Standing outside of Faith's apartment, Sully took a deep breath and
let it out slowly. He then knocked on the door. He could hear someone
moving around inside and footsteps coming toward the door.
"Who is it," came Fred's voice through the door?
"Officer John Sullivan," Sully said. "I need to talk to Faith."
Sully could hear the clicks as the locks were undone and the door to the apartment opened up.
"What's going on," Fred asked?
"Fred whose at the door," came Faith's voice as she walked into the living room. She stopped short when she saw Sully and Ty, still in uniform, standing in the door way. "Is something wrong?"
"Maybe you should sit down Faith," Sully said stepping further into the apartment as Fred stepped to the side. Ty followed Sully in and Fred shut the door to the apartment.
"It's Bos isn't it," Faith said quickly her mind racing. She should have been there with him? Whatever happened was her fault. She could have somehow prevented it if she had been there. "Sully is he okay."
Sully could tell that getting her to sit down would be a waste of time."We're not sure yet." He had taken a few more steps into the apartment to be closer to her. Sully glanced quickly at Ty who was hanging back toward the door, obviously willing to let Sully handle the task of breaking the news. "Something went wrong on a call today Faith, we don't know what. Doherty and the others at the fire house rescued him from a burning building and he was transported to the hospital." He purposely left out some of the details.
Faith slowly sank down onto her couch. She couldn't believe what Sully was telling her. This couldn't be happening. Not to Bosco. "Sully, how bad is it," she asked softly, looking down at the floor?
Sully took a deep breath. There was no point in lying to her. "It looked pretty bad Faith. He was beat up pretty good and was unconscious when they brought him out of the building."
Sully noticed that Faith now had silent tears streaming down her face. He knelt down in front of her and took her hands in his saying "he's strong Faith." Sully knew he couldn't lie to her and tell her that he would be okay. That was for the doctors at Mercy to say.
"Sully, can you take me to the hospital," Faith said wiping the tears off her cheeks. "I want to be there no matter what the news is."
"Yeah, sure," Sully said. He knew she would be going to the hospital from the begining.
As they stood up Fred came over to Faith with her jacket in his hands. He helped her on with it telling her, "I'll take the kids to my parents and then come to the hospital to be with you, okay."
Faith nodded. She couldn't find a voice to say anything.
"It's going to be okay," Fred told her giving his wife a hug. Personally, he couldn't stand Boscorelli. He wasn't sure what his wife saw in him. Why she continued to ride with him. But even though he couldn't understand it he also knew how much she cared about him. Charlie and Emily weren't going to take this to easily either. They both called Bosco their uncle. Whether he liked it or not Bosco was apart of this family.
After a few minutes he felt Faith pull away and he let her go. "I'll be there soon, okay," he told her again.
She just nodded and let Sully lead her out of the apartment and to the squad car waiting outside. Davis followed closely behind the both of them, hoping that he didn't have to be there when this whole scene was played out again when Boscorelli's mother was notified. He would rather let someone else deal with breaking the news to her.
The ride to Mercy was silent. No one in the car knew what to say. Sully parked the car outside of the hospital and the three of them made their way toward the waiting room of the emergency room.
By this time the waiting room was starting to fill up with cops from the 55th precinct. Sully could see the Captain, Christopher, and Swerksy standing together off to one side. Nearby tow officers from the first watch that Sully couldn't put names to chatted quietly. With the third watch over four other officers from the third watch had shown up waiting for news on Bosco's condition. Alex and Kim also sat with them waiting.
As the three of them entered the Captain made his way over to them.
"How you doing," he asked Faith.
"Okay sir," Faith said looking at a point behind him.
"Do you know how to get a hold of Bosco's mother," he asked her?
"She runs a bar on 54th street," Faith said silently wondering why she hadn't even thought of Bosco's mother before this. "I don't know how late she's there or even if she's there but I don't know any other way to get a hold of her."
"Okay, thanks," he told her. "Hang in there okay," he told her patting her shoulder before walking back toward the group he had just left.
After saying something to Lt. Swersky, Swersky motioned to one of the first watch officers and the two of them left the hospital. The task of informing Mrs. Boscorelli about the accident had fallen on the two of them.
Kim made her way over to Faith and gave her a quick hug. She then led her over to a nearby couch and sat down next to her. Kim knew what Faith was going through. Not too long ago she had been waiting around Mercy waiting to hear about the condition of her injured partner. She prayed that this would have a better outcome.
