Sorry about the last cliffhangar...I know it killed you guys...woulda
killed me! Anyways, this will be the last flashback chapter and
then part 11 will jump back to the present again.

You guys have been so patient and supportive...I know I wouldn't be
this far without all of you!

I would, again, like to thank my bestest bud lynium for helping me
out with this...I can assure you you would not be reading something
of this caliber without her. She has been a huge help to me, as well
as shockingly understanding for someone who knows nothing about TW.

Without further ado, part 10...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Abyss
By: Syko4Bosco aka A. Lalad
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership, nor do I gain any type
of compensation or reward for this story. I
write for my own personal enjoyment, and share
my writing with others who may also enjoy it.
Third Watch (c) and all registered characters belong
to NBC.

=================================================================

Abyss
By: Syko4Bosco aka A. Lalad
(10/?)

THIS IS A CONTINUATION OF THE FLASHBACK OF THE KIDNAPPING. BOSCO
HAS ALREADY BEEN FOUND AND THIS HAS ALREADY HAPPENED. THIS IS
IN PLACE OF THE STATEMENT BOSCO IS GIVING TO THE FBI ABOUT HIS
WHEREABOUTS AND HIS CAPTORS.

==*==
1013 Burlington St.
11:32 pm

"Officer Yokas was really worried about you Boscorelli! She
decided to come for a visit."

Bosco found himself very unable to breathe. He screamed
against the gag in his mouth, but it all came out muffled.

He ripped himself desperately against the ropes, and he felt
his shoulder pop out of place quickly before his arms stopped him
from lunging forward, and it fell back into the socket.
Angela smiled. Her eyes gleamed in the low light coming
from the hallway.

He met Faith's eyes. It was dark, but he could see her eyes.
She was scared...confused. She didn't look hurt, but he could see
her trembling.

"I know you care about her, don't you?" He didn't respond, continuing
to struggle. His heart was racing and more adrenaline than he'd
ever felt surged through him. He couldn't let anything happen to
her. He couldn't. Not to Faith. He would die first.

"You wouldn't want anything to hurt her, would you?" He
stopped struggling for a minute and stared at Angela.

[i] NO. NO THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING! [/i]

Bosco saw someone move out of the corner of his eye and noticed Ricardo
was laying out a huge tarp.

Images of Faith and her family flashed through his head. So did images
of a funeral. A muffled sob escaped his throat, as he pulled at the
restraints half-heartedly. He couldn't get out. It was useless.
He couldn't...

NO! He wouldn't accept it. He started to struggle again, ignoring
his body's reaction. Pain exploded from his head, and chest and
just about everywhere else. He felt some of the cuts on his chest
break open and start to bleed again.

He could hear someone screaming and realized it was him.

Angela watched him, amused for a moment, then resumed her taunts.

"In fact, you LOVE her don't you?"

Bosco saw her reach to her side, and could see something glint in her
hand. A gun.

His heart raced, and hopeless, frustrated tears ran down his face.

He had to protect her. He had to. And he couldn't.

He could only make out her eyes...the terrified look he found there
caused his heart to skip a beat.

"You know who I loved, Officer? I loved Richard J. Raycott. He's
dead now. But you know that, don't you? YOU KILLED HIM!!!"

She pulled Faith to her feet, onto the middle of the tarp, into the
light from the hall.

"So, I think it's only fair to show you what it feels like."

Angela put the gun to Faith's head, and he saw she was crying.
She began to struggle also, and he could hear her sobbing into her
gag.

Bosco looked to Faith and his breath caught in his throat.

It wasn't Faith.

IT WASN'T FAITH!

Ricardo leaned over and ripped the gag from Bosco's mouth.

"Any last words, Officer?"

==*==
1013 Burlington St.
11:39 pm

Bosco watched in horror as they dragged the woman they thought was
Faith Yokas out of the room.

Her blood and brain matter was for the most part on the tarp, but
some had splattered on Bosco's legs. He dry heaved over the side
of the bed for what seemed like eternity. He could feel it soaking
through his jeans onto his leg. Warm and wet and...innocent.

He fell back onto the bed and shut his eyes tight, breathing hard.

He couldn't move. He couldn't think. The image of the bullet
hitting the woman point blank in the head replayed itself over and
over in his head. His body was numb. He was shaking but he didn't
notice.

Faith. What if it had been Faith? What if they had found the real
Faith? She would be dead right now. Dead because of him.

But an innocent woman was dead because of him. He had never seen
her before in his life. She hadn't done anything, and she was
slaughtered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[i] But at least it wasn't Faith [/i] He said to himself and then
lay, mortified at his thought. Was it selfish to think that way?

An innocent woman was brutally murdered because of him, and here
he was thanking God that they found the wrong person.

"I killed an innocent woman." he whispered to himself, voice
cracking. "I killed an innocent woman and I killed Faith."

What if they found out? What if they realized their mistake? It
would be too late. He couldn't save her the first time, he wouldn't
be able to save her the second time.

And if it had been Faith...she would have died the same horrific,
gruesome death...because of something HE had done.

He knew that he was really responsible for two murders. One which
had happened and one which had not.

He tried to reason with himself: [i]It was dark...you were in shock...[/i]
but it didn't work. He knew the real reason he reacted the way he did.

