Doc slammed his hand on the button that activated the sirens, and pressed his foot down on the accelerator as soon as the call came in about gunshots having been fired on West-105th.

Carlos was pensive in the passenger seat, eyes staring straight out of the window before him. His face was grave.

Doc didn't really know what was going on, but he understood the potential of the situation. Someone could be seriously hurt, and they needed their help... and no matter what, they were going to get it.

He turned onto West-105th, seeing a milling of people, a crowd blocking off a view to a central point of focus that led Doc to believe that whatever was going on was concealed within that very circle. He jumped out of the bus, and grabbed his bag quickly.

"Move!" he yelled, not giving a damn about hurting anyone's feelings. This was different. Their normal calls led to bumps and bruises, or a stomach upset. Not this... Doc had a feeling.

And when he reached the centre of the circle, his heart sank. A figure lay on the ground, two paramedics working on them, and a police officer was crouched right beside them, their head in their hands.

Doc came over immediately, kneeling beside the wounded party. "What happened?"

"Nut-job had Kim at gunpoint. Then he shot Faith."

Doc's eyes floated to Bosco for a moment as he sat rested literally a foot away, head lowered, his hands over the back of his neck. He seemed in a state of shock, but otherwise unharmed. Doc nodded to Carlos to check him over anyway. His partner gave him a look of acknowledgement, and moved over to the officer, who didn't seem to notice his arrival.

The bullet had hit Yokas in the left shoulder, and had seemingly knocked her out as well. She was unconscious, unaware of what was going on around her.

Another police car pulled up.

"Oh, man," came Sully's voice as soon as he penetrated the crowd, and Doc turned his head in time to see the rookie Davis stop completely at the sight of the wounded officer laying on the crowd, bleeding.

"Move them back," Doc advised, nodding to the crowd discreetly, turning his attention back to Yokas and the other paramedics. Kim looked shaken, and Bobby was hard at work.

Doc stood, intending to fetch a gurney, at exactly the same point that Bosco whirled on the crowd around them.

"Is something interesting to you, huh? Get outta here!" he yelled, angry to the point of shocking Doc, who had seen the man snap countless times. Never had he seen Bosco act this way though... he knew that it was all because this included his partner, a woman he cared for more than he would ever bring himself to admit to anyone. A married woman with two kids.

"Hey, hey, calm down," Carlos said to him steadily, holding out a hand.

Bosco ignored him, glaring at members of the crowd, who were already frightened of the man, and backing away slowly.

Doc moved forward, at precisely the same moment that Sully travelled over to Bosco, and grabbed him by the shoulders, speaking to him quietly, and moving him back and away from the crowd, over to a wall at the edge of the sidewalk.

Doc used the opportunity to fetch the gurney, and bring it back to the scene.

"We've got a guy with a head wound as well," Bobby reported, nodding his head over to a man lying not too far away.

"We'll take Yokas, you follow with him," Doc advised, seeing the younger paramedics nod in agreement, too stunned to argue. "Carlos, I need a hand."

* * *

They hadn't let him drive the squad to the hospital, but instead had advised that he ride in the back of the bus along with Faith. He had nodded without a word, and did as he was told, too angry inside to bother arguing.

As soon as they had arrived at the hospital, Bosco had followed everyone into the hospital, and had realised at the doors to Mercy that he was too stunned to go inside. He had thought he had the situation under control; that Wayne was listening to him. And the next thing, his partner had gone down... a gunshot wound in her shoulder. And what made it worse was that the son-of-a-bitch had gotten away... Bosco hadn't even given chase.

Kim stopped beside him, and regarded him guiltily.

Bosco's eyes turned to her, and he could see in her eyes how he must have looked.

She embraced him briefly, and without even realising, he hugged her back, welcoming the sympathy for once, even though he normally hated it, normally denied people the opportunity to give it to him.

But this was different... this was Faith. This was his partner, and his best friend.

And he was going to catch the bastard who had done this to her.

* * *

Sully stood by the vending machine, uninterested in its contents, hands in his pockets casually; eyes staring down at the other policeman who sat slumped in a chair. He looked more depressed than Sully had ever seen him in their time working at the same station... and that was quite a while. A few years now at least.

Bosco hadn't said two words in nearly half an hour, a shocking event to the veteran police officer, who was constantly wishing to shut the hot- headed cop up every few minutes for talking too much.

But now... it was frightening to see someone who appeared so on top of things all the time so down, so negative, with such a frown on his face. At one point, Sully had thought he'd seen tears in Boscorelli's eyes... a 'weakness' that he had never expected in a million years from someone so strong on the outside. How strong was Bosco on the inside in reality? Sully didn't know... expected he never really would.

"I should've gone after him," came the quiet voice, lacking in emotion.

Sully cocked his head ever so slightly, considering the statement seriously for a few moments. He moved forward a step so stand before a fellow officer. "You weren't to know he was going to shoot anyone... least of all Yokas."

Bosco slowly shook his head in disbelief, leaning forward so that he was perched on the edge of the seat, running a hand over his tousled dark hair. "I should have expected... something, anything. The guy had lost it. Why didn't I go after him?"

Sully removed his hands from his pockets, and crossed his arms over his chest. "Bosco, you can't blame yourself. If the guy had lost it, as you said, then there was no way for you, Bobby, Kim, or even Faith to know that he was going to use that gun."

Bosco didn't say anything else, just glanced up at Sully for a moment, searching for something in the other officer that he seemed unable to find. His eyes travelled back down to the floor soon after.