Sully and Davis found two empty chairs near Faith and Kim and settled in for the long wait that was ahead of them.
"I thought I was going to stay with Mommy tonight," Joey asked his dad as he and Jimmy walked down the sidewalk from Kim's mother's house. Joey looked up at his father waiting for an answer.
"You were, but a friend," Jimmy couldn't believe he was referring to Bosco as a friend, "was hurt today at work. Your mother is up at the hospital now waiting to see how he is."
"Is he going to die like Bobby," Joey asked.
Something in his son's voice made Jimmy look down at him to see tears glistening in the little boy's eyes. Jimmy instantly stopped, picked his son up and gave him a hug. It didn't matter that Joey didn't really know who Bosco was or that it was Bosco that was hurt. Joey just remembered what it was like when Bobby had died. And then Kim's attempted "suicide" afterwards.
"No, he isn't going to die," Jimmy told his son, even though he wasn't sure of that himself. Had they found and rescued Bosco fast enough? "Everything is going to be okay Joey," Jimmy told him as he continued walking toward his apartment still carrying his son.
It was close to twelve thirty in the morning when Lt. Swersky and officer Daniels arrived back at the hospital. Angela Boscorelli walked silently in between them. It was evident to everyone that she had been crying and both officers were ready to catch the woman if she should start falling. She hadn't taken the news about her son well at all.
The captain approached the group as they entered the waiting room with the normal spiel about how sorry he was that this had happened and if she needed anything all she had to do was ask. Angela Boscorelli just nodded never looking up from the floor. When Faith came over to her and gave her a hug, the Captain, Swersky and Daniels took it as an opportunity to get away from the situation. Faith was better suited to handle it this time anyway.
After Faith and Angela hugged for a few minutes, Faith led her over to the couch where she had been sitting with Fred, Kim and Alex. Fred got up from the couch and the other two women made room for Angela who by this time was crying.
It was another ten minutes before they saw Dr. Morallis come out and slowly approach the group. Every doctor knew that whenever they had a police officer, or firefighter as a patient they were going to have a crowd waiting for them in the waiting room.
As Morallis approached the group she did a quick scan of the group trying to decide who she should directly addressed. When she saw Faith sitting next to Angela Boscorelli, who Morallis remembered from the time she had been in the ER because the guy she was seeing beat her up, she headed toward them.
"Mrs. Boscorelli," Dr. Morallis said approaching the group. "I'm Dr. Morallis, I've been treating your son,"she said.
"How is he," Angela asked as everyone in the waiting room gathered around them anxiously?
"He's stable right now," she told her taken a seat across from Angela that Davis had vacated and offered to her. "He has a mild concussion and has yet to regain consciousness which concerns me. We won't know if there is any brain damage and to what extent until he does regain consciousness. We have him on oxygen but he is breathing on his own. There is extensive bruising but he has no broken bones."
"Is he going to be okay," Angela asked?
"I can't say right now. Head injuries are very tricky. We'll be able to tell more when he regains consciousness. The next twenty-four hours will be crucial," Morallis told her. She had noticed one of her nurses waiting off to the side. "If you would like to see him the nurse will take you to his room now," Morallis told her.
Angela nodded to say that she did want to see her son. "Can Faith come with me," Angela asked?
"Of course," Morallis said.
As the nurse led Faith and Angela out of the waiting room the Captain motioned for officer Daniels and his partner to follow them. Morallis noticed but for she could utter a protest the Captain addressed her.
"I will be placing two guards outside of Boscorelli's room. We don't know what went on. Officer Boscorelli may have been at the wrong place at the wrong time or this could've been a direct attack against him. Until we know for sure I'm assuming the second."
"Okay," Morallis said knowing it was pointless to argue and yet knowing the staff was going to be on edge with two cops always hanging around the hallway. Of course if there was a second attempt on Boscorelli they all would be grateful for the police presence.
"Dr. Morallis, I would like to be kept informed of officer Boscorelli's condition and to be informed when he is up to answering questions," the Captain told her. "This is my cell phone number. Call me at anytime," he continued handing her a card.
"Of course," Morallis said placing the card in one of her jacket pockets. "I have other patients to see," she told him excusing herself.
The Captain then turned his attention to Sullivan and Davis. "Officer Sullivan and officer Davis, you'll be helping Lt. Swerksy out in this investigation. Make sure you check in with him before you leave tonight."
"Yes sir ," they both said quickly.
