Unlocking the steel door that was painted blue, Bosco ushered Faith into his home. Closing the door behind them, he kicked off his shoes as he watched her, trying to gauge her reaction.

"It's nothin' much, but it's mine," he said quietly. Faith looked at him, forcing a smile through the sadness. "Living room, kitchen, bedrooms and bathroom down the hall," he said pointing in the direction of each room.

Faith stepped into the large, bright living room and oddly, she felt a sense of home; a sense of Bosco. She had thought it would be strange walking through the door, like entering a new, strange world.

But instead all she felt was Bosco. She smelled him; she felt his energy swirl around her in the air. She looked around and spotted the framed photos sprinkled around the room. Faith's breath stopped when she saw that many of them were of her and Bosco. She had no idea that he even had any pictures.

There were pictures from the very beginning of their partnership, up until just a few weeks before he left. There were even some of her kids.

"Bos, where did you get all these?" she asked, picking one up and turning to him. He smiled shyly, and blushed slightly.

"Lots of places. I have connections you know," he joked. "You gave me some; the ones of you and the kids. I got the others from anyone who I had ever seen take a picture of us over the years."

She smiled as she set down the frame that she held in her hands. Rose must have taken the photo. They day Bosco left the hospital. She had never seen the pictures from that day, but she knew just by looking at it. She would never forget anything about that day. His hair was long and shaggy, his clothes were baggy. But he looked good, healthy, and ready to leave the hospital. They sat next to each other on the sofa in his apartment, staring at each other smiling when the picture was snapped.

"This one's nice," she said turning around as he walked toward her. He nodded as his hand lazily scratched at his stomach. He had taken his glasses off and laid them on the small table near the front door. She smiled when she saw him looking more like himself.

"I barely have any pictures…of us." She looked back down at the picture she just held in her hand and the others surrounding it.

"You want something to eat?" he asked, breaking her intent focus on the mini glossy versions of the two of them. When she looked up to him, he caught the sadness in her eyes, before the fondness took over when she met his gaze.

"Are you saying that you could make me something?" she asked, half joking, half genuinely shocked at the prospect.

"Okay, do you really think I changed that much?" He stared at her with an eyebrow raised, his mouth half curled in a smirk.

"I don't know, maybe. For all I know you are a regular chef now. It could be just another trick you use to charm the ladies," she said with a laugh, slightly turning away and shoving her hands the pockets of her jeans.

Bosco was quiet for a moment, his smile light but still present.

"There really haven't been any ladies," he said softly, waiting for her eyes to meet his. When they finally did, they were wide in surprise. She had known that he wasn't the same confident Bosco that she had first met, but she had never expected him to give up women all together.

"I meant what I said that night," he continued, taking a hesitant step closer to her. "I meant it when I said that you were the only good thing in my life."

Faith had completely forgotten about his words. As they had stood next to his car in the very early hours of the morning the day he left, their arms wrapped around each other as they said goodbye after having been up for hours talking and just sitting in the quiet before falling asleep together on her couch, she had tried not to believe that he had meant anything more with those words other than the fact that they were partners; that she was the one person he could depend on to always be there.

Now though, looking at the sheer desperation and will for her to understand etched in his eyes, she let herself go to that place; the place that was buried deep in a far corner of her mind that she fought constantly to stay away from. It was the place where she let herself revel in the pure essence of Bosco. It was the only place in the world where the possibility of loving Bosco as more than a friend existed.

Looking at Bosco as he took another tentative step towards her, Faith felt that surge of emotion she felt in those odd moments when she traveled to that place pour through her and overtake all of her senses.

When he reached her, Bosco brought his hands to her upper arms, taking them in his grip. Faith's expression was blank and unreadable. Bosco searched her face, annoyed that she had learned to hide her emotions from him.

"Faith, I need you to know that thinking about you is the only thing that keeps me sane. I could never have survived these last fourteen years without you, let alone the past two years. This year here, I knew I had to get better for one reason. You."

She continued to stare at him blankly, but she wasn't really seeing him. She listened to the softness of his voice and felt the firm but gentle grasp that he had of her arms, but to her, what he was saying made no sense. He was telling her everything that she had wanted to hear for as long as she could remember.

But that wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to see her as his partner, his friend who mothered him constantly. He wasn't supposed to feel the same way about her that she fought to not feel about him.

"Faith?" He whispered, his face only inches from hers. Faith pulled her head back slightly, so she could clearly see his eyes. "Are you hearing me?"

Saying nothing, she nodded numbly as he slid his hands over her shoulders, brushing her hair off of her neck before cupping her cheeks in his hands. Faith stared at Bosco's face, his smile slightly wider than before. She felt his eyes drift from hers and settle on her mouth before he slowly leaned in and gently brushed his lips against hers.

Even with the intimacy of his hands on her face, she hadn't really expected for him to kiss her. Faith felt herself melt into his hands, taking fistfuls of his shirt at his sides to steady herself as she completely relaxed into him, her legs weakening beneath her.

The room around them faded away as the kiss deepened between them. Bosco's mouth opened, begging Faith for entry. He needed to taste her, she needed the same. Faith pulled him as close to her as he could get, their bodies pressing together.

