TITLE: THE ONE CONSTANT
AUTHOR: MINN
DISCLAIMER: I STILL don't own nothin' - mores the pity - just playing. No character was really harmed during the typing of this nonsense. The creators of Third Watch are, of course, gods. And so are the actors who portray the characters!
I'M STILL foreign, so cut me some slack if I use a phrase or two that don't make no sense.
I STILL haven't seen the fourth season and I have absolutely no idea what the writers have in store for us all but this is where things go in my sick and twisted "damn near 40 going on 12" little universe! ENJOY!
*******
THE ONE CONSTANT
Part Ten
A small ripple of laughter went through those gathered for role call as Bosco walked in.
"Well if it isn't Cpt Screwup," Faith heard someone chuckle. She looked around at her colleagues, confused.
When Bosco noticed her sitting there an expression of utter relief flooded his face.
As he took the seat next to her, Faith studied him carefully. Bosco kept his eyes firmly glued to the floor, and all through role call Faith found herself casting glances Bosco's way, worried by the picture of dejection he presented her.
"I'd just like to say welcome back Faith," Lt. Swersky said as he wrapped things up. "We're sorry you and Fred had to go through something like that, but we're glad things turned out OK in the end." He glanced at Bosco. "You'll have the pleasure of Officer Boscorelli's company today."
"Good," she heard Sully grumble. "Maybe you can put Superboy back on his leash."
Faith turned around and glared at him.
"Now you're in trouble Sul'," Ty smirked.
Sully snorted and heaved himself out of his chair as they were all dismissed. "Rather you than me Yokas."
The role call room emptied out. Frowning Faith leaned over to her partner and asked quietly: "Bos, what's going on?"
She watched as he closed his eyes. "Immature, unreliable, useless," he murmured.
"What?"
"Boscorelli!" Swersky bellowed from the corridor outside. "Sgt Cruz needs a word."
Faith stood waiting outside the role call room, trying to hear what was being said without making it obvious that that was what she was doing. At one point Cruz raised her voice loud enough for Faith to hear her say: "You've got potential - you just need to use your goddamn head more!"
When the ACU Sgt came out of the room and saw Faith standing there, a vague look of disdain crossed the woman's face. It made Faith bristle.
Cruz turned to Bosco and smirked at him. "You working with Mommy today? There you go, she'll make it all better for you."
Bosco flicked Cruz a withering look and then turned to his partner. "It's great to be working with you again, Faith."
Cruz's eyes travelled in Faith's direction. "Well, isn't that sweet," she crooned.
Faith glared at her. "Do you have something you wanna say to me?"
A sly smirk played across Cruz's lips as she turned away.
Bosco watched the ACU Sgt depart, his face unreadable.
"Why do you put up with that?" Faith asked him.
He looked at her. "Part of the job," he murmured.
------
"I'm glad it wasn't Em," said Bosco as they leant back on the RMP drinking coffee, watching as two elderly gentlemen argued vociferously in front of them surrounded by their small gathering of supporters.
Faith nodded. "I never wanna go through something like that again," she murmured.
Having received word that a teenager matching Emily's description awaited identification in a morgue in Minneapolis, she and Fred had rushed straight there. The girl's battered face had born such a striking resemblance to their daughter that it required a closer look to confirm it was not, in fact, Emily.
"Oh god, you should have seen the look on Fred's face when they first showed us," Faith said.
"Poor bastard," Bosco murmured. He moved closer to her. "Can't have been much of a picnic for you, either."
Faith shook her head. "You got that right. When we realised it wasn't her Fred started to cry, you know? But I couldn't comfort him - he wouldn't let me."
Bosco frowned. "Are things that bad?"
Faith exhaled heavily. "Things are still...complicated." She shrugged.
"I dunno what to say Faith."
"What can you say? What's happening with Fred and me is all my fault, it's nothing to do with anyone else."
"Don't do that to yourself," Bosco said quietly.
She shook her head, watching as one of the old men leaned heavily on one of his supporters, distinctly out of breath. "D'ya think we should call for a bus?"
"Let 'em get it out of their system," Bosco murmured.