"Sgt. Christopher, I'll want to see you in my office at two o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Don't be late."
"Yes sir," Christopher said quickly, standing up a little striaghter, as the Captain left the ER waiting room, with his driver close behind him.
Sully turned his attention to Alex and Kim who were still sitting on the couch. "Do either of you need a ride anywhere. I need to check in with Swersky real quick but then I could take you home."
Both women accepted Sully's offer and waited while he and Davis talked briefly with Lt. Swersky.
"Mikey you can't leave me like this," he said pleading. He couldn't keep the panic out of his voice.
"Not so tough now are you," his brother said standing over his brother with a sneer on his face.
Bosco could see the two other men who had helped Mikely ambush him standing behind his brother. One of them was holding a gas can. With a nod from Mikey the guy with the gas can moved out of Bosco's sight. Bosco tried to shift his position to keep the guy in sight but the pain from even the slightest movement made him wince with the pain the shot through his body. His arms were started to ache from being secured above his head and his shoulders from the strain being put on them.
Mikey reached down and took Bosco's gun out of its holster. Bosco had no way to stop him from doing it. He hadn't felt this helpless since he was a kid, watching his father beat his mom. As Mikey pointed the gun at him Bosco closed his eyes saying a silent prayer. Right now he hoped there was a God out there.
"After you arrested me," Mikey was saying, "I spent my time in jail plotting ways to get back at you. I finally decided that shooting you would be too easy."
Bosco opened his eyes in time to see the gun, which Mikey was now holding by the barrel come swinging toward him. He heard and felt the gun handle make contact with the left side of his head. Bosco could feel the darkness creeping in around him as Mikey dropped the gun on the ground nearby.
"Rest in peace, Maurice," Mikey said as he gaged his brother. "Don't want anyone to hear your screams."
Fighting to keep his eyes open Bosco saw his brother take a match book from his pocket, light a match and toss the lighted match toward the wall behind him. Mikey and his two pals then headed up the stairs as Bosco sensed the darkness slowly taking over him.
He thought he heard his ma sobbing and then Faith's voice. 'That can't be possible,' he thought. 'There is no one else here. I'm going to die alone'.
Again he was vaguely aware of Faith's voice. This time he could make out words as he heard her saying "hang on Bos".
'Fatith help me' Bosco thought as the darkness finally overtook him.
"Who is it," came Fred's voice through the door?
"Officer John Sullivan," Sully said. "I need to talk to Faith."
Sully could hear the clicks as the locks were undone and the door to the apartment opened up.
"What's going on," Fred asked?
"Fred whose at the door," came Faith's voice as she walked into the living room. She stopped short when she saw Sully and Ty, still in uniform, standing in the door way. "Is something wrong?"
"Maybe you should sit down Faith," Sully said stepping further into the apartment as Fred stepped to the side. Ty followed Sully in and Fred shut the door to the apartment.
"It's Bos isn't it," Faith said quickly her mind racing. She should have been there with him? Whatever happened was her fault. She could have somehow prevented it if she had been there. "Sully is he okay."
Sully could tell that getting her to sit down would be a waste of time."We're not sure yet." He had taken a few more steps into the apartment to be closer to her. Sully glanced quickly at Ty who was hanging back toward the door, obviously willing to let Sully handle the task of breaking the news. "Something went wrong on a call today Faith, we don't know what. Doherty and the others at the fire house rescued him from a burning building and he was transported to the hospital." He purposely left out some of the details.
Faith slowly sank down onto her couch. She couldn't believe what Sully was telling her. This couldn't be happening. Not to Bosco. "Sully, how bad is it," she asked softly, looking down at the floor?
Sully took a deep breath. There was no point in lying to her. "It looked pretty bad Faith. He was beat up pretty good and was unconscious when they brought him out of the building."
Sully noticed that Faith now had silent tears streaming down her face. He knelt down in front of her and took her hands in his saying "he's strong Faith." Sully knew he couldn't lie to her and tell her that he would be okay. That was for the doctors at Mercy to say.
"Sully, can you take me to the hospital," Faith said wiping the tears off her cheeks. "I want to be there no matter what the news is."
"Yeah, sure," Sully said. He knew she would be going to the hospital from the begining.
As they stood up Fred came over to Faith with her jacket in his hands. He helped her on with it telling her, "I'll take the kids to my parents and then come to the hospital to be with you, okay."
Faith nodded. She couldn't find a voice to say anything.
