Faith woke to the smell of coffee. At some point, she'd fallen asleep on the couch in my living room.

"Bosco?" Faith said, once she figured out where she was. I noticed her from the doorway...my hair damp from the shower. I was dressed in jeans and an old NYPD t-shirt. Judging by the look on Faith's face, it was something she'd seen before.

"You want some breakfast?" I asked. "I'm not much of a cook but I could fix you something if you're hungry."

"Just some coffee would be nice."

"Can I ask you something?" I questioned, taking a seat on an ottoman across from her.

"Sure," she said, taking a sip of her coffee. She wasn't quite awake yet but the coffee was helping.

"You've known me for a long time...pretty much of my life as an adult you've been there in some capacity. So, I was wondering if maybe we could go for a drive...stop by some places that were a part of my life. You know like we did yesterday at the police station."

"Was anything familiar about the station yesterday?"

She sounded hopeful that maybe I remembered something about the station. It'd been over two months and I guess the longer I didn't remember, the more concerned she got. Unfortunately, my answer wasn't what she's looking for.

"Not really...I mean I don't remember the place....the offices or the people except for the ones I've met since the shooting. But I did feel something there...like I'd been there before."

"How do you mean?" she questions with good reason. I'm not making much sense.

"I don't know...I mean I can't really explain it other than I had these feelings that I'd been there before...like I know the place only I didn't remember anything about it."

"This feeling you had...was it a good feeling like it was someplace you liked or was it a feeling like you didn't want to be there?"

"Neither one really" I try to answer where it actually makes sense. "Like I said, I just felt like I'd been there before."

She took a long drink of her coffee before continuing.

"Okay so maybe going to some places you spent a lot of time is a good idea. Before we do, I need to go home and change my clothes and we really should eat something."

After a little debating, we decided to stop by her place. Along the way, we stopped off to grab some stuff at the supermarket. I wasn't kidding about being able to make breakfast or lunch since it was actually lunch time. She joined me in the kitchen, looking over my shoulder where I stood in front of the stove.

"Smells great Bosco," she said before reaching into a cupboard, pulling out a couple plates.

What she said smells great is merely scrambled eggs with a few extras. While they were cooking I added some bacon, peppers, cheese, and spices.

She took her plate over to the table while I follow her taking a seat at the opposite end of the table. She must be hungry 'cause she wastes no time eating.

"This is good..."

"It'd be better if I could actually cook," I say before admitting the truth. "Most people add stuff and call it an omelet. Every time I try to cook one, it ends up looking like a mess so I gave up. I can't seem to get the one half to fold over the other. I just dump everything in while the scrambled eggs while they're cooking."

"I think it's good just the way it is."

She let me off the hook for my inabilities to cook which was fine with me.

After we finished eating, she grabbed a pencil and paper and started writing.

"Another list?"

She glanced up at me from her writing, a smile on her face.

"You make a lot of lists?"

"I guess I do," she said. "I thought I'd make a list of some of the places we should go to and then make a plan so we don't end up driving back and forth."

With the list and breakfast dishes complete, we left Faith's place.

Our first stop was an odd place. To me it wasn't really a place.

"So what is this place?" I asked.

"It's not really a place that 'we' used to go to. It's a place you and Mikey used to come to as kids. Whenever your mom and dad got into fights or shouting matches, you and Mikey would come out here. You called it the fort."

"The fort? Mikey was here right? Isn't this the place where we were when the police were looking for him? The place my fa...the place Anthony told the police about...the reward money thing?"

"Yeah, this is that place."

"We used to come here...me and Mikey? To get away from home when my parents were fighting...but Anthony knew about it?"

"I'm not sure how he knew but apparently he did since this is where he sent the police when they were looking for Mikey."

We spent quite a bit of time at the fort...talking about me and Mikey...about the days following Mikey's arrest. Faith talked about stuff she knew about my childhood, some of it was new to me. My neighbors had mentioned some stuff about the divorce and what led up to it but that had been the extent of it. Faith told me about the day ma came to get me at school, took me to lunch, and told me about the divorce.

I guess it shouldn't have surprised her that I asked about her kids and the pending divorce between her and Fred. Maybe she was surprised that I knew about it. She was also surprised to hear about how much time I'd spent with Ty Davis.