Bosco felt her pulse quicken under his hand as is moved to caress her neck and pull her in, trying to get even closer to her. When air started to become an issue, they finally slowed and ultimately broke apart, but didn't step back from each other.

He looked into her eyes, trying to determine if that was the right move to make. When he saw the far off look that her features held, he smirked to himself as he ran his left hand through her hair feeling the silky length before bringing it back to her face.

"Bos," Faith started after a moment, breaking through both of their dazed states. "What are we doing?" she asked quietly, bringing her hands up to his arms feeling the tight muscles under his shirt.

He sighed heavily, letting his hands fall to her shoulders and taking a step back separating their bodies. He pulled his eyes from her and hung his head and looked to the floor.

"I…uh…sorry…"

"Don't be sorry," she said, cutting him off. Removing her hands from his arms, she reached up and forced him to look at her, tilting his face upwards, keeping her hands on his chin. "I don't need you to be sorry. I just need to know what's changed."

Smiling, he reached up and covered her hands with his own.

"Nothing. Nothing's changed Faith. Not really. There's just nothing in the way now." Bosco's voice was quiet and low and his features were gentle and inviting. "I thought you would have figured it out years ago," he finished with a slight chuckle.

Shaking her head as if trying to force everything that was floating in her head to fall into place, she looking away and a laugh of disbelieve found its way from her lips.

"Bos, what does that mean?" Faith asked, taking her hands from his and stepping back from him. She looked at him, seeing the answers she wanted evident in his face, but she didn't understand when this happened. She didn't understand how she could have been so ignorant of it.

"Do ya really want me to spell it out?" Bosco said sarcastically, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Yeah, I do." She turned away from him before turning back and walking to him again.

"Faith, you know I love you. You have to know, after everything that we've been through. You have to know I would anything for you."

"And I do know that you would do anything for me. I would do anything for you, too. That's what partners do, Bosco. And I know you love me. You aren't friends with someone for fourteen years without loving them. But I just want to know when things changed. When did it become more than that, more than friendship?" Faith stared at him as her voice echoed through the room.

"Faith," he started barely above a whisper. "I don't think it was ever just friendship." He looked away from her as he finished, afraid to see her reaction. He had thought that she felt the same, but her reaction after he kissed her and all of her questions left him wondering if he had misjudged her feelings toward him.

As silence settled around them, both of them uncertain of what to say next, they looked anywhere but at each other. With a heavy sigh, Bosco finally looked to Faith to see her staring at the picture of them that she held just a few minutes earlier and had what appeared to be complete surprise plastered across her face.

"Forget it. Let's just get something to eat," he said, turning away from her and marching himself into the small, bright kitchen.

"Wait. Bosco," Faith started when she looked up to see his retreating form. She quickly followed him into the kitchen where he held the refrigerator door open, staring at the contents blankly.

"We aren't gonna forget it. Bosco, you basically just told me that you're in love with me and have been for a long time. How did you expect me to react?" Faith stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips, waiting for an explanation.

Bosco stood straight and pushed the fridge door closed as he turned to face her. He said nothing but instead waited for her to continue. He didn't want to hear her explain why she didn't love him. And as he stood there, that's what he most feared would come from her mouth.

Faith stepped toward him, wringing her hands together as she tried to find the right thing to say to him.

"I didn't know how to react because I never expected you to say that to me, Bosco. I'm hardly your type," she said quietly, but Bosco cut her off before she could get any further.

"Come on, don't pull that, Faith," he said, his voice harsh and annoyed.

"I'm not pulling anything! Will you just let me finish?" she snapped back at him with equal force in her voice. "I'm trying to tell you that I didn't know what to say because I never expected you to feel about me the way I feel about you."

Faith breathed out heavily, relieved that for the first time in her life she had admitted her feelings about Bosco. He finally met her eyes and this time it was he who was surprised. He had expected her to go on a tangent about how they were friends and nothing would ever change that. He had expected to have to spend the rest of her visit pretending that nothing happened, and like he was okay with them being just friends.

Instead she was standing in front of him, looking as irritated as he had ever seen her after just having told him exactly what he wanted to hear. Bosco stared at her, his eyebrow raised.

Faith's annoyance quickly faded when Bosco took a large stride toward her and took her face in his hands, bringing his lips to hers in a soft lingering kiss. As they finally pulled apart, he leaned his forehead on hers.

Faith leaned into him and wrapped her arms around his waist, before hugging him completely, leaning her head into his neck. Bosco's arm encircled her and his hands gently rubbed her back. He smiled to himself as he squeezed her.

"Bos," Faith whispered into his shoulder after several moments.

"Yeah," he answered, not moving away from her.

"I'm glad I came."

Bosco let out a light laugh at her words and kissed the top of her head. "Took ya long enough," he said sarcastically.

She let out a small laugh that turned into a sigh into his shirt as she gripped him tighter. She wasn't sure how she had gone a year without seeing him, without smelling him, without simply being in his presence. And she really wasn't sure what was going to happen when she had to go back to New York.