Okay, this is it, the story has finally reached its end. I feel that I have to take this opportunity to thank a few people for their relentless support. Sarah, your comments and constructive criticism are so valued and I can't thank you enough for all the time and effort that you have poured into my work. You truly are my hero!

Faith, Bo, Jenna, Stella, Ang, Malinda, LuLu, Jan, Cactus, Rutgers, Max, Karlei, Amy, RBF, Ranger Web and everyone else who stuck with me from the beginning despite my numerous 'blocks', thanks so much for the continuing support, it meant more to me than you could ever imagine. I hope that I can end this one with a little less controversy than 'The Hours After'… but come on, that was fun! ;)

Thanks again and enjoy the last chapter.

~Joey~

-A Fine Balance-

"I love you, Ma…"

Chapter 12

"Maurice," her voice was muted by the overwhelming emotions that gripped her heart and closed off her throat. Rose watched her worst nightmare unfold before her eyes as the crazed man pressed his gun hard into her son's cheek. She allowed her eyes to close and savored what she assumed would be the last few seconds of her son's short life.

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

The seconds stretched into their own undefined eternity with no signs of time resuming its normal rhythm in the near, foreseeable future. Bosco's mind stuttered and spun against the constraints of his meltdown, fighting to find a way out of the horror that had consumed the hostile environment.

Sobs could be audibly determined through the ringing in his ears, only drowned out by the whispering breath of the man that had positioned himself within inches of Bosco's ear. Each inhalation sent pangs of fear and dread through his chest, the pain blending with the incapacitating torture that was feeling helpless in such a dire situation.

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

BANG

Rose felt a sharp pain embed itself inside her chest, her body going limp against the ropes that fettered her previous struggles. She waited, unwilling to open her eyes and praying that she could perish before she had to face the horror of reality. An involuntary sob wracked through her chest, sending surging pains of sorrow throughout her entire body.

Life was no longer worth living.

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

BANG

The noise brought along with it a paralyzing sense of doubt. Confusion and dread swirled through his mind as he waited to be taken from the room and lifted above his own form as he had often seen in movies.

Curiosity eventually surpassed the fear and he released his clenched eyelids, allowing the dimly lit room to filter into his vision.

Almost immediately after his realization that his life wasn't ripped away from him, he felt an enormous weight drop across his back. The pain and surprise joined forces to send his mind into another whirling dervish and distracted him, yet again, from the matter at hand.

We got him, Boscorelli. Stay put, don't move. I'm sending up help.

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

"James…" the whisper floated into Bosco's ears, interrupting his semi-conscious fight to stay awake despite the increasingly difficult task that was breathing.

"James…"

"Maurice…"

The two names were muttered simultaneously, both parents pleading for their children against the shackling emotional distress that constricted their ability to think constructively.

Bosco tried to answer, but his lungs couldn't expand to comply with his brain's command, and he found himself sinking deeper into the depths of helplessness. The familiar spots that warned him his internal batteries were dying, reappeared and this time, he allowed himself to slip into the black hole of nothingness.

He just couldn't fight the darkness anymore.

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

"Ow, don't touch it, Sul…"

Sully couldn't help but chuckle at his partner's childlike whining.

"It looks good, Officer Davis. I can't foresee any problems. Keep it iced and take the antibiotics and painkillers prescribed and you should be back in action in about a week."

The doctor smiled at both the officers before turning on her heel to leave the room. "If you experience any difficulties, just come right back in and we'll fix you up," she added while strolling out the door, her mind already focused on her next patient.

Davis started to collect his belongings with his one free hand, the other bound tightly to his chest to avoid any aggravation to the grazing injury.

"Here," Sully muttered while assisting Davis, speeding up the process tenfold.

Davis smiled slightly, sighing while his eyes drifted across the room and then settled on the floor beneath him.

"He's fine, Davis. Well," Sully corrected himself before proceeding, "he will be fine. You just worry about you."

Davis nodded while smiling appreciatively, "Yeah… Yeah, I know, Sul. Thanks."

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

"Bosco."

"Com'on now, Bos, it's time to wake up."

"Maurice, please open your eyes, baby."

"Officer Boscorelli, can you hear me?"

Bosco listened carefully as one voice faded into the next; each plea was a little louder, could be heard a little clearer through the fog that had flooded his overwhelmed brain.

Fighting through the cloud of dissociation, Bosco pried his weary eyes open.

The figures that inhabited his vision were multiplied by three, each person swaying in and out of focus until he had to close his eyes once again due to the nauseating dizziness. No one spoke and Bosco relished the silence, taking advantage of the opportunity to organize his thoughts and regain his composure.

