Off Duty
Chapter 158
Bosco and Faith had just gotten back into the RMP from the disturbance call they'd been sent to. It was just a couple of disagreeable senior citizens - set in their ways - that they'd separated and sent on their way.
She was just about to ask him if he wanted to get some coffee when the sound of his phone alerting him to a voicemail message sounded. He'd left it in the car, clipped to the visor, after he'd talked with his brother. They were supposed to meet up with him about something important. They each had to admit that they were pretty suspicious of what Mikey had up his sleeve this time.
Bosco punched in the number to access his voicemail and listened to the voice on the other end, noticing how quiet and sad it had sounded. He looked over to Faith as he started to dial the phone. "Kim," he told her without adding anything else. Faith nodded her understanding that he was returning her call and stared out the side window, trying to act like she couldn't hear despite the fact that they were sitting side-by-side in the car.
"Hey, what's up?" Bosco asked when Kim answered the phone. "How'd it go?"
"How do you think it went?" Kim snapped back at him. Immediately regretting her tone of voice, she apologized. "Sorry."
"It's alright," he told her. "Did you talk about it?"
"A little. It's just weird. This doctor doesn't even know us and thinks she can just come in and make everything all better. Well, it's not all better. Nothing can make this better," she said, her voice rising in anger.
"Easy, Babe," Bosco said calmly. "Look, it can't hurt to talk to someone with a fresh, unbiased perspective, right? I mean, maybe she'll see some way to help you guys get over this," he reasoned.
"He's not talking to anyone, you know," Kim told him, pulling the thought out of the air.
"What? Who's not talking to anyone?" he asked her, trying to keep up. She'd been like that the last day or so - her anger rising and ebbing without notice. The kids had noticed too and Bosco tried to explain to them that Mommy was upset because one of her friends was sick. It seemed to work, because they seemed to be cutting her some slack - giving her a wide birth. He hoped that it'd get back to normal soon and was hoping that this doctor could help. He was silently glad that the Department was making the crew get help in dealing with their emotions.
"Doc! Doc's not talking to anyone. He's over at Bellevue, on a suicide watch, and won't talk to anyone," she said, frustrated that he wasn't keeping up.
"I'm sorry. Maybe it'll just take some time, Kimmy," he said, not knowing what else to say.
"Kimmy. Doc called me Kimmy a lot the last few shifts. I should've known something was wrong. He never called me Kimmy. Never," she said, repeating what she'd told him the night it had happened.
"Are you still working? You want us to come and meet you somewhere?" Bosco asked, trying to change what she was thinking about. He looked over at Faith and shrugged at her.
"No. Look, Bos, I'm sorry. You've got enough crap going on right now. I shouldn't be unloading mine on you," Kim apologized.
"It's okay. You're part of my crap. Wait..., that didn't come out right," he stammered to correct himself as Faith stifled a chuckle alongside him.
"No. I know what you mean. I'm sorry. I'm still working - just supervising from the station and doing paperwork until they're able to fill the vacancy Doc left," she told him.
"What? You mean Carlos and Levine are riding together? Boy, I'd like to be a fly on the wall for that shift," he said, getting a laugh from Kim.
"Yeah. You and me both. She drives him crazy," Kim told him. Shifting the conversation, she asked him, "So, how's your shift going? Did Mikey get hold of you? My Mom called and said he called the house looking for you. Asked her to get a message to you and Mom couldn't remember your cell phone number. Besides, she's afraid to call your cell in case you're in the middle of shooting someone," Kim said, laughing.
Bosco smiled, "Yeah, he got me. I'm meeting up with him in a little bit. Some big information he thinks we can use."
"How's Faith? Everything going okay? I know you were worried about partnering up with her again," she asked him.
"She's good. It's okay. Just like old times. I'll tell her you said hello," he said, looking over at his partner who was looking the opposite direction.
"Good. Well, I gotta get back to work on this report they want me to do," she told him. "Thanks for calling. I just needed to hear your voice. Be careful. I love you," she told him.
"Okay. No problem. Call whenever you need me. You be careful too," he said, waiting for her to hang up.
She decided to tease him. "I said, 'I love you,'" she added again.
"Yeah. Uh huh," he said back. "Bye," he said as he heard her hang up, laughing as she did.
"Kim okay? I mean everything that happened with Doc and all...," Faith asked, looking over at her.
"I think she will be. She's pissed and sad and a whole different range of feelings. That's normal, I guess," Bosco told Faith and she nodded.
"Well, shall we head over to meet Mikey," Faith reminded him, looking at her watch.