They watched as the argument took a breather, then gained momentum once more. Leaning comfortably against the car sipping their coffee, they were happy to let the gents get their grievances out in the open, but watchful of the situation just the same.
"So what happened with you?" Faith asked.
"I screwed up, that's what happened to me."
"ACU stuff?"
He nodded. "The old story. Didn't listen to instruction. Thought I knew better. Decided to go for best conclusion instead of settling for good enough like we'd all been instructed to do - managed to just about blow the entire thing apart."
"Ouch." She paused. "Sgt Cruz didn't seem too pissed off when she talked to you today."
"That's because she tore me to pieces in front of everyone yesterday," he mumbled ruefully. He shrugged. "I deserved it."
Faith nudged her shoulder closer to his in an unspoken gesture of support.
He shook his head in disbelief as he acknowledged his own lack of good judgement. "Jesus Faith. What do you see in a prize jackass like me?"
She smirked at him. "I just want your body," she murmured.
A grin momentarily lifted the look of despair from him. "You're the best."
"Don't go forgettin' that," she said.
They stood in companionable silence for a while.
"Why do I do it, Faith?"
"Do what?"
Bosco self-consciously stubbed the tip of his boot into a crack in the sidewalk in front of him. "Behave like a jerk?" he murmured.
Faith regarded him fondly. "I think you're just trying to prove to everyone that you're not all those things people told you you were growing up."
Bosco nodded. "That's pretty much what O'malley said." He grinned at her. "Maybe I should stop payin' him and just talk to you instead."
"Or you could pay me what you're paying O'malley," Faith teased.
"What, when I can hear you lecture me for free anytime?"
"Hey. I haven't lectured you in months!"
"I know. I appreciate that." He stared fixedly at the ground then, glancing at her mumbled: "I like the ways things are with us now."
"Me too," she nodded.
It had been awkward in the beginning, just as she imagined it would be, especially in those first few days with the memories of what had happened between them still so fresh.
Faith had prepared herself for things to be strange with Bosco, not knowing quite what to expect from him after their conversation in the car that day. Part of her wished that he would behave like a spoiled child whose candy had just been taken from him, act up so any decision to change shifts and reduce her contact with him would be an easy one for her to make. But it didn't happen that way.
To Faith's surprise, once that first difficult week was out of the way she and Bosco began to settle into a style of interaction that, while not outwardly too dissimilar from what had gone before, was underpinned by the warmth of a new kind of connection between them.
In a moment of quiet reflection on the situation, Faith realised she had sensed from the very beginning that Bosco was one of life's long and difficult rocky roads, a complicated journey that had the sad potential to overshadow everything else in her world should she let him too close. Treating Bosco like an inferior had been her attempt, in many instances, to prove to Fred, and whoever else needed convincing, that his jealousy of Bosco was completely unfounded and that she was not guilty of the things her husband accused her of.
In order keep Bosco from overwhelming her life Faith had tried to keep him at a safe distance from it. Yet despite her best efforts, Bosco had still managed to work his way in.
Having given herself permission to accept the fact that she did indeed have feelings for him in spite of lingering reservations, and realising that Bosco's were just as genuine, Faith found she was more open to her partner and less inclined to treat him with disdain. The ease of interaction that evolved between them over the next couple of months could in no small part be attributed to a softening in her own defences, she realised. Faith discovered Bosco was more apt to listen to her when she wasn't lecturing him from on high as if he were a naughty two-year-old.
He was seeing someone. The thought, she had to admit, made her heart ache, just a little. But once in a while Faith caught him watching her with a look of regret and sad fondness in his eyes and she quietly had to admit to herself that that did not displease her in any way.
Bosco never spoke about it with her except to say that things with him were 'sometimes good, and sometimes not so good.'
"I'm just the chew toy," she remembered him saying one day.
"You deserve better than that, Bos," she told him.
He had looked at her with such sadness. "No I don't Faith."
No more was said.
"I don't think you're a jerk," Faith said suddenly.
Bosco eyed her cautiously.
"You do some really dumb and obnoxious things sometimes but I don't think you're a jerk. If you were a jerk you would have told the entire precinct and half the city by now that we did it in an alley."
