Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews. And I want to give a personal thanks to Faith-in-Faith (she knows why), to Lisa for being my best (and worst) critic, and to Mattycakes just for loving Gusler unconditionally.

"Understanding Steven"

~Chapter Ten~

[Two days after finding Bosco]

Gusler is sitting in the RMP mindlessly watching the people passing on the sidewalk as they drive along. Faith is quiet and Stan sneaks a peek at her occasionally as she drives. It has been two days since Bosco was found and taken to the hospital. Two days of nervous waiting. He feels like a defendant, holding his breath while the jury deliberates, deciding his fate on what direction his life will take. The silence is unnerving. The waiting is like a boulder on his chest, holding him down from where he wants to go...from being the cop he wants to be, which he realizes more than ever now...is Faith Yokas' partner.

He has toyed with the idea of paying Bosco a visit in the hospital, and putting an end to this once and for all. But he is afraid that he won't get away with it. He has been lucky so far. This is not the time to be making stupid mistakes. As hard as it may be, he needs to be patient and let this play out. He can not afford to have them investigating a murder in the hospital.

He peeks at Faith again. Her eyes are on the road, but her mind is elsewhere, and he can't pretend any longer that she is actually here on patrol with him. Stan knows that in her mind, she is on some call with Bosco, that pain in the ass...fucking with him even now, from his hospital bed. Not only occupying her mind, but his own as well. The silence becomes so loud, that he finally has to end it and put into words what both of them are thinking about.

"Did you go to the hospital today? Is there any change in his condition?" Stan asks.

"Yah...I went this morning. Nothing's changed. It's really taking it's toll on his mom. I hope he comes out of it soon...for her sake."

"And for yours too." he adds, then quickly looks out the window.

"Me?" She looks over at him but he continues to stare straight ahead. Obviously she has been so worried about Bosco, that she must be making it terrible to ride with her all day. Poor Steve must be bored out of his mind. "You know Steve...I never said thank you for all your help."

"Help with what?"

"Searching for Bosco with me. You put in a lot of time...and I want you to know that I appreciate that."

He glances down guiltily. "Oh...that was nothen."

"No...it was a lot. You didn't have to..."

"We're partners, right?" He looks her in the eye. "That's what partners do. You'd do that for me too."

She looks at him a little surprised. "Right. Sure...I would...but, I still wanted to say thanks." She gets an uneasy feeling, but she can't quite place her finger on why.

Maybe because she doesn't really believe that she would have gone through quite that much trouble to help Steve. Of course she would search and do everything she could to find him, but probably not as urgently as she did for Bosco. But that thought doesn't shed a light on her uneasiness. No...it's something else, but she can't quite grasp what.

The radio sends out a tone and begins to speak, and the both of them grab for it. She lets Gusler take it as they listen to the call, sending them to a disturbance at a bar. Gusler answers back that 55-David is responding and turns on the lights and siren. They hurry off to the location.

They pull up in front of the bar to find seven motorcycles parked out front, along with several trucks and a couple cars in the parking lot. Looking at the windows, beyond the flashing neon beer lights, the bar looks full, and it's a good sign that there are no people running and screaming out the door...no chairs busting through the glass, but still, they will be outnumbered inside of the establishment, so Faith decides to call for backup.

Gusler on the other hand, hops out of the car and starts walking confidently towards the door of the bar. He is about to explode from the frustration of the Bosco situation, and if he can't release his pent up anger on him, a drunk biker is the next best thing. This is just what the doctor ordered, and he ignores Faith as she yells for him to wait.

He pulls out his night stick as he pauses momentarily to peek in the window to get a better idea of what is going on in the bar. He can see there are two man laying on the floor, beneath them a lot of blood, and two others are in a stand-off near the pool table, one holding a large hunting knife and the other holding a broken pool stick. Five others are standing close to them, and are probably involved in the altercation, and everyone else is watching the two men as they slowly circle around one another.

The guy with the pool stick looks wild eyed and scared, and is most likely friends with the two fallen dirt bags. The guy with the knife however, is grinning and confident, as he goads the other man on, challenging him with, "c'mon...let's see what you got. Let's dance mother fucker." This man is the one he needs to address. The guy is very large, and looking around, it is hard to tell who, if anyone, is on this lunatic's side.

Gusler walks in, and although the crowd looks in his direction, neither of the two men facing off to each other seem to have noticed him. He walks towards the men, and he can hear Faith enter behind him, softly calling him and telling him to slow down. Next to Gusler on the right, is a round table loaded with full and empty beer bottles. In one smooth motion, he swings the club through the bottles, sending beer and broken glass in a spree at the two men.

He now has their attention, as the cue stick guy ducks and covers his face, but the guy with the knife turns towards Stan, still wearing the shit eating grin, and says, "I believe you owe me a beer little man."

Stan grins back at him, pleased that the guy is not backing down. He points the night stick at him, takes a step closer and says, "Well you're gonna have to drink it with a straw, coz when I'm done with you, they'll be wiring your jaw closed."

