Off Duty

Chapter 156

As he pounded on the door again, he now knew why Kim hadn't answered her cell phone. The music coming from the other side was loud - and so were the voices. Finally, someone had heard him and the door opened. He recognized the face from somewhere, but he couldn't remember where; either a cop, firefighter or medic. He nodded his head in a curt greeting and stepped inside.

"Have you seen Kim Boscorelli?" he asked, the question falling on deaf ears as the guy turned away not knowing that Bosco had asked him a question.

"Great," he thought to himself as he surveyed the mass of people. Everyone seemed in a good mood. "Lucky them," he mumbled to himself as he started to walk through the crowd and searched for a familiar face.

He asked a couple of people along the way if they'd seen Kim and was directed toward the other side of the apartment.

He was startled as someone grabbed him from behind, throwing an arm around his shoulders.

"Bosco!" Doc yelled into his ear. "Glad you could make it, Man. Kim said you wouldn't be here."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't planning on it. Look, have you seen Kim? I really need to talk to her," Bosco said, managing to break free of Doc's grasp and noticing the strange look on Doc's face. "A smile," he thought to himself. "That's what's different." He hadn't seen Doc so happy in a long time.

"Yeah, Bosco. She's over that way, I think," Doc said, pointing toward the fireplace. "Hey, grab some food and a drink. Have fun!" Doc yelled over his shoulder as he zipped off in another direction.

Bosco looked after him for a moment, shook his head and continued toward the direction Doc had indicated. Finally, he saw the back of her head. She was talking to Sully, Ty, Carlos and some other guy that turned out to be Carlos' brother. He walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.

She turned to him and her face lit up and she gave him a kiss. "Hi! I thought you weren't coming?" she said, pleasantly surprised as she moved in next to him. He put his arm up around her shoulders.

"Yeah, well, I was trying to get hold of you on your cell, but I guess with all the noise you didn't hear it," he said. She looked down at her phone that was clipped to the pocket of her slacks and saw that it indicated that she'd missed four calls.

"Oh, Babe. I'm sorry. Were all four calls from you?" she asked, clearing the calls and wondering if the kids were okay.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Bosco said, as Doc appeared again and forced a beer into his hand.

"Nobody not drinking tonight," Doc said, moving on to the next group of people.

"He's in a good mood," he mentioned to the group.

"Yeah, it's kind of freaky," Ty added and Sully and Kim nodded in agreement, as Ty watched Doc and Sasha dancing together.

"Nice place," Bosco said, looking around.

"Carlos said it was a hole before. He fixed it all up in like three months," Kim offered to the group.

"Wow. Maybe he's in the wrong line of work," Sully joked.

They were onto another subject when Kim looked over at Bosco who was very quiet. "You okay?" she asked, leaning next to his ear.

"Rough night," he said, not wanting to ruin her night. But, he just wanted to go home.

"Wanna go?" Kim asked, as if reading his mind.

"You mind?" he asked.

"Not at all. Let's go," she said, turning to the group. "Hey, we're headin' out. See you at work tomorrow," she said.

"Alright," Carlos yelled to them. "Take it easy."

Bosco handed Davis his beer and said goodnight. He followed Kim to the door, found Kim's coat in the pile that was on the coat rack and semi-neatly lying on the floor under the rack.

Outside, the cool air hit Kim's face and she took a deep breath of the night air. "Wow. It was hot in there," she said.

She looked over at Bosco as they reached his car. "What happened?" she asked, as he opened the door for her. As she took a step toward the car to get in, Bosco leaned into her and gave her a soft kiss.

"I may have made a mistake," he said, looking around before going to the other side of the car and getting in.


As they sat on the couch with the glow of the television playing off the walls, Kim lying on the couch, her head on his lap, looking up at him as he half-watched the news, she said, "So, you think he's really gonna come after you?"

He looked down at her and brushed a few stray hair strands from her face. "I don't know. Just be careful, okay?"

"I'm more worried about you," she said and he saw the concern on her face.

"I'm okay. I'll be careful. Your Mom's okay with watching the kids for a while? I mean, I know it's a lot to ask, but I can't have my Mom help out this time," he said, meaning that she may be in danger as well.

"Yeah, of course. Jimmy said he'd take them to his new place sometimes too to give her a break when he picks up Joey," Kim assured him.

"You told him what's going on?" Bosco asked.

"Not everything. Just enough," she told him.

"Thanks," he said and she sat up, turning to face him.

"I love you," she told him. He put a hand on the side of her face, then moving it to the back of her head, he pulled her toward him. They kiss lasted a long time, growing more and more deep. She sensed a need to be close from him. He always needed that when he was troubled.

After they'd made love, they lazily slept on the couch, neither having the energy to move to the bedroom. As some point, the television channel had signed off for the night, leaving only the color bars on the screen as a nightlight.

"So did Faith say anything else?" Kim asked after Bosco told her about the phone call to meet her at the coffee shop.

"No. We got interrupted when OCCB called me," he said. "It was tense though. That's for sure."

"But, she said she wants to partner with you again? She seems okay with that?" Kim asked, remembering how she'd all but had him thrown out of her hospital room and told him to stay way from her and her family. She remembered how much that hurt him.

"I don't know. I guess she's just nervous about coming back. Maybe she just wants some familiarity when she comes back. I mean, we always worked good together doing the job. It's just all the other stuff that got in the way," Bosco told her.

They were quiet for a minute and then Kim told him what had happened with Steeple today.

"So this Captain Steeple guy kicked the medics out of the house?" Bosco asked her after he'd heard about her night.

"Yeah. Can you believe it?" Kim said, still surprised by the action. "Doc thinks it's only temporary - that as soon as Steeple's gone, we'll be back in there," she said.

"Doc was in a good mood tonight," Bosco mentioned to her.

"Yeah. I haven't seen him like that in quite a long time. He's a little too happy though," she added.

"What? He's a good guy. It's just been a couple of bad years," Bosco said, twirling her hair in his fingers.

"Yeah, I guess..." she said, as she started to trace the muscle of his arm with her finger.