Disclaimer: STILL not my show. What a shocker huh?

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"Faith, Faith, open your eyes," the voice was distant but it registered in her mind, familiar.

"Bosco?" she muttered in her fitful rest.

The owner of the voice exchanged looks with another occupant and looked back down at her, "Uh, no, it's Doc, we're taking you to Mercy," he explained finally.

"Bosco, is he OK? He was shot . . ." she trailed off as the memories came to her. She'd slowly been losing her own grip on reality in that elevator. She didn't remember when exactly when she'd let herself slip; maybe an hour after Bosco had. . .he had. . . "Oh no, he's, he was. . ." she couldn't finish the sentence as her fear overwhelmed her body.

Again Doc looked over to the other occupant, who she had yet to identify, "He's still alive," he tried to make it sound convincing, hopeful.

The familiar sensation of relief inundated her body and she sighed. He made it this long. He would be ok. He had to be.

She couldn't speak the words she needed to know though; they wouldn't come to her. She scanned her surroundings; she was in the back of a bus, sitting in the gurney. Doc was to her left, and that new chick Levine was driving.

"What happened?" she finally spoke. The last thing she remembered was the fresh sound of gunfire, she didn't have any recollection of what had happened to bring about their rescue.

"Well," Doc sighed, "from what I gather, Sully and Ty had gone after the gang, or what have you, as soon as they lost radio contact with you guys."

She nodded in understanding and waited for him to continue, "they got in a shoot out, no one was hurt besides, well, them," he sighed, "Sully said he couldn't get a lot out of them but they told us where they'd seen you last. . .we were lucky we found you guys when we did."

"How bad off is he?" she asked finally, thought she felt she knew the answer. Again the silence, she had really become to hate the sound of well, lack of sound. Doc pretended to review her chart, clearly avoiding the question, "Doc! How bad is he?!"

"Bad Faith, it was pretty bad," he looked down at the chart and closed it as they came to a stop outside Mercy.

*~*^*~*

Pretty bad. Pretty bad, that was what she was left with. Pretty bad, critical condition, no matter how you said it, it all meant the same thing. It meant he might die, meant she might lose her partner. . . again.

She had been so overwhelmed with joy when they got back together. I mean there was no questioning, no talk of the day nearly a year ago now, at least not since they got back together.

In situations like that, she'd known him to get emotionally corrupt, close the world out, but she had lucked out this time. They needed each other.

Faith had been discharged, just pure exhaustion, after a battery of tests it was just pure exhaustion. But she didn't have the heart to leave. She didn't leave him in the elevator; she wouldn't leave him now.

As much as Bosco hated being in the hospital, she hated waiting. It was always a waiting game. You sit, you aimlessly skim through a magazine, continuously looking at the clock; it was all a game.

It had been two and a half hours since they were found, and hour since they took him to surgery, forty-five minutes since his mother had showed up, twenty minutes since she'd kicked Fred out of the hospital, and thirty seconds since she had looked at the clock.

"Ga'damnit, what's taking to long?" she cursed to herself. Sully and Ty were sitting across the waiting room and both of their heads whipped in her direction in response to her outburst.

"Faith you need to sit down, and calm down," Sully spoke calmly.

So she sat.

*~*^*~*

Sleep was the last thing on her mind, but she found herself lulled to rest in an uncomfortable chair near Bosco's bed.

She didn't know how long she'd been there, nor have any recollection of falling asleep to begin with, but Bosco's surprisingly soft touch woke her instantly.

"Bosco?" she said, gaining some lucidity as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She sat up in her chair and leaned over, taking his hand from where it lay gently on hers.

"Hey," he spoke unbridled. He sucked in a deep, but only slightly shaky breath, utilizing the tubes that lay gently under his nose, "You don't look so hot."

"Oh, well you should look in the mirror," she breathed, relief all over her features. He squeezed her hand again, and looked up at her.

"Now, I guess, I owe you something," he sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Oh yeah, how do you figure?" she smirked sadly.

"Well you kept your promise," he looked at her, rubbing her fingers gently with his thumb, "we got out."

"Good point, so how do you owe me?"

"Pick," he said curtly, sucking in another breath, "anything."

"Oh, Bosco, you never say 'anything' to a woman," she laughed enjoying their closeness, "just promise you'll stay with me OK?"

"With you where?" he questioned, his sprightly smile returning to his face.

"Just, you know, my partner," she ventured, putting the suggestion out on the table. The truth was, she wasn't complete without him as her partner. Riding with him everyday had become something she'd taken for granted. After the shooting, she promised herself that she'd stay away from him. Stay away from the trouble he brought her, but really, she was in more trouble without him.

"Not goin' anywhere," his smile turned down as he pushed himself up to look in her eyes, "but it looks like you'll be ridin' with Sasha for a while."

"Promised you I would, didn't I?" she squeezed his hand back.

"Wow, you're two for two," he inhaled deeply again before continuing, " 'bout time I own up on some of mine, huh?"

"Oh, and what have you ever promised me?" she asked wittingly. At sometimes he'd promised her the world, but he was rarely sincere. He hated making promises. The only promise he had ever made was to his mother; that he would out live her.

"I promised I would protect you," he removed his hand from her, planting it next to his hips and hoisting him into an upright position, "the day we became partners."

Faith turned her head, looking out the small window in his door. She felt the white hot tears coming to her eyes, and again she felt too out of place to cry, "Don't go all mushy on me Bos, it doesn't suit you."

"Must be all the drugs they got me on," his eyes were trained on Faith and when she turned back to face him, she could stop the tears.

"You wish you could use that as an excuse more often."

Then, a there was a knock at the door, and a figured from behind it beckoned her out.

*~*^*~*

"What's goin' on boss?" she asked, stepping out of the room and facing Lieutenant Swersky.

"I gotta talk with you 'bout today's incident," he spoke, rocking back and forth slightly with his hands planted firmly in his pant pockets.

"What's up, you get any leads on who did this?" she looked at him hopefully. He was hiding something and it was making her uncomfortable.

He motioned for her to sit down next to him, as he did, in a small row of plastic chairs.

"What aren't you telling me, and why couldn't we talk in front of Bosco? I mean, he should know. . ." she rambled. Swersky put his hand gently oh her leg to silence her.

"It was Gary Barns" he spoke softly and removed his hand, "we finally got him behind bars, but we also got him talking."

"And. . .?" she moved to the edge of her chair, waiting for the lieutenant to continue.

"And," he gulped, "he's been working with Cruz."

What!? Faith thought to herself. Cruz was in cahoots with Gary Barns a.k.a. Animal, The same Animal who inadvertently killed her sister! Oh this was going to get messy.

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TBC! Ok so I can't leave you there right? So, probably only one more chapter. . .but I didn't kill him yet. ;)