Bosco threw his head back and laughed. "Oh my god," he murmured, "we did it in an alley."
"I'm right, aren't I? You haven't told half the city?"
"We're the only people in the world who know, Faith. I swear," he said softly.
After a moment he started to smirk.
"What?"
"Actually, I'm thinking of having a t-shirt printed: 'Faith's ass is mine!'"
She nudged him firmly. "How's about I shoot your dick off right now?"
"That's the spirit, honey," he grinned.
The elderly gentlemen were beginning to show signs of slowing down. Bosco and Faith kept a wary eye on each man's gaggle of supporters just in case a troublemaker decided to step in and stir things up again. But after a little while longer Faith decided she'd had enough of their nonsense.
"You two wanna think about goin' home now?" she asked them.
"You're not going to arrest us for disturbin' the peace, officer?" one of them asked breathlessly.
"If you keep flapping your gums like you have been, yeah. But if you break it up now we'll be more inclined to let you off with a warning."
"A warning! Did you hear that you stupid old bastard! We're gonna get a warning!" he bellowed.
"Go to blazes, you cantankerous old fart!" bawled the other, turning to his supporters. "Take me home!"
Faith rolled her eyes as Bosco chuckled into his coffee. "You tell 'em honey," he murmured.
"Call me honey again and you'll be wearin' your balls as earrings."
"You say the sweetest things," he grinned.
Later that day they sat outside their favourite burger place enjoying dinner.
"Washing dishes is foreplay?" Bosco's face was a picture.
Faith nodded vigorously.
"Nothin' says 'I love you' like a tidy kitchen surface," she said earnestly.
Bosco looked at her like she had completely lost her mind.
"Bos, trust me. A man helpin' with the kids and the chores says: 'This is how much I appreciate you. And the fact that I'm willin' to do it for you without any bitching and griping is a further demonstration of the high esteem I hold you in.'"
"Clean dishes say all that?"
"And more."
Bosco watched her bite into the hamburger she was holding.
"You know, it's the small things that count with us," she mumbled, waggling the burger at him. "Big gestures don't mean a thing if the small ones aren't given some attention too." She scanned her lap for a paper napkin.
Still unconvinced, Bosco handed her his.
"See. Like that. That's a small gesture but it gets big points," she said wiping burger grease from her hand.
"So if I handed you one of those moist towelette things...?"
"That'd just be showing off. Or a sign that you're gay."
A small grin tugged at the corners of his mouth.
"You don't think I'm gay," he said in a terribly self-assured manner.
Faith stopped chewing and let a mock frown crease her brow.
Bosco laughed. "OK, then it must be your well developed masculine side I find so damned attractive."
"Gee Bos," she deadpanned. "You sure know how to sweet talk a girl."
"Practice," he said affirmatively, "Just like if you want great sex."
"We didn't invent great sex," she muttered.
"Nah. We just perfected it."
The look he was giving her challenged her to deny it. She couldn't. Bosco grinned.
Faith finished the burger and began collecting up the napkins and assorted wrappers their dinner had come in. She eyed her partner watchfully as he gathered up the garbage scattered across the dash and dumped it in her lap.
She glared at him. "What, you can't make it over there yourself?" she said, indicating the large trashcan not far from them.
"Why?" he smirked, "when you're already heading in that direction?"
"Are you trying to piss me off?"
"When did I ever have to try?"
Faith scooped the offerings out of her lap onto the seat between them, and, giving him a 'deal with that!' look, exited the car.
"I love it when you're bloody minded, honey," she heard him call after her. Faith turned as she walked and tugged both her ear lobes at him.
The trashcan was full to nearly overflowing. Faith glowered at it for a moment then set about tucking her contribution into a small space beside a large black plastic sack that seemed to take up much of the room. As she did something caught her eye.
Having gathered up the garbage on the seat, Bosco was making his way to where his partner stood when he saw her step back hurriedly, her face stricken.
"Faith?"
She didn't say a word, just stared in silent agony at something in front of her.
Bosco turned his attention to the contents of the trashcan and saw instantly the source of Faith's distress.