"Yeah. I can hardly wait," he said, starting the car and checking the mirrors before pulling out into traffic. "Did I tell you he was at my Ma's last night? She invited me over for dinner; only Mikey was there too. Something about it being part of the program he was doing to get straight. Making amends or some crap like that," he said, slamming on the brakes at the idiot that pulled out in front of him.
"Yeah? So, how'd that go?" Faith asked him, throwing the driver of the offending car a dirty look as Bosco passed him.
"Okay, I guess. He's got a job. Says he's been clean for a while now. I don't know. He's tried it so many times before, it's hard to believe him, you know?" he told her.
"Is that him?" Faith asked, pointing to the side of the road to where someone resembling Mikey Boscorelli stood alongside a classic car.
"Yeah. That can't be his car," Bosco said in disbelief, as he pulled to the curb behind it and they both got out.
Bosco climbed into bed after checking on the kids and turning off the lights in the living room. He was careful to not move the bed too much, not wanting to wake up Kim. She felt him climb into bed as she was only half-sleeping, waiting for him to come home. He'd called to tell her he'd be late because of some big arrest they'd made. He sounded upbeat when he'd called.
"Hey, so, what happened?" she asked, turning toward him as he enveloped her in his arms.
"We met up with Mikey and he gave us some information on some ecstasy operation working out of Finkelstein's on Grant," he whispered, taking in the smell of her freshly washed hair.
"Finkelstein's?! Really?" she asked.
"Yeah, Faith and I staked it out and grabbed up this kid with a bicycle coming out. Turns out he was transporting like 700 and some ecstasy tabs from the place stashed in the bicycle. We were in the raid of the place and got like 11,000 pills - almost a quarter of a million dollars worth," he told her, the buzz from the adrenaline still there.
"Oh, and I went to the NA meeting for Mikey. He's been clean six months. He got his six month coin tonight and invited me and my Ma and my Pop," he added. "Pop took us out to Manetti's for steaks after."
"And you went?" Kim asked, sitting up, surprised. "With your Dad? You went?"
"Yeah. He's gettin' his act together too, I guess. He invited me," Bosco said, sitting up and moving closer to Kim. She knew where this was leading. Every time he had something big happen at work, he'd come home all charged up and nowhere to put the energy. They'd managed to figure out where he could put his energy.
Kim had gotten up early to take the kids to school and get some groceries. She kicked the bottom of the door to get Bosco to open the door because her hands were full. She was startled when the door opened so rapidly and she saw the anger on Bosco's face.
"What's wrong?" she asked, walking past him into the apartment and setting the bags on the table in the kitchen. She turned to look at him and noticed the wall behind him that had a gouge in the sheetrock, with broken glass lying on the floor at the baseboard.
"Bosco?" she asked, getting alarmed.
"Mikey played me," he said, pacing angrily again.
"What do you mean? What happened?" she asked, walking into the living room and sitting on the couch. She reached for his hand as he paced in front of her and pulled him down onto the couch next to her. "Tell me what happened," she urged him.
Kim finished up her shift and was heading out to meet Bosco at his car so they could go home. As she crossed the street, she watched him come out the front door of the Precinct. The way he carried himself and the set of his shoulders told her he hadn't gotten anywhere.
Bosco had taken the night off to see if he could find his brother and find out just what was going on. He didn't believe that he was totally innocent in all this, even though he wanted to. And, he couldn't help but feel that his father - who was 'doing so well' lately - was involved somehow.
"Hey," he said in greeting as she approached him.
"What'd you find out?" Kim asked him, giving him a kiss.
"Not much. But, I can bet my old man has somethin' to do with this. You should see that place they're living in. No way can he afford that place on cab fares," he said, opening the door for her.
"Tomorrow's another day. You can try to track him down tomorrow," she said, trying to soothe him somehow. He closed the door and started to walk around the front of the car to get in when he noticed the commotion. There was an excited animation to everyone as the unformed and non-uniformed officers poured out of the station. As a uniformed cop ran by him to get into his RMP, Bosco heard the repeated message over the radio. It was Cruz.
"10-13, 10-13! Officer down!" she yelled, and he could tell that she was losing her composure. "10-13, 10-13! Get me a bus!"
He looked over at Kim who had opened the car door and stood up in time to hear the officer's radio crackle. She knew it wasn't the fact that it was Cruz calling. She knew that it was the fact that there was an officer down. Without hesitating, she looked at him and told him to go.
He threw her the keys and told her he'd see her later. She watched him grab a ride with one of the leaving RMP's.
TBC...
