~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Abyss
By: Syko4Bosco aka A. Lalad
Rating: PG-13
Category: Bosco Angst, B/Y UST
Summary: Bosco is kidnapped and witnesses a horrific act
that he can not come to terms with. As his guilt
and silence overwhelm him, he spirals downward
into a deep depression. Can Faith get to him
before it's too late?
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
(11/?)


==*==
Present Day
Angel of Mercy Hospital
4:18 pm

Bosco looked up through his tears to see the room was empty, except for
Faith. He had a vague memory of Sullivan and the detectives talking to
him and leaving, but how long ago was that?

He hadn't even realized he was crying until he noticed he couldn't breathe.

He looked to Faith, who had her elbows on her knees, hands cupped around
her mouth. He could tell she'd been crying too.

After a moment she looked up at him.

"Oh, my God...Bosco...I..."

"Faith, I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry I couldn't tell you...I'm sorry..."
The emotions poured out of him before he could stop them.

She moved quickly to the bed, wrapping her arms around his thin, trembling
body and they cried until long after their tears were gone.


==*==
Outside Angel of Mercy
7:32 pm

Angela had been waiting outside of the hospital for an eternity before
her prey emerged, looking quite shaken.

From her position across the street in her car, Angela would have
missed Faith Yokas if Doug hadn't sneezed all over her.

Doug. Another brain-donor drug addict that Angela had wrapped around
her finger.

She met him a couple weeks ago when she'd left town after Boscorelli
escaped. Not sure what to do about her painful and broken leg, she'd
gone up the coast to visit an old...friend, who was able to set her
leg in the basement of his large and well-guarded home. After staying
for days there, she'd met Doug.

He wasn't as quiet and smart as Rico, but he would have to do for now.
If she wasn't so desperate to finish off Boscorelli and his partner,
she would have killed Doug out of disgust days ago. She wondered how
many years he was held back in kindergarten. She guessed about 5.

So when he sprayed mucus all over her arms, she turned to slap him
and caught her prey walking out of the hospital instead.

It was hard to drive with her leg in a cast, so she instructed him
to follow Yokas from a distance. Luckily he was smart enough to
stay back and they followed her for a good couple of blocks before
she disappeared into a subway station.

Angela wanted more than anything to finish the job now, but knew
that she would be unable to do things the way she wanted in her
temporarily disabled state.

It would kill her to wait, but counting down to the event would
give her time to plan things out.

Officer Yokas and Officer Boscorelli had 5 weeks left to live.

==*==

Faith didn't notice the dark green car that followed her for 7 blocks.
She didn't notice she was cold or that it was starting to snow. She
didn't even realize that she had gotten on the subway until her stop.

Bosco's words were ringing in her ears.

She couldn't form her emotions because she couldn't decide how she
did or should feel.

After all she had just heard...

Her best friend endured 2 weeks of living Hell, scared and starving
and hurt. She was almost in physical pain just thinking about the
things he had gone through. The story he had told them horrified
and devestated her. She wanted to hold him and make those memories
go away. Make the scars go away and make the pain leave him.

But she couldn't. That angered her.

Angela Karas and this "Ricardo" character infuriated her. She wanted
revenge on them in the worst way, and if she had the opportunity
right now, she had no doubt she would kill them upon first sight.
The thought frightened her a bit. She knew that killing someone
like that was against the law, and morally wrong, but she still had
the feelings and didn't regret them.

No one had the right to do those things to a person. And no one would
do that to her partner and get away with it. Not as long as she was
alive.

Those feelings were clear cut.

The emotions that Faith was struggling with were concerning the death
of the woman that should have been Faith.

Should she feel guilty? Grateful? Scared? Sad? Happy?

She was all of that and more.

She felt guilty because the woman [b]was[/b] supposed to be her. The
woman who had died hadn't done anything or been connected to the
situation in anyway. But she was grateful that it hadn't been her,
and that made her feel even guiltier. But should she be upset or
mad that she was still alive?

It was a strange and confusing feeling.

Whatever the correct emotions were, Faith was feeling them as well as
a multitude of others.

Right now her main feeling was complete shock.

How would she react if she were in Bosco's situation? She couldn't
imagine how he was feeling.

Of the whole story, he had the hardest time recollecting Jane Doe's
death, even though his narration of it was vague and broken.

He had seemed like he was on a completely different planet when he
was telling it, and Faith had seen the same reaction in soldiers who
had witnessed horrific things on the battlefield, and told their tales.

Bosco was reliving the events as he was telling them. He was going
through all the horrors a second time, and she had almost called the
whole thing off about a dozen times as she saw his sanity waiver.

Forcing down the urge to cry, Faith wrapped her coat around her,
got off the subway car, and started to walk home, trying to figure
out what she was going to tell her ever-curious husband when she
got there.

==*==
Yokas apartment
8:37 pm

Faith had arrived home to find the kids were both gone. Fred informed
her that Charlie was at a friend's house and Em was at the library.

Faith said a silent prayer of thanks, and sat down on the couch.

Fred walked over and sat next to her, leaning forward, searching her
face for answers.

He brushed a piece of hair away from her face and placed his hand
on her shoulder.

Before she could control herself, she collapsed in his arms, sobbing.

He said nothing, and held her for what seemed like eternity.

==*==
Yokas apartment
9:12 pm

Faith eventually composed herself and Fred put some coffee on.

He didn't say much. She realized that he was letting her talk
when she felt she could. A year ago, it would have been different.
Fred was still no angel, but throughout this whole ordeal, he had
been surprisingly understanding.

Sure, he had been mad she had dropped her life for two weeks to
search for Bosco, but they hadn't fought about it hardly at all.

Maybe Fred realized that Bosco wasn't so bad. Maybe he realized
that Bosco meant a lot to Faith. Maybe he was just so mad he didn't
want to talk about it, instead letting her go about her search and
trying to forget.

Whatever it was, she was grateful that she didn't have to come home
and deal with more Hell on top of what was going on right now.

He brought back the coffee and they sat for awhile in silence.

"He was tortured, Fred" she began, then paused. "He was beaten
and starved and cut and drugged...they destroyed him." Her voice
was almost a whisper, new tears blurring her vision, but not falling.

She looked at him briefly. His eyes were laden with concern, an
emotion that she hardly saw in him until his heart attack.

Faith started to go on and decided that she would omit the erronous
death of Jane Doe. If Fred knew that Faith could have been killed
because of Bosco, she would never see him again, regardless of what
had been done to him.

Fred moved to hold her again, and she continued her story, never
once mentioning the death she so luckily avoided..

==*==
Yokas apartment
3:34 am

Faith and Fred had talked long into the night. They talked more
than they had ever talked before, about topics they had never
discussed. She was really seeing a change in him, and she liked
it.

She liked knowing that she didn't have to be afraid to go home at
night, and there was someone other than Bosco that she could turn to
in times of need.

But still she couldn't sleep. Curled in Fred's arms, listening to
him softly snore, she couldn't get the horrific images out of her
mind.

And somewhere in the back of her mind, a forcedly ignored thought
lingered.

Angela Karas was thought to still be alive so Bosco was still a target.

And for that matter, so was Faith.

====================
END OF PART ELEVEN (11/?)