Disclaimer: I don't own Third Watch...please don't sue me. However, did you all see that episode on Friday night? I was practically freaking out in my living room! I totally thought that Faith was gonna blame it on Cruz...but our Faith, is always doing the right thing, isn't she? Oh, I can't wait until next week. Does anybody want to take bets on what's gonna happen? I totally hope that she and Bosco are gonna get together! Hopefully, some of the TW writers have read our stories and know that we want Bosco and Faith together! TOGETHER! On to the story. Thanks for reviewing all the time. It sure makes me want to write better! Love you guys!

A Little Piece of Heaven

After being late for work, Faith and I both got a reprimand from Lieu. He tried hard to sound stern but I could tell that he was pleased to see us back together. Usually, the Precinct didn't want to see its Officers in a relationship, but in our case it always seemed to slide. Swersky had told me one time that Faith was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I agreed with him one hundred percent.

It seemed that I had the world by the tail. I had Faith back in my arms, a job that I loved and friends that I could count on. Both Sasha and Ty had become good friends to us. Friends that would last a lifetime. It was too bad that they had broken up or we could have gone out and done things together. I had hopes for the two of them getting back together, but when I mentioned it to Ty he didn't want to discuss it. I knew that Faith still talked to Sasha about it sometimes but she never told me what was said. It was a girl thing and I knew better than to pry. Still, I was getting accustomed to thinking more like a couple instead of a single person. Now that we were getting married I knew that I wouldn't ever be thinking like a single guy again.

The funny thing was that I wasn't scared of making that commitment. As a matter of fact, I was really looking forward to slipping that ring on Faith's finger and making her my wife. I was already thinking about where I'd take her on our honeymoon. I hoped that she'd get some kind of sexy outfit for our wedding night. She looked fantastic in black. As a mental note to myself I decided to buy her something myself just for the occasion.

We had already talked about asking Ty and Sasha to stand up for us as best man and maid of honor. I had my doubts as to whether or not we'd get both of them, given the circumstances, but we decided to ask them anyway. We were thinking of having a small wedding, nothing too fancy and we wanted it soon. It felt good to have something other than death and sadness to concentrate on.

We had gotten back to our regular routine pretty fast, considering all that had happened. But from that day on, we had gone about our lives together with a new zest. Everything seemed better, the world brighter and I felt that both of us were happier than we'd ever been. Faith still had times that she would regress and get into a depression over Emily and Charlie but that was to be expected. I knew that our wedding day would be mixed with joy and sorrow. Emily and Charlie should have been at our wedding. They should have been allowed to partake in our day of love, which would have been a new beginning for all of us. It was going to be hard to walk down that isle and look at the place where they should have been sitting and know that it was Fred that had put them in the ground. But I loved Faith so much that I vowed in my heart to make her as happy as humanly possible.

It was fall and with each new color of the leaves I felt myself feeling that our lives were going to change. It was a feeling of hope and renewal. The red, orange, and gold leaves a symbol of time and of love eternal. The trees, especially, reminded me that no matter how much I changed or how much she changed, we would always be together. Changing each other into something new and exciting. I kept all of the poetic notions to myself. Although, Faith knew how much I loved the fall and suggested that we go on nature walks through Central Park and other places. Feeling the crunching of the leaves beneath our feet and feeling the cool air on our faces brought me to a wonderful place. I felt at home with her. Like there was nothing that could tear us apart.

The fall always reminded me of my brother and how we would rake up all of the leaves we could find and jump into them, letting the sweet smell of nature into our nostrils as we rolled around, laughing and giggling. When Faith and I would walk through the forest, I would always be reminded of Mikey and how he used to make me laugh. Time had passed and our relationship had changed into one of brothers who didn't even know each other. I missed him and most of all, I knew that I had to die knowing that I could have done more for him and I hadn't. Still, the days of fall held me in her hand, urging me forth, on to a new life.

It was Faith's idea for us to have our wedding on December 31st. She had always wanted a New Years Eve wedding and I agreed that it was kind of romantic. The winter in New York was always beautiful with it's trees all lit up and the snow falling gracefully on it's sleepy city, making us feel bad for grumbling about the cold weather. It seemed to fit, us getting married at the very beginning of the new year. I had to admit that I was really excited about it.

