This chapter is fairly self-explanatory… For some reason, it's taking me quite a while to get into the main plot, but it will all make sense eventually, I promise! Thanks for the kind words on the previous chapters, you guys are incredible and it makes me so happy to read that I'm not the only person enjoying this fic.

Here's Chapter 3, enjoy!

~JOEY~

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

-A Fine Balance-

Chapter 3

"It's going to be very tender for a while to come. What we'll do is wrap it up and ice it every hour or so to try to keep the swelling down. Unfortunately, we can't have you doing many exercises to help strengthen it because of your broken leg, but we'll find ways to work around that."

Bosco wasn't really listening to the Doctor explaining the recovery process for his knee, which had just endured 3 hours of reconstructive surgery. He was thinking about how the hell he was going to get around on crutches. He hated the things. 'They make people look clumsy,' he thought to himself.

"So what do you think?"

"Huh?" Bosco asked, having no idea what the Doctor was asking his opinion on.

"Do you think you'd want to do intensive therapy to try to increase your speed of recovery?" the Doctor repeated, agitated by the lack of attention his patient was paying him.

"Um… yeah, sure, whatever."

Bosco was getting frustrated with these Doctors. They treated him like a five-year-old. He didn't want to be in this hospital anymore than they wanted to treat him.

"When do you think I'll be sprung from here?" he asked bluntly.

The Doctor shrugged, "I don't know, I'm just the physical therapy guy. You'll have to ask your Doctor. Look, I'll leave instructions with your Doctor and if you're 'sprung' from here, he can tell you where and when you're required to come back for your therapy." With that, he turned and left the room.

Bosco snickered at how flustered the physio-guy had gotten. 'Doesn't take much to rattle these people,' he thought to himself.

Another Doctor approached him just as quickly as the other one left.

"Hey, Doc, can I get out of here soon?"

The Doctor didn't seem as thrown as the previous one, and placed down the chart before responding,

"How do you feel?"

"Like I was hit by a truck. Doesn't mean I wanna stay here," he replied.

The Doctor smiled and shook his head, "Well, Officer Boscorelli, I would like to keep you here for at least one more day for observation, but I can't stop you from leaving. Do you have someone that can take you home?"

Bosco thought for a second. He still hadn't heard from his mother. He knew that she hated seeing him in the hospital, but he had almost died, the least she could do was stop by and make sure he was okay. He'd have to call Faith - she'd take him home.

"Yeah, I got a ride. How's that kid, by the way - the one who hit me?"

"Last I heard he was conscious, kept asking for his Dad - seemed pretty upset. I don't think the police we able to ask him any questions, but you'd be better off asking them than me," he stopped and adjusted his glasses while laying a cynical eye on Bosco, "I'll get your home-care instructions and set up a few appointments for your leg, and then I'll see what I can do about getting you released."

Bosco sighed, thankful that for once, he wasn't being fought on the issue, "Can I use the phone?"

The Doctor nodded and handed him the phone off the wall by the door.

Bosco quickly dialed Faith's number and waited for an answer.

After a brief conversation that included a lot of, 'are you sure, Bosco?', he convinced Faith to pick him up.

"Sign here and I'll go get your clothes."

Bosco complied. He couldn't wait to get home.

**************

"Hey there. Looks like you're all set," Faith said as she entered Bosco's room, seeing that he was fully clothed and waiting.

"I can't get out of here fast enough," he threw back with a grin.

Faith saw how his pants were bunched up above the lengthy cast. He looked sore as he tried to maneuver his body to the edge of the bed and reach for his crutches. She couldn't help but think that he was rushing this whole recovery process, but realized that it was a lost cause trying to argue the case with him.

She saw him wince noticeably when he placed a crutch under his right arm.

"Here," she said, placing a hand on his elbow to help lower him off the bed, "let me help you."

For a second, Bosco was unsure whether or not he could handle using the crutches. Just holding it under his arm caused pain to radiate through his right side, which was far from healed. He paused for a second, wondering how bad it would be when he actually put weight on it.

"We can get a wheel-chair, Bosco. It would probably be easier…"

"No," he interrupted, in a near whisper, obviously in pain, "I can do this."

He tried to put on a brave face to convince Faith, but knew that she could see right through him. 'Doesn't hurt to try,' he thought to himself.