--------
TBC
AUTHOR: MINN
DISCLAIMER: I STILL don't own nothin' - mores the pity - just playing. No character was really harmed during the typing of this nonsense. The creators of Third Watch are, of course, gods. And so are the actors who portray the characters!
I'M STILL foreign, so cut me some slack if I use a phrase or two that don't make no sense.
I STILL haven't seen the fourth season and I have absolutely no idea what the writers have in store for us all but this is where things go in my sick and twisted "damn near 40 going on 12" little universe! ENJOY!
*******
THE ONE CONSTANT
Part Ten
A small ripple of laughter went through those gathered for role call as Bosco walked in.
"Well if it isn't Cpt Screwup," Faith heard someone chuckle. She looked around at her colleagues, confused.
When Bosco noticed her sitting there an expression of utter relief flooded his face.
As he took the seat next to her, Faith studied him carefully. Bosco kept his eyes firmly glued to the floor, and all through role call Faith found herself casting glances Bosco's way, worried by the picture of dejection he presented her.
"I'd just like to say welcome back Faith," Lt. Swersky said as he wrapped things up. "We're sorry you and Fred had to go through something like that, but we're glad things turned out OK in the end." He glanced at Bosco. "You'll have the pleasure of Officer Boscorelli's company today."
"Good," she heard Sully grumble. "Maybe you can put Superboy back on his leash."
Faith turned around and glared at him.
"Now you're in trouble Sul'," Ty smirked.
Sully snorted and heaved himself out of his chair as they were all dismissed. "Rather you than me Yokas."
The role call room emptied out. Frowning Faith leaned over to her partner and asked quietly: "Bos, what's going on?"
She watched as he closed his eyes. "Immature, unreliable, useless," he murmured.
"What?"
"Boscorelli!" Swersky bellowed from the corridor outside. "Sgt Cruz needs a word."
Faith stood waiting outside the role call room, trying to hear what was being said without making it obvious that that was what she was doing. At one point Cruz raised her voice loud enough for Faith to hear her say: "You've got potential - you just need to use your goddamn head more!"
When the ACU Sgt came out of the room and saw Faith standing there, a vague look of disdain crossed the woman's face. It made Faith bristle.
Cruz turned to Bosco and smirked at him. "You working with Mommy today? There you go, she'll make it all better for you."
Bosco flicked Cruz a withering look and then turned to his partner. "It's great to be working with you again, Faith."
Cruz's eyes travelled in Faith's direction. "Well, isn't that sweet," she crooned.
Faith glared at her. "Do you have something you wanna say to me?"
A sly smirk played across Cruz's lips as she turned away.
Bosco watched the ACU Sgt depart, his face unreadable.
"Why do you put up with that?" Faith asked him.
He looked at her. "Part of the job," he murmured.
------
"I'm glad it wasn't Em," said Bosco as they leant back on the RMP drinking coffee, watching as two elderly gentlemen argued vociferously in front of them surrounded by their small gathering of supporters.
Faith nodded. "I never wanna go through something like that again," she murmured.
Having received word that a teenager matching Emily's description awaited identification in a morgue in Minneapolis, she and Fred had rushed straight there. The girl's battered face had born such a striking resemblance to their daughter that it required a closer look to confirm it was not, in fact, Emily.
"Oh god, you should have seen the look on Fred's face when they first showed us," Faith said.
"Poor bastard," Bosco murmured. He moved closer to her. "Can't have been much of a picnic for you, either."
Faith shook her head. "You got that right. When we realised it wasn't her Fred started to cry, you know? But I couldn't comfort him - he wouldn't let me."
Bosco frowned. "Are things that bad?"
Faith exhaled heavily. "Things are still...complicated." She shrugged.
"I dunno what to say Faith."
"What can you say? What's happening with Fred and me is all my fault, it's nothing to do with anyone else."
"Don't do that to yourself," Bosco said quietly.
She shook her head, watching as one of the old men leaned heavily on one of his supporters, distinctly out of breath. "D'ya think we should call for a bus?"
"Let 'em get it out of their system," Bosco murmured.