So, here we were, at the end of October and planning the rest of our lives. I wasn't sure how Faith was going to feel about it, but I had decided on taking her to Boca Ratan for our honeymoon. I had thought for a long time about it and really wanted her to know how much I cared. I cashed in some savings bonds that I had had for about five years. It covered all of the expenses, and the best part was that she didn't even know I had done it. As far as she new, we were going to have to save every penny to cover the cost of the actual wedding. My ma had offered for us to have our reception at her bar, which we accepted. Faith and my ma had always got along really well, and ever since we had got back together they had become thicker than thieves. It made me happy, though. Faith didn't get along with her parents at all and I think that she kind of saw my ma as the mother she never had. I knew it made my ma happy, too, because she always favored Faith over any other girl I had ever dated.

The first few weeks of November went well. Sasha and Ty had both agreed to stand up for us and Sasha had turned out to be a god-send to Faith. She had thrown herself into the preparations and was now Faith's right-hand-woman. She and Faith called each other at least four or five times a day, that was including all of the time they spent clustered together at work in the locker room. There wasn't a moment that they weren't comparing swatches of this and that. I was glad that Sasha was around to do all of the things that I wasn't interested in. What did I know about swatches?

There wasn't even one part of my day that didn't deal with flowers, colors or the wedding dress itself, other than our job as Police Officers, and for that, I was grateful. We had stopped eating our evening meal together as well. Faith and Sasha had decided that they just didn't have enough time to go over things, so the only logical solution was for me to drop her off at Haggerty's to meet Sasha for supper when they could both get away.

The first time that we 'met' Sasha for supper, I actually thought that my input was needed. After all, I was the husband-to-be and I had a right to give my opinion, didn't I? Wrong.

We entered the restaurant and went to the back where Sasha was waiting for us. At first, I didn't even recognize her, for all of the fabric and flowers and candles that were sitting on our table. It looked like she had broken into a wedding shop and grabbed whatever she could, as fast as she could, and came directly to Haggerty's. I groaned audibly, earning an elbow in the stomach from my betrothed.

"The least you could do is pretend to be excited." The love of my life growled at me before taking a seat at the table.

"I am excited. I am so excited I can hardly breathe." I said in an overly dramatic way.

That earned me an eye roll from the Maid of Honor.

"I can't believe that you got all of this stuff so fast. You're a genius, Sash!" Faith gushed, while picking up some of the candles and smelling them.

Sasha grinned and pulled up a briefcase from underneath the table, proudly setting in front of where my place mat was.

"And, there's more swatches in here so we don't have to go back to Cassley's to see if it all matches."

"I knew there was a reason I asked you to be my Maid of Honor!"

"Ummm. Swatches. Mind if I move this a bit so I can order some food?" I asked, really just wanting to order a big burger and fries.

"Bosco. You need to look at these and tell me what you think." Faith lectured me, opening the case up and pulling out two small pieces of fabric. "Now. Do you like the rose? Or would you rather the plum?" She asked me, in all seriousness. I stiffled a laugh.

"You want to know what one I like"?

Her head bobbed up and down. She reminded me of the big bad wolf. One wrong answer and she would eat me for dinner. I know I should not have found it amusing, but I did.

I put my finger to my lips and pretended to look at the fabric as if it fascinated me.

"Well, given the texture of this particular piece of cloth, and the blatantly ugly color of the other; I would say neither. And I would say that I am hungry and I want to eat." I said, as I ran my hand over the swatch.

"Oh, shut up!" My bride-to-be hissed at me as she snatched her precious swatches from my grasp.

"You're such a baby." Sasha said, rolling her eyes.

"You're such a baby". I mimicked back to her. I was hungry. I didn't want to look at fabric and candles and all of that crap.

"Bosco. Why don't you just eat your dinner at the bar? That way we can get some stuff done and you can stop bothering us." Faith said, pointing toward the front of the room.

I had been dismissed. Huffing, I stood up from my seat and stuck my tongue out at Sasha, while reaching out for one of the candles. Sasha saw me and grabbed it and opened the briefcase and set it inside.