He looked up at his hands, as if expecting them to be stained with blood.
They were clean.

His heart ached. Secretly he hoped that Angela would come back and
pound a couple hundred bullets into him. If he was gone, they'd have no
reason to hurt Faith. No one would have a reason to hurt Faith,
and a mistake like this would never happen again.

A lone tear escaped down Bosco's cheek as he lay in the dark and prayed
for death.

==*==
1013 Burlington St.

He noticed very little over the course of the next few days. He
vaguely registered Angela and Ricardo coming in and out of the
room, and somewhere in the back of his mind his body was crying
out in agony, but it all seemed dreamlike.

He thought they might have drugged him again but couldn't be sure.
Everything was just blending together and he couldn't cast his mind
to any topic but the innocent woman's murder and Faith.

His desperation became overpowering and he felt himself spinning
downward into the depths of his mind and his guilty conscience. Seconds
or years could have passed and he would not have noticed.

His mind was killing him and he was doing nothing to stop it.

==*==
2 days later
1013 Burlington St.
1:37 pm

Angela entered the room with a bang, hoping to scare Boscorelli
out of his act. It had worked the first time with the water,
maybe it would work again.

Ricardo, who had been keeping watch in the room, and was currently
passed out, jumped a little but the drugs in his system held him under.

But when Bosco didn't move or blink, she knew something was really
wrong. He seemed catatonic: his eyes were open, and glassy and he
didn't move. She quickly acted as if to slap him and he didn't
even flinch.

She was surprised that the death of his partner would have had this
impact. It was better than she'd orginally suspected it was going
to be. She hadn't even doped him up since before his partner died.

Angela was happy she'd obviously hit the right button with him, but
she wasn't finished with her prisoner quite yet, and she couldn't
elicit the reactions she wanted from him if stayed like this.

She reasoned that if she sedated him, he might come out of the
drugged slumber alert, and she could finish him off the way
she'd planned.

Reaching in her pocket, she pulled out a small clear vial. She'd
drug him first (a seditive called Ketamine), then she and Ricardo
could take their turn with the PCP.

She realized it had been hours since her last hit and she was starting
to get antsy. The world was still blurry and she felt tipsy, but
another dose would cure that.

Ricardo had passed out on watch after his last hit, but she
figured he would be coming to soon. She glanced back at him and
found him shifting, half-asleep.

Angela found a syringe, uncapped it and filled it. Lost in her
stoned senses, she didn't think to read the small label on the vial.

She quickly injected the contents of the needle into Boscorelli's
lifeless arm. Now it was her turn. She'd give Ricardo his later.
She couldn't wait for him to wake up right now.

Satisfying her own needs, Angela started to walk out of the room and
found her legs buckling beneath her. Only mildly alarmed, she walked
to the edge of the stairs, paused, and lost conciousness.

==*==
1013 Burlington St.

Ricardo awoke to find Boscorelli wildly struggling against the ropes
on the bed. Alarmed, and partially drugged, he picked up the baseball
bat and swung drunkenly. He missed Bosco's head (his intended target)
and instead hit the headboard of the bed, causing it to buckle and
crack.

The room was spinning and he couldn't focus his eyes. Ricardo
assumed he had hit Boscorelli, because he was silent and still
suddenly.

Satisfied and groggy, he stumbled back to his chair and passed out
again.

==*==

Bosco barely kept his head on his shoulders as the bat missed him
by inches. His heart was racing and he felt almost super-human,
but the hit scared him stiff for a moment.

He watched as his stoned guard wobbled back to his seat and looked
up at the headboard where he was tied.

It was mangled, almost to the point of breaking and with one
swift pull, Bosco broke his right hand free of the bedpost.

Shocked, he sat and stared at his freed hand for a minute, rope
still dangling from it. Finally coming to his senses, he
quickly moved to release himself from the others.

His heart pounded in his chest and he couldn't catch his breath.
He kept seeing flashes of light and felt like he was flying.

[i] What did she give me?! [/i] He wondered, alarmed. His
body tingled and he started to feel separated from the world.

Although he had never been before, Bosco realized he was stoned.

Focusing as much as he could, he finished with the ropes and
stood on battered, sore legs. As his vision swam, he used the
bed for balance.

He saw something move out of the corner of his eye. Ricardo
was awake again. He quickly stood and lunged at Boscorelli,
who, by some miracle, was able to dodge Rico and move behind
him. Without thinking and with pure animal rage, he grabbed
the metal folding chair Ricardo had been sitting on and
swung it above his head.

The world slowed down as Bosco watched the metal chair connect
with Ricardo's head.

The man fell to the ground, bleeding, and Bosco felt his heart
speed up. He had to get out. He didn't know where Angela
was and didn't want to wait around to find out.

Bosco ran down out of the room, bounding down the stairs,
over Angela's lifeless body (he barely realized she was laying
there) and out into the cold streets of New York, suddenly
completely numb and full of energy.

He saw people's faces as he passed them in the street. An
irrational thought came to him then: [i] They're all in on
it. They're all watching for me. They're gonna get me and
they're gonna get Faith. It won't happen again! [/i]

He bolted down the nearest alley and disappeared into the
night.

====================
END OF PART TEN (10/?)