"Can you grab that bag?" he asked, motioning towards a large white paper bag sitting on his bed.

"What is that?" she asked.

"Drugs," he replied sheepishly.

"God, Bosco, think you've got enough?" she teased, when she picked it up, shocked by the weight of the contents.

He smirked at her, and proceeded to try to stand.

She stood close by in case he overestimated his strength - something that wouldn't surprise her.

"You okay?" she asked before leading the way out of the room.

"After you," he said, nodding his head towards the door.

Faith shrugged and slowly made her way out of the room, followed by an even slower Bosco.

She threw a glance over her shoulder to see that he was further behind than she had though. Knowing that making any comment would embarrass him or cause him to push himself too hard, she responded by slowing her pace to a near crawl.

Bosco had underestimated the pain associated with moving, and found himself struggling after only a few steps. Not wanting to make a scene, he did his best to block out the shooting pains through his chest and leg while continuing to follow Faith towards the elevator. He mentally thanked God when he saw her slow down - he just couldn't keep up otherwise.

Finally, they made their way into the elevator. Bosco took the opportunity to remove the crutch form under his right arm and lean against the walls for support. He prayed for the ride to be as long as physically possible.

Faith noticed Bosco looked a little flushed and wondered if she should demand he be 'wheeled' out to the truck. She wasn't sure he would make it otherwise. She then thought about the stairs to his apartment.

"Bosco, Bosco, Bosco…. What were you thinking?" she thought to herself.

The journey to the truck took much longer than anticipated. They had to stop several times so that Bosco could 'readjust his crutches'. Faith knew he was lying. There was no readjusting going on. He just stood there with his head down, catching his breath.

She helped him into the truck and started driving to his apartment. She noticed he kept his eyes closed the whole time, and wondered if he was sleeping. When she pulled into a parking spot in front of his building, she gently placed a hand on his shoulder to wake him up, "Bosco," she said, shaking him slowly, "you're home."

Bosco woke to Faith's voice alerting him of their arrival. He blinked a few times and nodded to her, signaling that he indeed was awake. He grabbed the crutches with his left hand and tried to strategize about which way of exiting the truck would be the easiest.

"Hold on, I'll open the door and help you out," Faith said, as if reading his mind.

She made her way over to the passenger side and undid his seatbelt. "Here," she said, reaching for his crutches, "Give these to me and then I'll help you down."

He didn't argue, allowing her to grab the awkward metal poles from his hands.

Bosco shuffled forward and began to lower himself to the ground. The truck was a lot further up than he thought and he was unable to land solely on his left leg. His cast hit the sidewalk, bearing part of the weight from his jump down.

He gasped as excruciating pain shot through his leg repetitively, causing him to double over in agony.

"Jesus, Bosco, take it easy. You okay?"

He didn't respond for a couple seconds, simply because he couldn't. The pain had taken his breath away, leaving his eyes watering and his stomach turning. After recovering from the shock enough to speak, he whispered, "Yeah… I'm fine. Let's go in."

Faith shook her head as she watched him wipe the water from his eyes and gingerly place the crutches under his arms.

The journey to Bosco's apartment was just that - a 'journey'. It must have taken them 15 minutes to climb the stairs and Faith found herself looking at her watch continually when Bosco wasn't watching. After what seemed like an eternity, they had reached his apartment. Faith confiscated his keys from him and took the liberty of opening the door, so he didn't have to 'readjust'.

Bosco made his way over to his couch, and very slowly and carefully, lowered himself down. He could feel sweat covering every inch of his body. He hadn't imagined it would be so difficult to climb the stairs.

Several times he had been tempted to ask Faith for help, but being the stubborn ass that he is, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Now, all he wanted was painkillers. Every breath sent pain vibrating through his chest and back, and his leg and knee had taken on a constant and relentless throbbing.

Faith went over to the kitchen and placed the large 'drug bag' on the counter.

"Bosco." she called out towards the living room.

"Mmmm…" was his only reply.

"Do you want these pills now?" she asked, opening the bag, fairly sure the answer would be yes.

"Yeah," he mumbled, "please."

Faith carefully dumped the contents of the bag onto the kitchen counter. Four separate bottles and several different pamphlets and papers fell out. 'Jesus,' she thought to herself, 'he's pretty much set for life'.

