Missing

Chapter 5

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Bosco sat and watched the families of the two officers as they were led into their loved ones. He watched as a doctor came out to speak with the NYPD officials, including Lt. Swersky and he watched the expression on the Lieutenant's face.

"Something happened," he said quietly to Sully and Davis, who were seated next to him. The two officers looked at Bosco and followed his gaze to the group at the end of the hall. They watched as the Lieutenant ran a hand through his hair and then they heard crying from the end of the hall.

"Dammit," Bosco said, standing up and walking over to look out the window. They knew that someone hadn't made it. Now it was just a matter of finding out who it was. They were both critical, both unconcscious, and both had injuries and burns when they were pulled from the fire.

Sully watched Bosco walk over to the window and looked back at Ty, who was still watching the scene at the end of the hallway.

"You had any sleep yet, Bosco?" Sully asked him. The only response he got was the back of Bosco's head shaking to indicate that he had not. Sully noticed some blood from the earlier gunshot victim still on Bosco's uniform. Their attention was pulled back to the end of the hallway as the crying got a little louder. Now both families were crying.

"Jesus Christ," Bosco said through his teeth this time, sitting back down again. He was sitting forward, arms resting on his knees and looking down at the floor between his feet when he noticed Sully and Davis stand up. He looked up to see the Lieutenant walking toward them and he stood up also.

As the Lieutenant reached the three of them, Jimmy and D.K. came back out after being checked out and joined them as other officers walked over to them to listen also.

"Christopher didn't make it. His injuries were too severe. Gusler's critical. They don't know if he'll make it either. He's still unconscious," the Lieutenant said as he turned to walk away from the group.

"Lieu?" Bosco said, following him. He caught up to him and Swersky stopped and turned toward him.

"How's Yokas' husband?" he asked, suddenly remembering that he'd gotten a call from Bosco earlier about bringing her and Fred into the ER.

Bosco shook his head. "I don't know. He's gotta have some heart surgery. He's pretty sick too."

"Shouldn't you be with her?" Swersky asked, wondering why Bosco wasn't with his partner and had been at the station earlier and able to go look for the missing officers.

"She...," he said pausing. "She wanted some time by herself, Lieu. I went and picked up her kids and then she wanted to be with them," was all he said. The Lieutenant didn't need to hear all that other crap. At least not now.

The Lieutenant nodded.

"Have we got any information on what they were doing there?" Bosco asked, referring to Gusler and Christopher.

The senior officer shook his head. "No. Christopher never woke up. Gusler woke up for a minute, but then he went unconscious again. The only thing he did was call out for Christopher."

"I've gotta go make some phone calls, Bosco. You should go home and get cleaned up and get some rest. You look like hell," the Lieutenant told him and walked away to find a phone, leaving Bosco standing by himself in the hallway. He looked into the room directly ahead of him and saw Faith, Emily and Charlie sitting in chairs. Faith sat in the chair, her head against the wall, eyes closed, but tearstains still on her cheeks. She had that frown she always got when she had a headache. Charlie was asleep across Faith's lap and Emily was sitting in the corner, staring straight ahead, her bookbag in her lap, grasped tightly in her hand.

As if she knew that Bosco was there, Faith opened her eyes and made direct eye contact with him. He walked to the doorway so that she didn't have to get up and quietly said, "Christopher didn't make it. Gusler's critical. No one knows what happened yet." With that said, he turned and walked back down the hallway, leaving Faith with a bigger knot in her stomach. She knew she was wrong for yelling at him. She knew she'd hurt him. She'd have to find a way to make amends, but she just couldn't handle any more right now.

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Bosco walked down the hallway and looked into the examination room where Gusler was being treated. There was only a nurse with him right now - no family or NYPD members. He walked to the doorway and looked at the battered officer, listening to the monitor beeping and the ventilator pushing air into his lungs.

"You can come in, Officer," the nurse said, noticing him standing there.

"What?" he said, breaking his gaze from the officer.

"I said you can come in if you want," she repeated.

"No. Thanks," he said and turned to walk away. He walked back toward Sully and Davis and looked into the next room as he walked by. He stopped and stared at the stretcher with Sgt. Christopher's body on it, a sheet covering him. His thoughts were broken by the sound of Ty's voice from the end of the hallway.

"Bosco!" he called. Bosco looked at him. "Everyone's heading down to Haggerty's. You want a ride?"

Bosco took a last look at Christopher and then walked toward Davis. "Drop me at the House so I can change and then I'll meet you guys there, okay?"

"Yeah, Man. Let's go," Ty said, looking at Bosco as he walked by him.

"You okay, Bos?" he asked. It wasn't like Bosco to be so quiet. He had an opinion about everything.

"Yeah, Ty. Just whipped," was all Bosco said as they walked out of the hospital.

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TBC...