh of relief when she caught sight of the plane up ahead. She knew Bosco had good wilderness skills and they weren't likely to get lost, but she definitely didn't want to be separated from Sully and Davis.

Bosco moved swiftly towards the plane and began to climb up inside, turning back to look at Faith. "You comin' or you want to wait out there?"

"I'll come with you." Faith cautiously climbed up into the plane after him and was surprised at the drastic change in air temperature as she stepped inside. "God...it's freezin' in here...feels like a tomb..." She immediately regretted her choice of words when she thought of the pilot who was still lying lifelessly in the cockpit.

Bosco was all business as he started searching the plane. "We're looking for anythin' at all you think we can use. Parachutes, more blankets...whatever you think would be useful."

Now over the initial shock of the plane crash, the two officers were able to search the plane much more thoroughly than they had the day before. "Hey Bos, here's an emergency kit. Faith opened the box and smiled as she saw the contents. "This is perfect. We've got signaling equipment, flashlights, an axe."

"That's good, Faith." Bosco smiled faintly, feeling at least a tiny bit of optimism for the first time that day. Now they just had to hope and pray that someone would fly overhead and spot them. He wasn't sure what the chances were since there had yet to be a sign of any aircraft, but if someone was searching for them, maybe they'd be found.

"Jackpot," Bosco said. He pulled one parachute pack out from behind a seat and then another one. "This is perfect. Just what we need." He stood up and fastened one of the packs onto his back and handed the other one to Faith. "Can you manage this? I'll take the emergency kit."

Faith nodded as she took the pack from Bosco. "Yeah, I've got it. Maybe we should think about gettin' back. I think Sully was kinda nervous about us bein' gone."

Any other time Bosco would have made some crack about Sully acting like an old woman, but not today. "Yeah, you're right. Come on...let's get goin'."

******

Sully sat on the ground next to Ty, watching his partner's chest rise and fall and just listening to the sound of his breathing. He was so intent on watching his breathing that he didn't see Ty's eyes open and he started at the sound of Ty's familiar though weak-sounding voice. "Hey Sul..."

"Ty." Sully met Ty's gaze, a relieved smile on his face. Hey...how are you feeling?"

"I don't know...not great..." A somewhat confused look came over Ty's face. "What happened?"

"You don't remember? Ty, you were shot."

"Shot?" Ty glanced down at his shoulder, which was throbbing badly. "I don't...how'd I get shot? Is someone else out here?"

Sully shook his head. "No. It's just us out here, Ty. What happened to you was an accident." He hesitated, not really sure if Ty needed to know all the details just yet.

"What, Sully?" Ty prodded.

"There was a bear...a very angry bear that was out for blood. Anyhow, it came storming into camp. Bosco just grabbed his gun and kept shooting until he brought it down. We didn't know until afterwards that you had disappeared...anyhow...one of those bullets found you."

Ty nodded silently. "I'm sorry, Sully...I shouldn't have left. You must have been worried sick. I just wanted to get some wood and thought I'd be back before you guys woke up... It was stupid." He shifted his position and winced as a sharp bolt of pain shot through his arm.

"You okay?" Sully asked in alarm.

"Yeah, yeah...just...just moved wrong, that's all." The two men were quiet for a few moments before Ty spoke again. "Is Bosco alright?"

"Bosco? He...well he's upset which is understandable. You know Bosco though. He'll be okay."

"I hope so...I don't want him blaming himself...I shouldn't have been where I was..."

"What's done is done, Ty. It was an accident. I think we need to just focus on you getting better, not worry about who is or isn't to blame, okay?"

"Sure..." Ty closed his eyes for a few moments, willing some of the pain to go away. He was trying not to worry about this situation. His shoulder hurt, but he didn't feel deathly ill or anything. Maybe he'd be okay until they got out of here. "Hey Sul? Can I have some water? I'm sort of thirsty."

"Of course you can, hang on." Sully went over to get one of the bottles of water and brought it back to Ty, supporting his partner's head gently as he took a few sips.

"Thanks." Ty laid back down again just as Bosco and Faith walked back into the campsite with the supplies they had collected from the wreckage of the plane.

"How is he?" were the first words out of Bosco's mouth as he placed the emergency kit on the ground. He helped Faith to unfasten the parachute pack from her back and then removed his own.

"He's doing pretty good. Why don't you see for yourself?"

Bosco approached Davis a little bit hesitantly, feeling some relief when he saw that Davis was awake and alert. "Hey...how are you doin'?"

"I'm not feeling too bad," Ty replied.

"Davis...I..." Bosco paused, unsure of exactly how to do this. 'I'm sorry I shot you' didn't seem quite the right way to say it.

"Forget it, Bosco. I was somewhere I shouldn't have been. You were just protecting everyone. It was an accident. Don't worry about it. I'll be alright."

"Yeah well...in any case, I'm sorry, Davis..." Just hearing Ty talk was making Bosco feel better. He didn't sound so bad and he looked better than he had just a short while ago. As long as they took proper care of him, maybe things would work out. "Listen, I've got some stuff to do. You hang in there, okay?"

Ty nodded, watching as Bosco wandered back off in the direction of the trees. He found that he was tiring now. "I think I'm going to get some sleep now, Sul..." he murmured, as he allowed his eyes to close.