Behind him, Faith is close to panic. She can't believe what Steve is doing. She has no confidence in him handling this situation, and he is going out of his way to inflame it even more. She needs to stop Gusler and take control before he gets them both killed. She pulls out her gun and yells for everyone to put their weapons down, step back and face the wall. She quickly steps up next to Gusler, and points the gun back and forth at each of the men, and orders them again to get against the wall. Slowly everyone does, except for the madman with the knife.

"Drop the weapon...Now! And get back against the wall... Do it!" Faith yells louder, and hopes that Steve pulls his gun out as well...but he doesn't.

"I don't take orders from bitches...and I certainly ain't afraid of no lesbian cop." He turns his attention away from Gusler, and is now pointing the knife towards Faith. He is smiling at her still, like he is secretly bullet proof, and takes a step towards her.

Faith stands her ground and says, "I'm not telling you again, put the weapon down. I will not hesitate to shoot you."

"Pushy bitch." He growls, then turns towards Gusler. "She must walk all over you, ya little..."

Before he can finish the sentence, Gusler makes a series of swings with the night stick, quickly and efficiently unarming then disabling the man in the flash of an eye. The first swing is an upper cut that bats the knife out of his hand, launching it deep into the ceiling tile, the second is a back hand, that clips the guy in the ear, stunning him into silence, next he does a forward downswing across the mans belly, knocking the wind out of him, and the final blow is an upswing across the back of his knee taking his legs out from under him.

The large man drops to his knees, but before he falls forward to the floor, Stan grabs him by his hair, and tilts his head back. He places the stick across the guys throat, and jerks his head back, pinning him tightly against his chest by the throat, and cutting off his wind pipe.

"I think you owe the lady an apology." He suggests into the mans bleeding ear.

"Fuck you." The guy manages to growl out.

"Try again." Stan says, snapping the stick tighter across his throat.

"Steve...let 'em go." Faith whispers, too shocked to really find her voice.

Through a series of coughs and gurgles, the guy finally spits out the word, "Sorry."

"That's better. Nobody talks to my partner like that." he growls at the man. He then lets the guy collapse to the floor.

Faith stares at him, her mouth actually open. She has never seen this side of Steve. This is more like something Bosco would have done, although she doubts that even he 'would' have. But then she quickly gathers herself, and places her focus back onto the men against the wall, who have all turned to watch.

"What the hell are you looking at." She yells at them. "Get back against the wall." She gives a worried look in Gusler's direction, then places her hand against the back of one of the men, pushing him hard against the wall, and begins frisking him. Behind her, she hears Gusler speak to the barely conscious guy, and suddenly that uneasy feeling she had before, comes back, and this time she knows what it is.

Gusler says to the guy, "Anyone who disrespects my partner...will answer to me." He called her "his" partner...like he did earlier, and she gets the feeling that Steve thinks Bosco will never be back. That's what is bothering her, that Gusler is confident the two of them are going to be partners from now on.

Soon their back up arrives along with the paramedics and eventually, her and Steve are heading back to the house with their prisoners. She considers having a talk with him about his behavior, but she isn't really sure how to approach it. She decides to give it more thought, and talk to him when she has a better grasp on exactly what happened. She really doesn't want to ruin his new found bravery, and he actually handled himself quite well, but he could just as easily had gotten them both killed.

Upon arriving at the house, the Lieutenant notifies her that the hospital had called. Bosco has awakened from his coma. The detective from the 63rd along with Cruz, have gone there to question him on what happened.

"Oh...thank God. So he's gonna be alright?"

"I don't have the details, but he's awake...I think the worst is over." He says with a reassuring smile.

"I'd really like to get over there Lieu." She looks at him pleadingly.

Swersky looks at his watch. "You have almost three hours left to your shift. But...get these perps processed, and you can leave for the night. But don't half ass the paperwork. Is that clear?"

"Yah boss...thanks. C'mon Steve."

Gusler stands there, shocked at the fact that the little prick is gonna pull through. A hundred thoughts run through his head. What if he's talking. What will he do when they come to question him about it. How the hell is he gonna get out of this mess?

"Steve! Let's go...I wanna get out of here."

He looks at her and blankly says, "Yah...me too."

*****[At the Hospital]*****

Faith walks up to the open door of Bosco's hospital room and knocks softly with one knuckle. She steps in and sees Bosco's mom kiss him on his forehead, then turn to see who entered the room.

"Faith...I'm glad you're here. Maurice is throwing me out. He wants me to go home, but I don't want to leave him alone."

"He's right. You should go and get a good night's rest."

"Well...now I can finally sleep knowing he's ok." She looks at him sweetly. "G'nite baby." She squeezes Faith's arm as she passes her, on her way to the door. "I'll be back tomorrow."

"G'nite ma." He says sluggishly.

Faith walks up and leans on the bed railing. "So...how ya feeling?"

"Not bad." His eyes start to close and he forces them open again and smiles.

"Really?" She says a bit surprised. "Well, they do have the best drugs here." She fixes the blanket up around his neck and says, "So what did the doctors say?"

