A Cold Winter's Night
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original characters or places.
SPOILER WARNINGS!!!
AU WARNINGS!!!
Premise: Bosco and Little Finney are on patrol together on Christmas Eve 2005. A call goes array and they find themselves in an alternative universe.
Rating: G to PG -13, not sure.
Christmas Eve, 2005
"You're doing it again."
"What?"
"You're doing it again!"
"What?!"
"Singing" Bosco grumbled.
The last year and a half had been a very difficult one for Maurice Boscorelli, beginning with his brother's horrible death and then his own near death experience. After spending weeks in a coma and several more weeks in physical therapy, he was finally cleared to work the desk at the beginning of 2005. But he still continued rehabilitating for the next three months before being cleared for the streets.
Although he'd grumbled about working the desk, being back on the streets was much more difficult an adjustment than Bosco had expected. His anxiety level was extremely high and he found himself fearing those same calls he would have jumped to take before. The first time he'd had to deal with a perp with a gun, he thought his heart was going to jump out of his chest. He was glad that he had been riding with John Sullivan that day. No matter how much he'd complained about Sully in the past, he knew that Sully could handle himself on the street and would have his back.
All in all, a lot had changed while Bosco had been in the hospital. Faith and Fred had divorced, something he still found hard to believe. Faith and Cruz had developed some kind of unspoken bond that he didn't think he'd ever understand. Ty and Sully had gone through some major difficulties, but it seemed that their relationship was stronger now than ever before. Sasha Monroe had been exposed as a rat, an IAB operative. Bosco had to wonder if she'd initially been sent in to investigate him and Cruz. And still felt a little betrayed knowing that she rode with him and asked him personal questions while being undercover. He had thought of her as a friend and now it was difficult to know what had been real and what had been fake. But she'd managed to redeem herself, at least in some ways. She had helped take down C.T. Finney, one of the head honchos in IAB, and the father of his partner of the night, Brendan Finney.
Brendan Finney, or Little Finney as Sully referred to him behind his back, had had a difficult year himself. From the very beginning everyone had judged him based on his father's reputation. And things had gotten worse before they'd gotten better. After C.T. Finney's exposure as Ty Davis, Sr.'s killer and his ultimate death, Brendan had taken a leave of absence from the force. He'd based his whole life's goals on his false ideas about his father and on trying to make the man proud. He'd become a cop because it was what was expected. And finding out the truth about the man he'd always respected, shattered Brendan's world. But in the end, he decided that being a cop was really what he wanted, and that he had to be his own person and make his own way on the force. So despite the disbelief of many of his colleagues, he'd asked Lieutenant Swersky if he could come back.
He and Bosco had both been through a number of partners as Swerky tried to match them both up with someone. But a couple of weeks ago, Swersky had decided to put them together. Bosco had been out when everything with C.T Finney went down, so he didn't have the same hesitancy towards Finney as many of the others did. And Swersky felt it would be good for Bosco to focus on training a younger officer. He'd recognized Bosco's insecurity over the last few months and felt that this might be a chance for him to build up his confidence again. Swerksy's superiors thought he'd lost his mind, but other than a lot of friendly bickering, the two officers seemed to be working well together. Well, most of the time.
"You're doing it again!"
"What?!"
"Singing" Bosco grumbled.
"What? What's wrong with a little Christmas spirit?" Finney argued.
"Just keep your Christmas spirit to yourself." Bosco growled.
Brendan shook his head and looked back out the window at the falling snow. He'd been depressed for the larger part of the year. But just recently, things had been starting to look up. Grace Foster had stuck by him, even when he'd been so angry that he could barely stand himself. And in the last few weeks, something had changed. He'd decided he loved her, truly loved her. And tonight after the shift he was planning to tell her just that.
And so he found himself humming or singing Christmas songs and riding in the car with the Grinch himself. He'd never met Bosco before the shooting incident, but he'd heard about it and was impressed. Yeah, he'd heard other things about Bosco from some of the other cops, some not so good things. But the guy took four bullets to protect his partner, which in Brendan Finney's book made him an ok guy. An ok guy, but still a grump. He had more mood swings than a premenstrual woman. And tonight was no exception.
"You know, a little Christmas spirit wouldn't hurt you, man." Finney pointed out.