"It's going to be okay," Fred told her giving his wife a hug. Personally, he couldn't stand Boscorelli. He wasn't sure what his wife saw in him. Why she continued to ride with him. But even though he couldn't understand it he also knew how much she cared about him. Charlie and Emily weren't going to take this to easily either. They both called Bosco their uncle. Whether he liked it or not Bosco was apart of this family.
After a few minutes he felt Faith pull away and he let her go. "I'll be there soon, okay," he told her again.
She just nodded and let Sully lead her out of the apartment and to the squad car waiting outside. Davis followed closely behind the both of them, hoping that he didn't have to be there when this whole scene was played out again when Boscorelli's mother was notified. He would rather let someone else deal with breaking the news to her.
The ride to Mercy was silent. No one in the car knew what to say. Sully parked the car outside of the hospital and the three of them made their way toward the waiting room of the emergency room.
By this time the waiting room was starting to fill up with cops from the 55th precinct. Sully could see the Captain, Christopher, and Swerksy standing together off to one side. Nearby tow officers from the first watch that Sully couldn't put names to chatted quietly. With the third watch over four other officers from the third watch had shown up waiting for news on Bosco's condition. Alex and Kim also sat with them waiting.
As the three of them entered the Captain made his way over to them.
"How you doing," he asked Faith.
"Okay sir," Faith said looking at a point behind him.
"Do you know how to get a hold of Bosco's mother," he asked her?
"She runs a bar on 54th street," Faith said silently wondering why she hadn't even thought of Bosco's mother before this. "I don't know how late she's there or even if she's there but I don't know any other way to get a hold of her."
"Okay, thanks," he told her. "Hang in there okay," he told her patting her shoulder before walking back toward the group he had just left.
After saying something to Lt. Swersky, Swersky motioned to one of the first watch officers and the two of them left the hospital. The task of informing Mrs. Boscorelli about the accident had fallen on the two of them.
Kim made her way over to Faith and gave her a quick hug. She then led her over to a nearby couch and sat down next to her. Kim knew what Faith was going through. Not too long ago she had been waiting around Mercy waiting to hear about the condition of her injured partner. She prayed that this would have a better outcome.
Sully and Davis found two empty chairs near Faith and Kim and settled in for the long wait that was ahead of them.
"I thought I was going to stay with Mommy tonight," Joey asked his dad as he and Jimmy walked down the sidewalk from Kim's mother's house. Joey looked up at his father waiting for an answer.
"You were, but a friend," Jimmy couldn't believe he was referring to Bosco as a friend, "was hurt today at work. Your mother is up at the hospital now waiting to see how he is."
"Is he going to die like Bobby," Joey asked.
Something in his son's voice made Jimmy look down at him to see tears glistening in the little boy's eyes. Jimmy instantly stopped, picked his son up and gave him a hug. It didn't matter that Joey didn't really know who Bosco was or that it was Bosco that was hurt. Joey just remembered what it was like when Bobby had died. And then Kim's attempted "suicide" afterwards.
"No, he isn't going to die," Jimmy told his son, even though he wasn't sure of that himself. Had they found and rescued Bosco fast enough? "Everything is going to be okay Joey," Jimmy told him as he continued walking toward his apartment still carrying his son.
It was close to twelve thirty in the morning when Lt. Swersky and officer Daniels arrived back at the hospital. Angela Boscorelli walked silently in between them. It was evident to everyone that she had been crying and both officers were ready to catch the woman if she should start falling. She hadn't taken the news about her son well at all.
The captain approached the group as they entered the waiting room with the normal spiel about how sorry he was that this had happened and if she needed anything all she had to do was ask. Angela Boscorelli just nodded never looking up from the floor. When Faith came over to her and gave her a hug, the Captain, Swersky and Daniels took it as an opportunity to get away from the situation. Faith was better suited to handle it this time anyway.
After Faith and Angela hugged for a few minutes, Faith led her over to the couch where she had been sitting with Fred, Kim and Alex. Fred got up from the couch and the other two women made room for Angela who by this time was crying.
It was another ten minutes before they saw Dr. Morallis come out and slowly approach the group. Every doctor knew that whenever they had a police officer, or firefighter as a patient they were going to have a crowd waiting for them in the waiting room.
As Morallis approached the group she did a quick scan of the group trying to decide who she should directly addressed. When she saw Faith sitting next to Angela Boscorelli, who Morallis remembered from the time she had been in the ER because the guy she was seeing beat her up, she headed toward them.