Footsteps approaching attracted Sully's attention, mainly because he recognised the stride now, after these past few months. He turned to meet Davis, who had three cups of vending machine coffee in his hands. He handed one to Sully wordlessly, and then moved and offered one to Bosco.

Bosco looked at the cup as though coffee was the strangest idea in the world right now, but still, after a few seconds, he accepted it, simply holding it in his hand, not interested in drinking it at all from the looks of it.

Another person approached, and this time, all three officers looked up immediately.

Doctor Morales was coming towards them, a chart in her hands. Bosco shot out of his chair, moving forward to stand in front of the two others, drawing the Hispanic doctor's eye instantly. She walked to them.

"We were able to remove the bullet, and stop the bleeding. She didn't lose too much blood, and with some rest and relaxation, she should be fine in a few weeks. She'll have to wear a sling."

Bosco let out a long relieved breath, and nodded silently.

"Thank you, Doctor," Sully said quietly, earnestly.

Davis smiled wanly, glad that a fellow officer was going to be okay.

"Can I see her?"

Morales looked to Bosco, and after a moment, she nodded, leading him away.

Sully watched them go, turning once to Davis, and sighing heavily. He hated it when stuff like this happened... which, to him, was all too often in New York.

* * *

Bosco wasn't too fond of hospitals, he never really had been. As a kid, they had frightened him unexplainably, and he still didn't understand it now. He just knew that being in a hospital usually meant you were dying, or someone you knew and loved was dying.

Stop thinking like that, he told himself sternly, following Dr. Morales obediently, without a word.

They soon came to a room, and Bosco took the opportunity whilst standing at the door to dump his unwanted coffee in a waste basket next to him, his eyes never leaving the figure lying on the bed inside.

"You can go on in if you want," Morales said to him gently, touching his arm softly.

He nodded, and opened the door slowly, and moved inside silently, closing it behind him as quietly as he could manage. He couldn't believe he was worried about waking her.

Bosco walked over to her slowly, shocked to see how frail she looked lying there, a woman he had worked with for near on... god, how long was it now? It escaped his memory. But she had always seemed so strong a woman that it was horrible to see her this way, pale and unconscious, lying in a hospital with an IV in her arm, a heart monitor sounding the rhythm quietly for background noise in the otherwise silent room, the dim lighting reflecting off varying surfaces.

He took the stool next to her bedside, and rested his arms on the rail that had been raised.

"Hey, Faith," he said quietly, staring down at her, trying to shut out the sound of the heartbeat that seemed to be a thousand times louder than he knew in reality it actually was. It was deafening.

"I hear you're gonna be okay," he continued, clearing his throat a little. "You gave me quite a scare for a while there, you know that?" He laughed quietly, his smile soon fading. "Now I know how you feel all the time when I run off... or jump through windows." The smile returned, and he found his hand reaching to take a gentle hold of hers as it lay motionless at her side.

"Kim went to your place to tell Fred and the kids you're gonna be okay. I don't know if they're comin' in or not... she didn't say. God... this is weird."

He waited for her to respond, before forcing himself to remember that she wouldn't. She was resting.

He squeezed her hand slightly, before saying with a little more volume, "I'm gonna catch the guy that did this to you, Faith... I promise. He's not gonna get away with it, I won't let him get away with this. I'll make him regret what he's done to you."

Bosco felt the anger burning up through him again, and he had to force it back down. The last thing he wanted was an outburst in a hospital room... his partner's hospital room at that.

He stood, his hand still holding hers gently, and he leaned forward and kissed her forehead softly, before letting go, and leaving the room with one last glance back at his best friend.

Moving down the corridor, he saw Sully standing at the end, in the waiting room, watching him approach.

Bosco didn't stop, just kept right on going out the door.

He ignored Sully's call after him.

He just kept on going.

* * *

"Where's he going?" Ty asked, standing from the chair he had taken it upon himself to sit on in the waiting area, feeling the light weight of his empty coffee cup.

Sully cursed quietly, and cast a desperate glance down to where Bosco had come from, before looking Ty in the face. His young partner saw the look in his eye, and he felt the fear wash through him as well.

"I'll give you one damn guess where he's goin', and it ain't home."

Ty rushed out of the hospital with Sully, only to find that Bosco had disappeared completely. There was no sign of him up and down the street outside the hospital, and even as they stood waiting, an ambulance pulled up.

Carlos jumped out of the back of the bus, swinging the doors open with him. Doc slid out of the front from behind the driving wheel. He ran around to the back of the bus immediately.

Ty and Sully watched, seeing them wheel out a young man, blood all over his face and hands. Doctor Morales and some others that Ty didn't know the names of ran out of the doors behind them, and he and Sully stepped aside quickly to ease their movement.

Carlos stopped at the door, obviously letting Doc take care of this. He looked a little worn.

"What was that all about?" Sully inquired, staring after the paramedic and doctors that sped off down the corridor inside the hospital.

Carlos shrugged once, and shook his head. "We got call about another attack in the park, and when we got there, someone was fleeing the scene, and we found that guy lying facedown in the dirt. He's a mess." He looked the cops in the eye each in turn. "I don't mean to be negative, but I'll be amazed if he makes it."

Sully turned back, even as Ty asked, "Did you see the guy who done this to him?"

"Barely," Carlos replied, scratching his head subconsciously, and then continuing, "I'd say he was about six foot, dark clothes, and a baseball cap, white."

Ty looked to Sully knowingly, and swallowed. He recognised that description.

Sully groaned, and mumbled, "Wayne Thomson."