"So that's where you heard about me and Fred? From Ty?"

"Yeah, he told me about it but only after I questioned him about it."

"So what made you ask Ty? I mean you could have asked me about it?"

"I'm sorry...I guess I figured you had enough to deal with. I knew things weren't good between the two of you...I mean he was clear on that the day he came to visit me in the hospital."

"I still can't believe he did that."

She shook her head as I continued.

"He said a lot of stuff....stuff that made sense and some that didn't," I explained as we left the fort. "Underneath it all, I got this feeling that he didn't believe that I didn't know who he was...like I was faking it. At one point he went as far as to say that it was 'awfully convenient' that I could destroy so many lives and not remember any of it."

"He had no right talking to you like that Bosco. Bu that was typical Fred," Faith replied as she parked the car. "Everything that ever went wrong was someone else's fault."

"What's this place?" I asked, staring at a building.

"It's a doctor's office," Faith explained, making no effort to get out of the car. "A few years back, I insisted that Fred have a checkup. We came her one afternoon. We were in the elevator leaving to go home when the city experienced a blackout. So there we were, me and Fred, stuck in an elevator. While we were in there, Fred had a heart attack. I don't remember exactly what happened but apparently you were at work and I didn't show up so they sent you out on the streets alone. At some point, you went by my apartment looking for me. Emily told you about the doctor's appointment and you showed up here just as I was coming out of the building with Fred. We put him in the back of the RMP and rushed him to the hospital. He almost died a few times but they managed to keep him alive long enough to take him into surgery."

"So I went by your apartment looking for you just 'cause you didn't show up for work?"

"You had a lot of little habits that drove me crazy," she said with a smile. I took that for what it was worth. "One of those was that once you got something in your head, you didn't let it go no matter what anyone told you. Lieu said every time you brought someone in that night that you'd ask if they'd heard from me. They kept telling you they'd call you as soon as they did. Apparently you were too stubborn for that. You got tired of waiting for them to call...for me to show up...you were determined to find me so you went looking for me on your own. Fred was lucky that you did. He'd never admit it especially to you but he would have died had you not been so persistent in finding me."

"Stubborn huh?" I said with a grin on my face.

"Very...your stubborn side was just one thing you did that drove me crazy."

"I drove you crazy? How?"

She ignored my question while pulling back into traffic. We drove for about fifteen minutes before she pulled the car to a stop.

"You see that building over there? The red brick with the green awning?"

"Yeah."

"One night while you were working by yourself, you used the RMP for a little extracurricular activity."

"Extracurricular activity? Do I wanna hear about this?"

She smiled and I had my answer.

"Seems you and the captain's daughter were otherwise occupied in the RMP."

"Occupied? Extracurricular activity? Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"You had sex with the captain's daughter while on duty. Only problem was there's a camera up there and everything was caught on tape. Captain found out about it but he never figured out that it was his own daughter on the tape."

I'm not sure why Faith was enjoying sharing this story with me but she was. I guess she was entitle to a little fun. I just wasn't sure if it should come at my expense. Either way, it was nice to see her smile, to hear her laugh.

"The unusual part of this whole mess was that it was probably one of he few conquests of yours that I didn't hear about...until later anyway but by then it was pretty much common knowledge."

"You're kidding? I talked to you about my sex life?"

"Yeah you did and more often than not you did so in more detail that was really necessary."

For some reason, unknown to me, Faith enjoyed playing with my mind when it came to my sex life...that was a subject that should have been dropped...should have.

It was over a quick dinner that Faith continued my sexual history. I learned about someone named Nicole and how Faith went from hating her to taking her side. She told me how Nicole had only dated me 'cause it would piss off her father. I had a ton of questions only I was smart enough not to ask most of them. I never said I was a genius.

"So whatever happened with this Nicole?"

"Long story short, you accused her of being a slut and she broke up with you."

See what I mean...genius to dunce in a matter of seconds.

From there we continued driving around. She drove through almost all of what was 55-David's sector. Along the way I heard all about Tory as well as a few others who'd crossed my path.

"So did you ever like anyone I dated?"

"I liked Nicole...."

"Was that before or after I called her a slut?"

"After of course."

"I guess that answers that question. So did Fred and I ever get along or has he always hated me?"