She glanced at the labels, trying to determine which ones he should take. There were two different anti-inflammatories, one bottle of anti-biotics, and then she came across what she was looking for - Demerol.

She read the instructions before extricating the proper dosage. Grabbing a glass of water, she walked out to the living room with the drugs.

"Here," she said, handing him the pills, followed by the glass of water. Bosco eagerly accepted them, then handed Faith what remained of the water. "Thanks," he sighed, tilting his head back and closing his eyes, waiting desperately for the pills to kick in.

"There's a lot of literature here that you should read, Bosco," she said while heading back to the kitchen to dump the water into the sink. "And there's very detailed instructions on what you should and shouldn't do for your leg. It says here that you have your first appointment the day after tomorrow in the morning. Do you want me to take you?"

"Yeah," he said, without opening his eyes, "that would be great."

"Faith?" he asked after a few seconds.

"Yeah?" she answered, making her way back into the living room.

He cracked his eyes open and swallowed, "Have you heard from my ma?"

Faith thought about it for a second. She hadn't seen Rose since before the accident. She knew that someone had tried to contact her, but wasn't sure whether or not they had been successful.

"You haven't seen her since the accident?" she asked Bosco, pretty sure she already knew the answer.

He shook his head 'no', and pointed towards the machine behind him, "Can you see if she left any messages?" he asked, increasing weariness becoming evident in his voice.

Faith made her way over to the machine and noticed there were no messages. She sighed and said, "No,

Bos, she didn't call. I'll try her again later. I'm sure she just didn't get the message. How about for now we get you to your bed before you pass out on the couch and I have to carry you?"

Bosco nodded and dragged his body and the crutches into position.

Faith noticed the pained look on his face that seemed to get worse with every step. She hoped that once the Demerol was given a chance to work, he would feel a lot better.

"Wait," Faith said before he attempted to lie down. "Let me help you take your jacket off."

Bosco allowed Faith to try to remove his jacket. He involuntarily winced and let out a small moan when she accidentally rubbed her hand against the wound on his side.

"Sorry," she whispered. He nodded his forgiveness and slumped onto the bed.

She helped him arrange himself, then adjusted the pillows and blankets. When she was satisfied that he looked comfortable enough, she made her way to the kitchen to try to figure out which drugs he should take and when. She organized his next four pill dosages and refilled the glass with water. Grabbing a bag of ice, the pills and the water, she headed back into the bedroom.

"Bosco," she said, making sure that he was still awake.

"Hmmm…" he moaned in reply.

"I have your next four pill dosages that you have to take. This should hold you over until tomorrow morning. The ones closest to you are the ones that you take first… Are you listening to me?"

He opened his eyes a little and looked towards the rows of pills, "Yeah," he said, then jumped slightly when Faith placed the ice-pack on his injured knee.

"In three hours you take these," she said pointing to the first row that contained four pills. "Three hours after that you take these…" She continued the spiel until she was sure Bosco understood her.

"Now, something tells me you're not going to be awake for much longer, so I'm going to set your alarm for three hours. It's up to you to set it again after that if you think you're gong to fall asleep again. I'll put your phone right on your night table so you can call me if you need anything." she took a deep breath and looked around to make sure she hadn't missed anything. "Okay?" she asked him.

He nodded and smiled weakly at her, "Yeah. Thanks, Faith."

She grinned at her partner, and nodded. She tried to suppress the concern of leaving him alone in his condition, but justified it by thinking, 'It's Bosco, he's used to being alone and fending for himself.'

"Okay then, I gotta get home to the kids, but I'll be back tomorrow morning to check on you. If you need anything, Bosco," she said, with a serious expression on her face, "you call me. Okay?"

He closed his eyes and nodded.

Faith made sure the door was locked when she left the apartment and sighed before turning and walking down the hall towards the stairs. 'All this because some kid wasn't paying attention,' Faith thought to herself as she walked away from her fallen partner.

Bosco heard the door shut. He silently wished Faith had stayed with him. He wasn't sure he could do simple things, like go to the washroom without help. Usually, his mother would be there with him. Before he slipped off into a drug-induced sleep, he wondered where the hell she was.

TBC. Good things come to those who review ;)