Obsession (13/13)

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A/N: That's it, guys. Story's over. I'd like to thank you all once again for sticking around and providing such amazing feedback. You're the best.

Stay tuned for further updates on my latest fic, "Beyond Repair", and for whatever will come out if my twisted mind next... lol

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Epilogue
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Bosco slumped down on the couch and sighed in defeat. "I'm beat. Please tell me we're done for the night." He stretched his legs in front of him and rested his head back against the cushions.

It had been almost 24 hours since the shooting, but it was still hard to walk around his apartment without seeing Faith's terrified face or Charlie's body sprawled on the ground next to his television set.

His left arm was in a sling though it didn't hurt anymore. The wound had requested a couple of stitches and the occasional dose of painkillers he'd become all too familiar with; the whole ordeal had given him new thoughts he could torture himself with in the middle of the night.

If I'd just moved faster, thought smarter, fought harder...

"Yeah. Pizza should be here soon." Faith replied as she sat down beside him and perched one foot on the brand-new coffee table. Well it wasn't exactly new, but after all that had happened she hadn't thought twice before loading the one she owned on Fred's truck and showing up at his doorstep to help him clear the mess.

It wasn't like anyone was going to complain after all. She was the only one living in the place.

"That table's not staying," he informed her, eyes still closed.

"Oh, come on Bos, we already talked about this."

"You talked about this, Faith, I just listened. What was I supposed to do, send you back home with that thing on your shoulders?"

She smiled, just as he'd hoped she would, then got up from the couch and walked over to the window.

Silence stretched for a moment or two as she leaned against its frame and stared off into the distance. Bosco sensed the change in her mood and closed his eyes again, running a hand through his hair as he patiently waited for her to say whatever it was that was bothering her.

"He said he loved me," she finally whispered, staring at the old picture of her prom night she'd pulled out of her pocket.

Charlie had one arm proudly wrapped around her waist while she smiled shyly at the camera in her beautiful lilac dress. One of the rare moments in the Mitchell's family when her father had bothered to get up from his favourite sofa for a reason other than to grab a new bottle of booze.

She couldn't remember giving it to him, but it surprised her that he still had it.

"Love is a complex feeling, you know," he admitted in a hushed voice. "People spend most of their lives trying to understand it."

"I can't..." her voice trailed off. She cleared her throat and tried again. "That woman would still be alive if it wasn't for me."

Bosco uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. "Faith, don't. Not again. It's not your fault and you know it."

She nodded unconvincingly and watched the rain flow down the road like a river.

No matter how many times he'd told her that, she still felt responsible for the loss of those three lives. In a twisted kind of way, seeing Charlie had also brought back memories of what her life had been, and though she tried to suffocate the feeling and deny that it was true, she realized that she'd missed him.

She'd missed the guy who waited for her every day after school just to walk her home, who stood at the bottom of the stairs, eyes wide with surprise as she hesitantly made her way down, who'd kissed her under her parents' porch on a clear summer night. One night that now seemed a million miles away.

She was sad for whatever had caused the death of that man and had replaced him with another one she barely recognized.

The thought that he was the one behind it all had never crossed her mind, not once as she read the notes he'd sent or held his gifts in her trembling hands. It wasn't his face she'd pictured as she lay awake at night or checked the bolts on every window. Did that make her a bad cop?

The question remained unanswered.

Faith turned her head and looked at Bosco. If anything good had come out of this, it had been the rebirth of their friendship and the consolidation of their loyalty to one another. Against all odds, 55-David was back.

"Penny for your thought," he said as he motioned for her to sit down again.

She gave him a small smile and walked over to him, lowering herself onto the couch. "I was just thinking I'm glad we worked things out."

Bosco lowered his gaze. "Yeah. When you told me to go away... I thought it was forever. Thank you. For coming to me that night."

"Thanks for helping me out," she replied.

He shrugged. "I think you did perfectly fine by yourself."

"Then thank you for caring."

"Yeah, well apparently there's someone else who cared about you and me enough to send a squad here."

Faith nodded. A few minutes after the shootout, Sully and Davis had showed up at Bosco's apartment. Sensing that the abandoned car and the location marked on the map had been a set-up to lure the police away from the real scene, Swersky had told them to check on Bosco and make sure he got all the help he needed.

In the gray Ford Charlie'd planned to use to leave the city, they'd found a laptop that had probably helped him find Bosco's address, and the cell phone that he' d used to make the call to the hospital.

Detective Johnson had shaken Faith's hand and apologized for not figuring the whole thing out in time. His excuses had seemed genuine, and in the general relief that had followed the news that the case had been closed and the suspect had been killed, they'd all agreed to forget about the past and every old misunderstanding.

"So, what did Fred say?" Bosco asked, changing the subject.

Faith chuckled. "He wants the truck by nine."

"Figures."

"He said he had no idea that Charlie felt that way about me. I guess in high school he was too busy telling everyone I was his girlfriend to really pay attention to what was going on around him."

"Can't say that I blame him," he shrugged again.

Faith raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He grinned. "Well, I mean, with a girl like you, I'd be pretty damn proud too."

His words struck her, and she gazed at him in surprise. Was it a joke, or had he actually complimented her?

The answer she found in his eyes made all her doubts disappear. "Thanks, Bos," she said as she put one hand on top of his. "That's one of the nicest things you've ever told me."

"You're welcome." He looked away from her and smiled to himself.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Bosco?" she asked again, an inquiring tone in her voice.

"This just reminded me of a song, you know?"

"Yeah? What song?"

He kept smiling, unable to meet her gaze. "An old song."

Faith slapped him playfully on the arm. "Come on! You wanna tell me about it or do I have to beg you?"

"Okay, but don't tell me I didn't warn you." Bosco smirked at her and started singing. "If I had a girl and she was mine..."

She rolled her eyes. "Oh please... Daddy's song again?"

"Hey, it's a beautiful song!" he said, pretending to be hurt. "Even Davis agreed to it."

"Whatever."

There was a moment of silence as they both leaned back on the couch.

"Faith?"

"Yeah."

"How are you?"

She turned to look at him. "I'm alive."

THE END