They watched as the argument took a breather, then gained momentum once more. Leaning comfortably against the car sipping their coffee, they were happy to let the gents get their grievances out in the open, but watchful of the situation just the same.
"So what happened with you?" Faith asked.
"I screwed up, that's what happened to me."
"ACU stuff?"
He nodded. "The old story. Didn't listen to instruction. Thought I knew better. Decided to go for best conclusion instead of settling for good enough like we'd all been instructed to do - managed to just about blow the entire thing apart."
"Ouch." She paused. "Sgt Cruz didn't seem too pissed off when she talked to you today."
"That's because she tore me to pieces in front of everyone yesterday," he mumbled ruefully. He shrugged. "I deserved it."
Faith nudged her shoulder closer to his in an unspoken gesture of support.
He shook his head in disbelief as he acknowledged his own lack of good judgement. "Jesus Faith. What do you see in a prize jackass like me?"
She smirked at him. "I just want your body," she murmured.
A grin momentarily lifted the look of despair from him. "You're the best."
"Don't go forgettin' that," she said.
They stood in companionable silence for a while.
"Why do I do it, Faith?"
"Do what?"
Bosco self-consciously stubbed the tip of his boot into a crack in the sidewalk in front of him. "Behave like a jerk?" he murmured.
Faith regarded him fondly. "I think you're just trying to prove to everyone that you're not all those things people told you you were growing up."
Bosco nodded. "That's pretty much what O'malley said." He grinned at her. "Maybe I should stop payin' him and just talk to you instead."
"Or you could pay me what you're paying O'malley," Faith teased.
"What, when I can hear you lecture me for free anytime?"
"Hey. I haven't lectured you in months!"
"I know. I appreciate that." He stared fixedly at the ground then, glancing at her mumbled: "I like the ways things are with us now."
"Me too," she nodded.
It had been awkward in the beginning, just as she imagined it would be, especially in those first few days with the memories of what had happened between them still so fresh.
Faith had prepared herself for things to be strange with Bosco, not knowing quite what to expect from him after their conversation in the car that day. Part of her wished that he would behave like a spoiled child whose candy had just been taken from him, act up so any decision to change shifts and reduce her contact with him would be an easy one for her to make. But it didn't happen that way.
To Faith's surprise, once that first difficult week was out of the way she and Bosco began to settle into a style of interaction that, while not outwardly too dissimilar from what had gone before, was underpinned by the warmth of a new kind of connection between them.
In a moment of quiet reflection on the situation, Faith realised she had sensed from the very beginning that Bosco was one of life's long and difficult rocky roads, a complicated journey that had the sad potential to overshadow everything else in her world should she let him too close. Treating Bosco like an inferior had been her attempt, in many instances, to prove to Fred, and whoever else needed convincing, that his jealousy of Bosco was completely unfounded and that she was not guilty of the things her husband accused her of.
In order keep Bosco from overwhelming her life Faith had tried to keep him at a safe distance from it. Yet despite her best efforts, Bosco had still managed to work his way in.
Having given herself permission to accept the fact that she did indeed have feelings for him in spite of lingering reservations, and realising that Bosco's were just as genuine, Faith found she was more open to her partner and less inclined to treat him with disdain. The ease of interaction that evolved between them over the next couple of months could in no small part be attributed to a softening in her own defences, she realised. Faith discovered Bosco was more apt to listen to her when she wasn't lecturing him from on high as if he were a naughty two-year-old.
He was seeing someone. The thought, she had to admit, made her heart ache, just a little. But once in a while Faith caught him watching her with a look of regret and sad fondness in his eyes and she quietly had to admit to herself that that did not displease her in any way.
Bosco never spoke about it with her except to say that things with him were 'sometimes good, and sometimes not so good.'
"I'm just the chew toy," she remembered him saying one day.
"You deserve better than that, Bos," she told him.
He had looked at her with such sadness. "No I don't Faith."
No more was said.
"I don't think you're a jerk," Faith said suddenly.
Bosco eyed her cautiously.
"You do some really dumb and obnoxious things sometimes but I don't think you're a jerk. If you were a jerk you would have told the entire precinct and half the city by now that we did it in an alley."