Bosco just glared at him. He hated to work during a snow storm, but more than that he was tired. He hadn't slept well for the last week because he'd been dreaming about Mikey. Mikey had always loved Christmas and this season Bosco just couldn't seem to get Mikey off of his mind. For the first time in a long time on Christmas Eve, he didn't want to be working. He wanted to spend the evening with Rose before going to mass with her.
The radio came to life. "55-David, we have report of a possible jumper on the Clairmont Bridge."
"Great" Bosco mumbled, as Finney flipped the lights and siren.
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Bosco and Brendan pulled up to the bridge around 8:00 PM. It was a smaller, older bridge that was now used as part of a walking and biking trail. There was still a nice tributary of water below it, although it was usually frozen over at this time a year. And as had been reported, there was a woman standing on one of the concrete rails, looking down at the water below.
Bosco stopped to talk to the man that had called the incident in. He quickly gathered that the woman was the man's wife. They'd had a fight and she'd left home upset. The husband found her here, but she'd climbed onto the railing when he'd tried to get her to come home. So he'd called the police.
Meanwhile Brendan headed out onto the bridge.
"Hey" Bosco called out, leaving the man behind and catching up to Brendan. "What are you doing? Just stay back and let me handle this." Bosco ordered, grabbing Brendan's arm and pulling him to a stop just a few yards from the woman.
"I've dealt with jumpers before." Brendan grumbled, pulling his arm out of Bosco's grasp and stepping closer. He eased over to the edge of the bridge, still a couple of yards from the would be jumper. Looking over the edge he commented. "Hey, Lady. I don't think you want to jump from there. The water's all frozen over. It's gonna hurt for sure and probably won't kill you." Brendan stopped abruptly as Bosco pulled him back away from the woman and the bridge railing.
"What are you doing? What kind of approach is that? I told you to stop and let me handle this." Bosco started, only to have Brendan arguing back at him.
The woman looked at the two in astonishment. They were supposed to be keeping her from jumping to her death, but were too busy arguing like school children. She cleared her throat. "Um…excuse me. But it's cold up here."
Both officers stopped abruptly and looked up at the woman on the bridge railing. Brendan started to speak, but Bosco pushed him back slightly and stepped toward the woman.
"Ma'am, we need you to step down from there before you get hurt." He instructed calmly.
"But I can't. I'm going to jump." The lady replied.
"What's going on, Ma'am?" Bosco questioned. "It's Christmas Eve. Surely things can't be so bad that you want to kill yourself on Christmas Eve."
"Christmas is ruined. That's the problem." The woman replied, and broke down in tears.
"It's ok, Ma'am. Just take it easy." Bosco soothed, as Brendan slowly made his way around to the other side of the woman. "What's the problem, Ma'am? Maybe we can help you." Bosco suggested.
"Our Christmas tree burned and destroyed all the presents. We don't have the money to buy more presents for the kids. My husband doesn't understand. I couldn't help that I was laid off from my job. Or that Andy had to have his asthma medicine. Or that our car broke down. And I didn't exactly get pregnant again by myself." She cried, her whole body shaking.
"Madeline, I didn't mean that. I was just angry." The husband replied as he approached.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME, STEVEN! STAY AWAY! I'LL JUMP!"
"Sir, just step back, ok." Bosco instructed, holding a hand up to motion to the man.
"Ma'am, please just calm down. You're upset. But you don't want to hurt yourself, now do you?" Bosco questioned, glaring at Finney as he made a step towards the distracted woman then stopped.
The woman sniffled loudly. "I don't know. I'm so cold."
Bosco had eased up to the edge of the railing, just a few feet from the woman. Looking over, he commented, "You know, Ma'am. I don't think you want to jump from there. The water's all frozen over. It's gonna hurt for sure and probably won't kill you."
"It won't?" The woman asked, looking back down at the ice covered water.
"No, it won't. So why don't you come down?" Bosco asked, as Finney made another step closer to the woman, but caught her attention this time.
"STAY BACK!" the woman screamed at Finney, taking a quick step away from him and towards Bosco only to place her foot down on an icy spot on the snow covered railing.
She stumbled and began to fall forward as Bosco grabbed her. But he wasn't able to stop her from tumbling over the bridge railing and, in fact, found himself being pulled over as well by the woman's weight. Grabbing frantically for the railing with one hand, while trying to hold onto the pregnant woman with the other, he felt Finney's hands briefly grabbing at his pants leg and then was over the railing and falling head first towards the ice covered tributary.
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Disclaimer #2: I do not own the Grinch.