Fighting to grasp his last memory of consciousness, Bosco found himself back in his mother's apartment, the weight on his back, the inability to breathe. He gasped, returning to the present, a comforting hand gently reassuring him with small circles on his forearm.

His mother's face came into focus, her eyes glistening with tears of relief and happiness, her face starkly contrasted with a tired façade.

"You scared me so much…" was all Rose could get out before her emotions took the reins of her poise.

She closed her eyes and leaned forward until her forehead was resting on her son's shoulder, her tears immediately soaking through the thin garment of the hospital gown that cloaked him.

Bosco remained stoic, allowing the sight of his mother, unharmed, uninhibited, and weeping at his side, to sink into his brain. A warm wave of relief swept across his body.

He blinked twice, to assure that this was not another cruel twist on reality, manipulated and displayed by his tormented mind. Convinced that his mother was indeed at his side, he sighed, wincing slightly at the searing pain in his back and right side.

"You okay, Bos?"

Bosco jerked his head to his right. Faith smiled at him, her eyes displaying amusement towards his surprise at her presence, but her face conveying the same tired relief that was so evident in his mother.

"You're stupid, you know that?"

Bosco managed a nod, agreeing with her fully. He knew he was in over his head, he knew he was going to fare worse by doing what he did, but he also knew he had to do it, and in that was something he took comfort in. Sometimes there are more important things than yourself. That was just the way he was, and he wouldn't have done it any differently if faced with the same situation again.

Faith smiled slightly as Rose's body shook while expelling her body of a week's worth of emotions.

"The guy…" Bosco croaked, his throat raw and protesting his actions. He coughed lightly before trying again.

Faith interrupted him before he could reattempt, and did her best to fill in her partner.

"ESU got him, Bos. Apparently, when you fell to the ground, he crouched down and placed the gun to your head, and that gave ESU a clear line on their target. Who knows what would have happened otherwise…" she stopped, noticing that Bosco's face was contorted, his pain obvious through his body language.

"Let me get a nurse," she stated quietly, but was promptly stopped by a firm hand on her wrist.

"Just tell me."

Faith sighed, weighing her options in her head before giving into Bosco's request.

"He died in the bus on the way to the hospital."

Bosco shut his eyes in defeat. That outcome was not his goal. He didn't want it to end this way. He didn't want to take a kid's parent away from him.

"What about the kid?" he whispered.

"Well, that's a little more complicated. Apparently, the kid's name isn't James Polaris."

Bosco looked confused but allowed her to continue.

"His name is Jim Polaris-Jefferson. His father kidnapped him from his mother's home in Chicago about ten years ago, when Jim was six. They've been searching for this kid for almost a decade. The father was institutionalized with schizophrenia, and not long after he was released, he started drinking heavily and as a result, was handed a restraining order by his ex-wife. I guess he took exception to that and only months later, he took Jim from his room in his mother's house in the middle of the night. They've been searching for both of them ever since. His mother arrived in New York about an hour ago… I haven't heard anything else yet."

Faith found herself in an unusual predicament - she couldn't read her partner's face. A stone-like exterior comprised of his expression and it disturbed her somewhat.

"I'm going to go get the nurse and see what they can do for the pain you're in."

With one last glance at Rose's unbridled display of emotion, Faith strode out of the room in pursuit of medical assistance for her partner.

"I'm sorry, Ma…"

Rose halted her sobbing proceedings for a second, absently brushing at the stray tears that had stained her cheeks.

"No, Maurice, you saved me. No…"

"I should have been there sooner… I should have known sooner."

"Shhhh…" Rose shushed her son into silence as she gently ran her fingers across his warm forehead, brushing his hair off his damp skin. "You have nothing to be sorry about, you hear me?"

Leaning forward, she placed a single kiss on his forehead, gently soothing away any stray feelings of guilt that may be consuming her overprotective son.

"I love you so much, Maurice. Don't you ever scare me like that again."

Bosco could think of a million reasons that that was the most hypocritical comment he had ever heard, but he decided to let his mother say what she needed to say.

He moaned as another wave of pain ripped through his side and shot down his badly injured leg. As if on cue, a doctor walked in, tailed by Faith, to administer some relief.

The pain medication went right to work, and immediately Bosco found himself blanketed by the warmth of the productive drugs.

Both his hands were being gently held as Faith and his mother loaned him their support and encouragement in his time of need.

"You reunited a mother and her son, Maurice."

Half asleep, Bosco mumbled back, "No, Ma, you did."

Both Faith and Rose simultaneously locked eyes over Bosco's drowsy form, grinning at his immediate displacement of honor.

Faith shook her head and whispered, "Some things will never change."

-The End-

Thank-you so much for reading :D