"No preschoolers allowed." She said as she smirked at me.

I opened my mouth to speak when Faith pointed to the bar again. " Now, Bosco!" She ordered.

"Fine. I don't care about your stupid stuff anyway. I"m gonna go get a burger." I whined.

I heard the trail of their laughter behind me as I made my way to the front of Haggerty's. I ordered myself a cheeseburger platter and a big coke to drink.

I looked back at them, listening to their laughter and excitement. I shook my head as I heard Sasha say the word 'honeymoon'. Then, another round of laughter.

A man beside me leaned forward as I stared to eat my dinner.

"You gettin'married?"

"Yup." I said, as I bit into my burger.

"How soon?"

"About six weeks."

"You know it never ends, don't you? The giggling and laughing and the ordering you around?"

"Ya. I'm startin'to notice that." I said.

He stood up to pay his tab and patted me on the back. "Good luck to ya. I hope you got a strong heart." He laughed.

"The strongest." I said, grinning back at him.

I took a look back at Faith and laughed out loud. "The strongest." I said to myself. "The strongest."

That was the one and only time I had been invited to go over wedding materials with them. To tell you the truth, it was just fine with me.

Oh, it seemed that nothing could get in our way. We were both working steady, both back in 55- David, working together side-by-side every day. No one could understand how we could do that, spend all of that time together and not get sick of each other. I would just grin to myself, knowing that no one had what we had. It made me feel great. Don't get me wrong. I know I'm no picnic to work with, or that's what everyone else says, but when I was with Faith, I just became a better man.

I should have known that something would happen to burst our bubble. That we could never go very far without some downfall to knock us over. I don't know why I didn't see it coming, it's not like she was always healthy and we never expected it. I guess we thought that it wouldn't happen again.

I look back now and realize that no one is ever far from death. We try and outrun it every chance we get and still seem surprised when it knocks on our door and takes us by the hand. We had seen so much of it and yet we never seemed to understand that it is always waiting to turn us back to dust.

Death is a lonely soul, feeding on those who are too weak and sick to stop him. He wants us all and will patiently wait until the time comes when he can carry us away. Like a noose tied tightly around our necks, he squeezes until our life has been snuffed out and he is all we have left to cling to.

I can only imagine her fright on that day, when they told her she was really sick this time. How her heart must have jumped in her chest and her eyes fill with tears, because she would have known that this was the last stop. She would have gone home and shut out all the lights, locking herself away from everyone who loved her.

It would be weeks before she told anyone what was going on. Weeks that I could have used to let her know how much I loved her. Weeks that could have been spent together, spending each precious moment just getting in some more time before the curtain fell.

I wish I could say that I wasn't angry at her for leaving me. I wish that I had known what she was going through and most of all, I wished that I had taken the time to see that she was getting sick again.

It was the end of November when she finally told me that the cancer was back. She took me into the back room of the bar, avoiding my eyes, making me realize that she had something on her mind.

She poured a shot for me and two for her. As I gulped that shot down, I knew I was about to hear something that I wouldn't like. And for years after, I still thought about this day and how it was one of the last conversations I ever had with my mother.

My ma had a bout with Cancer when I was twenty. It had gone into remission and we thought that after this long that there wasn't a chance of it returning. We were wrong.

As I sat there, that fateful day, and listened to her tell me that she only had a matter of weeks to live, I felt all of the anger that had been inside of me when Emily and Charlie had died, return.

I yelled at her. I cried. I couldn't believe that she hadn't told us sooner. Now it was only a matter of weeks. She probably wouldn't even live to see me get married.

I threw my shot glass to the floor and ran out of the bar. I left her standing there, tears blurring her vision. How much longer would it be until things stopped happening to us?

I ran until my side ached and was filled with pain. I came to stop, not knowing where I had run to. In my blur, I hadn't looked where I was going. I closed my eyes, while trying to catch my breath. I had so many questions about life and prayed to God that he would give her more time.

I pleaded with him to give me a sign. A sign I got, for when I opened my eyes and looked around, I saw that I was standing in front of a funeral parlor.

TBC