Bosco threw his head back and laughed. "Oh my god," he murmured, "we did it in an alley."
"I'm right, aren't I? You haven't told half the city?"
"We're the only people in the world who know, Faith. I swear," he said softly.
After a moment he started to smirk.
"What?"
"Actually, I'm thinking of having a t-shirt printed: 'Faith's ass is mine!'"
She nudged him firmly. "How's about I shoot your dick off right now?"
"That's the spirit, honey," he grinned.
The elderly gentlemen were beginning to show signs of slowing down. Bosco and Faith kept a wary eye on each man's gaggle of supporters just in case a troublemaker decided to step in and stir things up again. But after a little while longer Faith decided she'd had enough of their nonsense.
"You two wanna think about goin' home now?" she asked them.
"You're not going to arrest us for disturbin' the peace, officer?" one of them asked breathlessly.
"If you keep flapping your gums like you have been, yeah. But if you break it up now we'll be more inclined to let you off with a warning."
"A warning! Did you hear that you stupid old bastard! We're gonna get a warning!" he bellowed.
"Go to blazes, you cantankerous old fart!" bawled the other, turning to his supporters. "Take me home!"
Faith rolled her eyes as Bosco chuckled into his coffee. "You tell 'em honey," he murmured.
"Call me honey again and you'll be wearin' your balls as earrings."
"You say the sweetest things," he grinned.
Later that day they sat outside their favourite burger place enjoying dinner.
"Washing dishes is foreplay?" Bosco's face was a picture.
Faith nodded vigorously.
"Nothin' says 'I love you' like a tidy kitchen surface," she said earnestly.
Bosco looked at her like she had completely lost her mind.
"Bos, trust me. A man helpin' with the kids and the chores says: 'This is how much I appreciate you. And the fact that I'm willin' to do it for you without any bitching and griping is a further demonstration of the high esteem I hold you in.'"
"Clean dishes say all that?"
"And more."
Bosco watched her bite into the hamburger she was holding.
"You know, it's the small things that count with us," she mumbled, waggling the burger at him. "Big gestures don't mean a thing if the small ones aren't given some attention too." She scanned her lap for a paper napkin.
Still unconvinced, Bosco handed her his.
"See. Like that. That's a small gesture but it gets big points," she said wiping burger grease from her hand.
"So if I handed you one of those moist towelette things...?"
"That'd just be showing off. Or a sign that you're gay."
A small grin tugged at the corners of his mouth.
"You don't think I'm gay," he said in a terribly self-assured manner.
Faith stopped chewing and let a mock frown crease her brow.
Bosco laughed. "OK, then it must be your well developed masculine side I find so damned attractive."
"Gee Bos," she deadpanned. "You sure know how to sweet talk a girl."
"Practice," he said affirmatively, "Just like if you want great sex."
"We didn't invent great sex," she muttered.
"Nah. We just perfected it."
The look he was giving her challenged her to deny it. She couldn't. Bosco grinned.
Faith finished the burger and began collecting up the napkins and assorted wrappers their dinner had come in. She eyed her partner watchfully as he gathered up the garbage scattered across the dash and dumped it in her lap.
She glared at him. "What, you can't make it over there yourself?" she said, indicating the large trashcan not far from them.
"Why?" he smirked, "when you're already heading in that direction?"
"Are you trying to piss me off?"
"When did I ever have to try?"
Faith scooped the offerings out of her lap onto the seat between them, and, giving him a 'deal with that!' look, exited the car.
"I love it when you're bloody minded, honey," she heard him call after her. Faith turned as she walked and tugged both her ear lobes at him.
The trashcan was full to nearly overflowing. Faith glowered at it for a moment then set about tucking her contribution into a small space beside a large black plastic sack that seemed to take up much of the room. As she did something caught her eye.
Having gathered up the garbage on the seat, Bosco was making his way to where his partner stood when he saw her step back hurriedly, her face stricken.
"Faith?"
She didn't say a word, just stared in silent agony at something in front of her.
Bosco turned his attention to the contents of the trashcan and saw instantly the source of Faith's distress.
--------
TBC