"My shoulder's screwed up." His voice is very groggy. "They said I got a broken leg and some broken ribs too...oh yah...an a hard head." He lets out a tired little snicker, which amuses her, then he continues. "I'm gonna be in here for a while, so they can keep an eye on my head...but I think that cute little nurse likes me...so I guess it's ok."

"That's good...I'm glad you're ok."

"They said that I was missing for a few days...that you didn't give up looking for me."

"Everyone helped search." She tells him.

"But they said you wouldn't go home."

"I was worried about you. And poor Gusler...I dragged him through every alley and abandoned building in the city."

His eyes slowly close, and again he drags them open. "Anyways...I just wanted to say thanks. You know." His words are barely audible, now.

"Absolutely. So do you remember what happened?"

"All I can remember is getting changed after our shift...and honestly...I don't even know if it's the right night that I'm remembering."

"Did the doctors say if your memory will come back?"

"They don't really know...it might. They told me it was a car jacking...that my car ended up in the river."

"Yah...I'm sorry. I know you love that car."

She smiles at him as his eyes finally win the battle and drop closed. She touches his cheek gently with her hand and says softly, "Good night Bos."

***

As she waits for the elevator, she glances at her watch. It's only nine fortyfive. She can get home early and surprise Fred...get some quality time with him. She presses the down button again impatiently, then changes her mind. She walks to the door marked "stairs" and as she flings it open and hurries through it, she collides with Gusler on the steps.

"Oh, I'm sorr...Steve? What are you doing here?"

"Faith...I was...I uh...I was coming to see how Bosco is." He stammers.

"Oh...I didn't think...I guess I didn't think you were that..."

"Well...I spent two days searching for him...I guess I feel involved."

"Of course." She gives him an embarrassed smile. "That's nice...but I think he's asleep...he's been in and out. You can check..."

"You know what...maybe I should wait till tomorrow. Let me walk you out. Can I give you a ride home?"

"Yah that would be great...if you don't mind."

***

As he drives, Stan wonders if it was obvious to her that he was totally rattled when she ran into him on the stairs. He's pretty sure that he covered it well by saying he was there to visit Bosco, and why should she question that. She doesn't know how he really feels about that asshole. No...he is confident that she believes him.

The bigger problem is, how the hell is he going to 'off' that little fucker now. He obviously hasn't talked yet, so it is urgent that he finish Bosco off while he is still in a delicate condition so it won't look like murder, and especially...before Bosco tells everyone who it was that attacked him.

Stan waited on the stairs until visiting hours ended. He saw Faith leaving...she was waiting for the elevator. As soon as she was gone, he was going to slip into the room when no one was looking and suffocate him with a pillow. What the hell made Faith suddenly take the stairs. That Bastard Bosco, has to be the luckiest son-of-a-bitch.

He debates whether or not he should go back and try it later, but now there is the problem of security cameras. It would be normal for him to be on them during visiting hours, but he will look terribly suspicious...if Bosco turns up dead in his room...and Steve is caught on camera sneaking into the hospital after hours.

He looks over at his partner. She is so much more relaxed than she's been the past few days. She is looking out the window with a smile...no, it's more like...a look of serenity, rather than the worried frown she's had lately. He should feel glad for her. Hell...he should feel glad just for the fact that she is here with him. He is driving and she is riding in his car with him...like they're real friends...but just like every other good thing he's had in his life, it was never real...never really his.

Every time he finds something that might be good, a girlfriend, a friend...a partner...it's only life teasing him with the fact that things are great for everyone else. But not him. She is going to go back to Bosco and there isn't a God damned thing he can do about it now. Bosco will probably tell everyone about Stan, and he will have to disappear again, returning Steve to his lonely, pathetic life.

"What is it Steve?"

Faith noticed him staring at her. Thinking quickly he says, "I was just wondering if you found out what actually happened to Bosco."

"No. He doesn't remember anything."

"Like amnesia?"

"Not really. He just can't remember the last few days. The doctors say that's normal. We'll probably never catch the bastards that did it." She pauses reflectively for a moment. "I guess the mind has a way of protecting you...by forgetting the really bad things that happen."

Stan thinks about that. She's right...he thinks about Steve...with no recollection of the box or how it always just seems to appear. He pictures him staring blankly at the items, with no recollection of what they represent or how they came to be. Bosco may never remember what happened, as well. This will give Stan time to come up with a fool proof plan to rid himself of Bosco...get him out of the way after this all blows over.

Stan feels relief like he has never known before. Suddenly everything is alright. Just like every other problem Stan has solved for Steve, he will solve this one for himself. It will be a long time before Bosco can go back to work, and that will give him time to form a bond with Faith, and eliminate that contemptible, annoying little prick, once and for all.

Faith looks over and she sees Gusler is smiling. Like a reflex, she smiles back at him. "What are you smiling about?"

His face flushes as he says, "Nothing...I guess I'm just glad that this will have a happy ending."

"Me too." Her smile fades as she glances out the window and fluffs her hair with her hand. "Ya know...I gotta admit though...I really thought for a while there, that I had lost my partner for good." She looks back at him with a sad smile.

"I thought so too." he informs her.

*****