Sully waited until Ty was asleep and then slowly got up off the ground, brushing off his pants as he did so. He observed Faith off in the distance and as he approached her, he saw that she was staring up at a tree. When he reached her, he saw that it wasn't the tree itself she was staring at, but rather Bosco who had climbed up pretty high into the branches. "Bosco, what the hell are you doing? You trying to break your neck?"

"No, I'm tryin' to save your necks," Bosco retorted as he continued hacking away at a very long branch with the axe.

"You let him have an axe?" Sully looked at Faith incredulously, only half joking.

Faith sighed as she looked at Sully. "He really does know what he's doin', Sully. Let's face it. He's the only one who's had any real experience in this kind of thing."

"Look out below!" Bosco shouted as the branch he had been working on came dropping down from the tree.

Sully jumped away from the branch just in time. "A little more warning might be good next time, Bosco," he yelled.

"Maybe you shouldn't be standin' where I'm choppin'."

Sully backed away a few feet and looked up at Bosco who was now working on a new branch. "What exactly are you doing anyhow?"

"I'm going to make a shelter. We need to have some protection against the elements."

Sully nodded. He had to admit that made sense. "Can I do something to help?"

"Unless you feel like climbin' trees, not right now. Though actually, there's a big orange signal flag in the emergency kit we brought back. It floats. If you could put it out on the water, that'd be good. I think that's the easiest possible place for any aircraft to spot it. Then, if you want, you can scout around for some long branches that might have fallen, around 14 or 15 feet or so. We need at least three of them, but more is better so it will be as sturdy as possible."

"Alright. Faith? You mind keeping an eye on Ty?" Sully asked. "Call me if he needs me."

"No problem, Sully. I'll watch him."

Sully started off to search for some long branches and shook his head to himself as he heard Bosco yelling "timber."

******

Faith was sitting with Ty when Bosco and Sully returned to camp a short time later, dragging some long branches along with them. "Hey you get what you need?"

"Yeah, these should do," Bosco replied as he cast an expert eye on the current setup of the camp. "Sully, we need to put out the fire and move Davis away until I get this thing built."

"Are we going to have the fire inside the shelter?" Sully asked.

"Yep." Bosco opened the first parachute pack and examined the contents. "This one looks pretty good." He then opened the second pack and handed the parachute material to Faith along with the axe.

"What do you want me to do with these?" she asked, giving him a curious look.

"I just want you to cut it into some large pieces. We're going to gather some leaves and put this over them to make beds. It'll give us some insulation from the ground. Should be warmer and more comfortable too...especially for him," he said, gesturing towards Ty.

"Okay, sure."

Sully and Bosco carefully moved Ty away from where they would be working and both men were inwardly relieved when he remained sleeping. Sully covered him with some extra blankets and then joined Bosco to begin to working. "So how exactly is this going to work?" Sully asked.

"It's kind of like a tepee," Bosco explained as he pulled out some parachute cord. "The fire will be in the middle. The smoke can escape through the top. It's the best way to protect us from the weather. It is definitely gonna rain."

"A tepee huh?" Sully asked doubtfully. "Isn't it going to be sort of small?"

"Nah." Bosco shook his head with a grin. "Just think of it as cozy. No seriously though, it'll be pretty big. It might be kinda close quarters, but it will be okay."

"Okay then, let's get to work."

******

"Hey...this looks great." Bosco stood back to admire the completed shelter. It had worked out even better than he would have imagined. The fire was inside and they had put some beds together according to Bosco's directions. "Now at least we've got some protection from the weather."

"Yeah, I've got to hand it to you, Bosco. You really know what you're doing out here," Sully said with a hint of admiration in his voice.

"You did good, Bos," Faith said. "Really good."

"At least we have some shelter now," Bosco said.

"You want to help me get Ty inside?" Sully asked. Bosco nodded and the two of them gently carried him to the shelter. Ty stirred a little bit, but didn't awaken.

"You think he's sleeping too much?" Sully asked, unable to hide his concern.

Faith felt Ty's forehead and shook her head. "I don't think he has a fever. His body's been through quite a shock, Sully, first the crash and now gettin' shot. Sleep is the best thing for him."

"Yeah...I know," Sully admitted. "It's just hard seeing him this way though."

"He'll get through this." She wasn't at all sure it was true, but she figured it was best to try to believe it...not just for Davis, but for all of them. Hope was all they had.

Outside the shelter, Bosco listened to the conversation and dejectedly kicked at some loose brush and dirt on the ground. No matter how many times he told himself it had been an accident, he couldn't get it out of his head that he had shot Davis. Accident or not, if anything happened to Ty...

"Bos?" He felt Faith's hand on his shoulder and managed a wan smile in her direction. "Bos you okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah, yeah I'm alright, Faith."

"You sure?" She knew him so well and she knew that he was blaming himself for what had happened to Davis. "Bos...you know it wasn't your fault, right?"

Bosco shook his head. "You don't have to keep sayin' it, Faith. I'm fine, okay? Fine. I just...I don't want to talk about it. Dwelling on shit doesn't help. I'm going to go get some more firewood so we have enough in case it rains." Without a backward glance, he started off into the woods. Faith looked after him with a worried expression on her face, but she didn't try to stop him.

******