After the shift Bosco quickly got changed into street clothes. He left the precinct without even talking to Faith and headed over to the 55 fire station hoping to catch Kim before she left.
"Hey Carlos, Kim still around," Bosco called as he saw paramedic Carlos Nieto come out of the fire station.
"Yeah, she should be down shortly," Carlos answered not stopping to talk. He briefly wondered what it was that Bosco wanted with Kim but he had a hot date waiting and couldn't dwell on it.
Bosco leaned up against the building and waited for Kim to come down. It was only a few minutes later when she came strolling outside.
"Kim," Bosco called as she walked by him. She kept walking like she didn't even hear him. "Kim can we please talk?" Bosco pleaded following her down the street.
"I've got to pick Joey up at my mother's," she told him, without even breaking stride.
"I'll give you a ride," Bosco tried.
"No thanks," Kim said. She had no intention of talking to him. She wasn't even interested in hearing what he had to say.
Seeing that he was getting nowhere Bosco admitted defeat. Maybe he had been stupid to even think that she would be willing to listen. He had been the one to break off the relationship with no explanation. He really didn't deserve a second chance anyway. Bosco turned and headed for his mustang still parked outside the precinct.
As Bosco crossed the street to his car Kim glanced over her shoulder at him. Part of her wanted to listen to what he had to say. She had to admit she still loved him but he had hurt her. She knew she had to stop letting the men she dated walk all over her. She resisted the urge to call after him and continued to head for the subway and then to her mother's to pick up her son.
Kim had just gotten her son tucked into his bed in her apartment when she heard the door buzzer ring signaling that there was someone waiting outside the apartment building. Wondering who it could possibly at this late hour she headed over to the intercom.
"Who's there?" Kim asked into the intercom.
"Kim, its Bosco. I really want to talk to you. Will you please at least listen to me?"
"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm not interested in talking?"
"Kim, please. I'm sorry. I was a jerk to do what I did. I don't really expect you to forgive me but please just give me a chance to explain. After that I promise that if you still feel the same way as you do now, I 'll leave you alone for good. Please Kim?"
Something in his voice made Kim wonder what he had to say. He was acting very uncharacteristically for Bosco which made her curious in itself. Plus she had to admit, that even though he had hurt her she still cared for him very much.
"Okay, come on up for a few minutes," Kim said, pushing the button that released the front door. A few minutes later she heard a soft knock at the door. She checked the peep hole to make sure it was Bosco standing outside and then opened the door.
"Please keep it down. I just got Joey back to sleep," Kim said as Bosco came into the apartment and Kim closed the door behind him. She indicated for him to have a seat on the couch and when he did she sat in the near by easy chair and waited for him to begin.
"I'm not sure where to begin," Bosco said, suddenly finding it hard to figure out what he wanted to say now that he actually had a chance to talk to her. Most of his thought had been given to just figuring out how to get her to listen to him?
"An explanation would be nice," Kim found herself saying. Though she had tried denying it to herself she really did want to know why Bosco had broke up with her. She had thought their relationship was going well.
Bosco took a deep breath before saying, "Look, Kim the reason I called off the relationship had nothing to do with you. It's about me and it took Faith to get me to admit to myself that the whole reason I broke up with you is that I was scared."
"Scared of a commitment?" Kim asked.
"Not exactly." Bosco said. "I haven't told anyone except for Faith about what it was like growing up in my family. Ever since I was little the only memories I have of my father are ones of him being violent. He use to come home drunk and take it out on my mother. Him hitting her in a rage seemed to be an every night thing. And if he couldn't get a hold of her, he was more than happy to use my little brother or me as targets for his anger. It wasn't long before my brother and I learned to hide but even hiding didn't drown out the noise. I didn't need to see him hitting her to know what was going on. I even saw it in my dreams."
Kim found herself leaning forward listening to what Bosco was saying. She was horrified at his story. She couldn't imagine having to grow up like that. Sure her own father had walked out on them and her mother had dated some losers but none of them had ever abused her mother.
"I've often heard that kids who grow up seeing that kind of stuff end up doing it themselves and when Faith and I answered that domestic yesterday all those memories came flooding back. Its not that I'm afraid of commitment Kim, I'm afraid of turning out like my father," he finished quickly wiping away a few tears that had fallen.
Kim got up from the chair and sat down next to Bosco on the couch. She put her arm around his shoulders. "Just because you grow up seeing something doesn't mean that you necessarily grow up doing that yourself," Kim said reassuringly.
"I could never live with myself if I ever did anything like that to you. I thought by breaking up with you I'd be protecting you and Joey. What if I am just like my father? Heaven knows, I've got a temper. Just ask anyone on the 55. At that domestic yesterday, I wanted so much to give that guy a pounding. Show him what it felt like to be someone's punching bag. It got me thinking, how close am I to being just like that."
"I don't think your close at all Bosco. The fact that you recognize that its wrong, I think that's what sets you apart from that guy at the domestic and your father," Kim told him softly. "Sure you're not exactly the most affectionate person I know but you do care about people, Bosco."
He wasn't sure what to say to her words, even as he nodded. "Look, I've got no right to ask you to take me back. However, I just wanted you to know that it wasn't your fault. You're a great person, Kim and you're going to make some guy very lucky someday." Bosco slowly got to his feet. "It's late, I should be going," Bosco said heading for the door.
Kim wanted to tell him to wait. Not to go. But she couldn't bring herself to say those words. Part of her still wasn't sure if she should take Bosco back though in her heart, she knew she wanted to. She watched silently as Bosco left the apartment. As the door shut behind him she found that she was crying once again.
The next day, Kim left for work early. She had spent most of the night thinking about Bosco and what he had told her. Also, about how she felt about him. She had finally decided she wasn't ready to let him walk out of her life. She also knew the ball was in her court this time, which was why she found herself hanging around outside of the police precinct. The blue mustang was nowhere to be seen so she knew that Bosco had not showed up yet. She nodded to some of the police officers that she knew as they headed inside to get ready for her shift. Shortly she saw the blue mustang pull into a parking spot in front of the precinct.
Seeing her standing there by the building, Bosco slowly got out of the car and headed toward where she was standing.
"Kim?" Bosco said questionably as he approached where she was standing.
"I did a lot of thinking after you left last night, Bosco, and the one thing I finally had to admit was that despite the fact that you can be a jerk, and you're not exactly the easiest person to like, somewhere along the line I fell in love with you."
"What are you saying, Kim?" Bosco asked. He knew what he wanted her words to mean, but he needed to hear those words from her. "Does that mean you're willing to give me a second chance?" he asked her softly.
"Yeah, I guess it is," Kim said. She reached out and pulled Bosco close and for the first time since they had started going out she didn't care who saw them together. Maybe hiding, their relationship had been a mistake in the first place.
Bosco returned her hug and then pulled away.
"I've got to hurry up or I'm going to be late again," Bosco told her. "I'll see you after the shift though, right?"
"Of course," Kim said, giving him a quick kiss and then heading across the street.
Bosco watched her cross the street and then turned to head on into the precinct. As he looked toward the steps though he found Sully, Ty, and a couple others from the third watch staring at him.
"What are you guys looking at?" Bosco said going up the steps and past his co-workers.
"Kim and Bosco," Davis said to no one in particular. "Now I've seen everything."
"Tell me about it," Sully said and then headed into the precinct followed closely by Davis and the others.