"Mrs. Boscorelli," Dr. Morallis said approaching the group. "I'm Dr. Morallis, I've been treating your son,"she said.
"How is he," Angela asked as everyone in the waiting room gathered around them anxiously?
"He's stable right now," she told her taken a seat across from Angela that Davis had vacated and offered to her. "He has a mild concussion and has yet to regain consciousness which concerns me. We won't know if there is any brain damage and to what extent until he does regain consciousness. We have him on oxygen but he is breathing on his own. There is extensive bruising but he has no broken bones."
"Is he going to be okay," Angela asked?
"I can't say right now. Head injuries are very tricky. We'll be able to tell more when he regains consciousness. The next twenty-four hours will be crucial," Morallis told her. She had noticed one of her nurses waiting off to the side. "If you would like to see him the nurse will take you to his room now," Morallis told her.
Angela nodded to say that she did want to see her son. "Can Faith come with me," Angela asked?
"Of course," Morallis said.
As the nurse led Faith and Angela out of the waiting room the Captain motioned for officer Daniels and his partner to follow them. Morallis noticed but for she could utter a protest the Captain addressed her.
"I will be placing two guards outside of Boscorelli's room. We don't know what went on. Officer Boscorelli may have been at the wrong place at the wrong time or this could've been a direct attack against him. Until we know for sure I'm assuming the second."
"Okay," Morallis said knowing it was pointless to argue and yet knowing the staff was going to be on edge with two cops always hanging around the hallway. Of course if there was a second attempt on Boscorelli they all would be grateful for the police presence.
"Dr. Morallis, I would like to be kept informed of officer Boscorelli's condition and to be informed when he is up to answering questions," the Captain told her. "This is my cell phone number. Call me at anytime," he continued handing her a card.
"Of course," Morallis said placing the card in one of her jacket pockets. "I have other patients to see," she told him excusing herself.
The Captain then turned his attention to Sullivan and Davis. "Officer Sullivan and officer Davis, you'll be helping Lt. Swerksy out in this investigation. Make sure you check in with him before you leave tonight."
"Yes sir ," they both said quickly.
"Sgt. Christopher, I'll want to see you in my office at two o'clock tomorrow afternoon. Don't be late."
"Yes sir," Christopher said quickly, standing up a little striaghter, as the Captain left the ER waiting room, with his driver close behind him.
Sully turned his attention to Alex and Kim who were still sitting on the couch. "Do either of you need a ride anywhere. I need to check in with Swersky real quick but then I could take you home."
Both women accepted Sully's offer and waited while he and Davis talked briefly with Lt. Swersky.
"Mikey you can't leave me like this," he said pleading. He couldn't keep the panic out of his voice.
"Not so tough now are you," his brother said standing over his brother with a sneer on his face.
Bosco could see the two other men who had helped Mikely ambush him standing behind his brother. One of them was holding a gas can. With a nod from Mikey the guy with the gas can moved out of Bosco's sight. Bosco tried to shift his position to keep the guy in sight but the pain from even the slightest movement made him wince with the pain the shot through his body. His arms were started to ache from being secured above his head and his shoulders from the strain being put on them.
Mikey reached down and took Bosco's gun out of its holster. Bosco had no way to stop him from doing it. He hadn't felt this helpless since he was a kid, watching his father beat his mom. As Mikey pointed the gun at him Bosco closed his eyes saying a silent prayer. Right now he hoped there was a God out there.
"After you arrested me," Mikey was saying, "I spent my time in jail plotting ways to get back at you. I finally decided that shooting you would be too easy."
Bosco opened his eyes in time to see the gun, which Mikey was now holding by the barrel come swinging toward him. He heard and felt the gun handle make contact with the left side of his head. Bosco could feel the darkness creeping in around him as Mikey dropped the gun on the ground nearby.
"Rest in peace, Maurice," Mikey said as he gaged his brother. "Don't want anyone to hear your screams."
Fighting to keep his eyes open Bosco saw his brother take a match book from his pocket, light a match and toss the lighted match toward the wall behind him. Mikey and his two pals then headed up the stairs as Bosco sensed the darkness slowly taking over him.
He thought he heard his ma sobbing and then Faith's voice. 'That can't be possible,' he thought. 'There is no one else here. I'm going to die alone'.
Again he was vaguely aware of Faith's voice. This time he could make out words as he heard her saying "hang on Bos".
'Fatith help me' Bosco thought as the darkness finally overtook him.