"I guess there was a time that you two got along. For the most part, you were at least civil to one another. It was only during the past year or so that it got really bad between you two."

We stopped again, this time I was completely baffled by our location.

"What's this?"

"A bridge."

"I can see that," I replied to her obvious answer. "Why are we here?"

"We spent a lot of time here."

"We spent a lot of time at a bridge...an old bridge...a very old bridge that happens to be overgrown with weeds. So what's this all about...this bridge I mean?"

"Well it's like this," she began what sounded like a long story. "You had this thing where you didn't like to take certain calls. Sully used to get so mad."

She says this while laughing so I'm hoping there's a humorous spot in this story.

"Anyway, we'd come here and sit and we'd hear these calls come in for really stupid stuff."

"Stupid stuff? What kind of stupid stuff?"

"Calls that you felt didn't earn the description of an emergency. Anyway, we'd sit here, listening to all kinds of calls coming over the radio and you'd ignore them. Of course when you ignored them, guess who'd end up answering most of them?"

"Who?" I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"55-Charlie...Sully and Davis...Sully used to accuse you of modeling the uniform instead of working."

"Didn't the boss get mad at us for ignoring calls?"

"Nope, I guess they figured since you were working with me that I wouldn't be ducking calls so they didn't say anything."

"Ducking calls?"

"Ignoring calls...ducking calls....same thing."

"So the two of us worked together for a long time...how is it that we worked together for so long if we're so different?"

"Now that's the question everyone wanted an answer to."

"So what would be your answer be?"

"I guess if I had to answer I'd say it was because I knew you better than anyone else. Deep down you were a good cop. You had your own way of doing things sometimes which wasn't always good but sometimes your way worked the best. For instance, there was this time this little girl was missing...her mom was mixed up with drugs. Anyway, her aunt was here from Chicago looking for her. We were working on the case and I remember this aunt from Chicago questioning how you did things. I told her that if it was one of my kids was missing, you would be the guy I'd want out looking for her. I really believed that Bosco. When it came to that kind of thing...where kids were involved or people we knew...that side of you...that stubborn, determined side of you came through and you refused to give up."

"So this little girl that was missing....we found her?"

"Yeah we did...you did...she was okay. You know I kinda thought maybe you and the aunt might have gotten together had she not been from Chicago."

"And would you have approved of that one?"

"Sure....she was a doctor....she was smart but she was still down to earth you know? And she adored her niece. I mean she left her job to come here looking for her. What's not to like about that?"

"So what about us...you said we didn't hit it off right away but by the time we graduated from the academy, we were friends?"

"Yeah you helped me with the shooting range and I helped you with the written part."

"And then we met again at the 55th precinct and ended up partners. How'd that happen?"

"I needed a partner, you needed a partner. You had this delightful attitude and I don't think anyone else wanted to work with you."

"And you say this while laughing because why exactly?"

"Because I knew you...I knew that behind that attitude there was a good guy and a good cop. I was right about that. Sure we had some rough days but we were always able to work through them."

"So everyone at the 55th was happy about this but Fred didn't take it too well?"

"He did and he didn't. After I got shot he didn't want me to go back to being a cop. It's been a long time and being a cop was important to me. Despite everything that'd happened between you and me last year, I still knew there wasn't anyone I wanted for a partner more than you. I trusted you. After the shooting, something inside me said I wanted to be partners with you again."

"So what happened with me and Fred....that had to be about us working together right?"

"Yeah, partners who've been together as long as we had...they create a bond and the bond between us was strong. Fred didn't understand that...I'm not sure if he even tried. In a sense, I think that maybe he didn't understand it and he was jealous that we talked about so much of our personal lives."

"You mean my sex life?"

"That too."

"So did you talk about your sex life with Fred?"

"Not as much as I heard about your sex life but sometimes I did. Usually it was to get a reaction out of you."

"A reaction out of me? Like what kind of reaction?"

"Every time I'd bring up my sex life with Fred, you'd make this face...this face like you were disgusted by it. You never failed to make me laugh when you made that face. You would have thought after a while that you would have just ignored me when I brought up Fred."

"What did you expect? I mean come on Faith...look at you...look at Fred. He's not exactly the type I'd expect to see you with."

"And what type is that?"

"He's an ass for one thing. He thinks he doesn't do anything wrong...that everything is someone else's fault. How did you put up with that?"

"And what type do you see me with?"

"Someone you can talk to about stuff...someone who listens to you...someone who makes an effort to understand your job and what it means to you and not make you choose between your marriage and a career."

She sees humor in my thoughts which strikes me as odd but I go along with it.

"Now what?"

"You know there were people who met us for the first time that thought you and I were married?"

"And?"

"And I guess I understood it. I mean sometimes we did act like a married couple."

"Did we ever sleep together?"

I guess I caught her off guard with that question. It takes her a minute or so before she looks me in the eye but she eventually comes up with an answer.

"No, we didn't. I was married the whole time we were partners."

"So we didn't sleep together because we didn't want to or because you were married to Fred the whole time?"

"We didn't sleep together because you weren't the type to sleep with a married woman and I would never have slept with someone else when I was married."

"Okay so we didn't have sex...did I ever kiss you?"

There's that humor again. I don't remember anything about my life before the shooting so I wonder if I was funny back then.

"No," she says with a smile. "You didn't kiss me."

"But you kissed me last night..."

I can tell by her expression that she's surprised.

"I thought you were asleep last night."

"So if I'd been awake, you wouldn't have kissed me?"

"It's not that Bosco, it's..."

It's obvious I've made her uncomfortable and I didn't mean for that to happen.

"You don't have to answer that..." I said, trying to take back the question.

"It's okay Bosco," she said, collecting her thoughts. "It's just that I've known you for a long time...the person you were before this shooting anyway....he was one of the most complex people I'd ever met. Things happened in your life that a lot of people didn't know...most people didn't know but yet you trusted me enough to share them. Some of them were painful memories. That bond between us didn't develop over night. It took years and a lot of trust. Likewise, I shared a lot of things with you...sometimes things that I didn't even tell Fred. Sometimes I told you things before I told Fred. On the outside we looked like opposites but that's because that's the side of you that you let people see. I saw more than that. When you got shot, when you woke up and looked at me, there was something missing. You see, every time something happened to me, you'd drive everyone crazy until you knew I was okay. When you opened your eyes in the hospital, I knew something was missing. In the past, you would have seen me and there would have been this relief in your eyes when you saw me and when you realized that I was okay. I knew the moment you looked at me for the first time that something was very wrong."

"That's why you looked so sad?"

I can tell by her expression that she's not following what I'm talking about.

"When I first woke up, you were there. I remember you smiled at me and then in an instant that smile was gone and you looked sad. That was when you realized something was wrong wasn't it?"

"Yeah...that was when I realized it."

"I kept waiting for you to come back. It took a long time. When you did, you still looked sad. I guess I was confused as to why you smiled and then got so sad."

"I felt like I'd lost my best friend...like that guy I knew and trusted was gone. Then last night....after we left the station...after you recognized that guy from the furniture store...it was like I was seeing this side of you that I knew. In a way I guess I did but yet there's more to it than that. As complex as you were before, I think you're even more now. I mean if I'd awaken in the hospital with no memory I don't think I could have handled it the way you have. I know I wouldn't be smiling as much as you have and I certainly wouldn't be laughing and enjoying my life. It still amazes me that you could do that."

"I've had my share of bad days. I guess I just don't show it. You know what amazes me? You do...the way you stuck by me even though I don't remember anything about you or our past. A lot of people wouldn't have stuck with me. I'm sure a lot of people haven't. I just don't remember them to know if they have or not. When I was still in the hospital, this one nurse...Mary...she told me the best advice she could give me was to trust my instincts. My instincts told me to trust you and that's what I've tried to do."

"I'm glad you listened to Mary. I'm also glad you followed your instincts 'cause I can't imagine you not being a part of my life."

"Faith?"

"Yeah Bosco?"

"If my instincts told me to kiss you would you still be glad that I followed them?"

I was hoping her smile was a good sign. She placed her hands on my shoulders slowly sliding them up to my face. When I kissed her for the first time, she didn't slap me and I think that was a good sign. Good enough for me to kiss her again. The fact that she kissed me back and that the kisses that followed grew with intensity...that was more than a good sign. I hoped that I'd put an end to that sad look I'd seen in her eyes.