Bosco is used to seeing a lot of things in the Yokas household, having been basically a part of the family for many years. My ex-husband drunk? Check. My teenage daughter OD'ing on drugs? Check. Family fights? Check. Me coming out my bedroom half dressed when he came to pick me up for work I swear it was an accident, Madame Housekeeper. Check. Not to mention, I'm sure he'd seen just about everything in his 13 years as a cop. And I can't even imagine all the mind-numbing things his lady friends had shown him over the years

True, he'd actually been around more in the early years of our partnership but during his recuperation and my divorce, he had been here a lot. Like, really a lot - it looks like he's practically moved in here. Geez, there is man-stuff all over my place again. How did this happen? I looked around - Bosco's presence was stamped all over my tiny apartment. There was some sort of car magazine on the coffee table, a set of weights sat in the corner, one of his dress shirts hung on the ironing board, his off-duty revolver resting on the shelf over the TV. Apparently, he even had his own key now. Key? When the hell did that happen? I shot Emily a look, as I tried to re-focus on the events at hand - she looked away, feigning innocence. Oh, yeah, she'd had a plan all along. She and the housekeeper must have waged one hell of a war.

However, the sight of both Yokas woman completely silent was evidently a first time occurrence for Bosco. He froze, just inside the door, looking nervously between the two of us. He seemed to sense something was up, and starting moving nervously towards the kitchen table. He moved slowly and carefully, the way we were taught to move at police college when we're in an uncertain situation and get around unstable and possibly violent people.

"Umm, am I interrupting something?" Neither of us spoke - me still stunned, Emily still smug.

"Hey Bosco. Nope, not interrupting a thing. But Mom here was just telling me she wanted to ask you to help her out with something. Right, Mom?" Her grin went from ear to ear.

Wow. Nice touch. She is pure evil. I am raising the spawn of Satan.

"unnnhh…." My tongue was still apparently being held prisoner by my poor beleaguered housekeeper. Animal noises were all that I was capable of.

"Sure, Faith. Whatever you need…"

The housekeeper screamed and let go, as she was knocked flying by my eager puppy, finally free. He'd waited a long time for his freedom and he was raring to go.

Wait. Where's the puppy? What the hell happened to my puppy? Something's wrong here...puppies are cute and cuddly and everybody loves them...except when they are little beasts with sharp little teeth, just waiting to hurt and draw blood, and don't pay attention to what you say or want, and are just totally fixated on getting all the fun they can out of life, never worrying about who they hurt or the mess they leave behind...

Wait a second- is that really what I thought of Bosco? Is that what I've been hiding from all these years? My housekeeper started to get up – Just a minute here, lady - I placed my hand on the back of her head and pushed her back down, placing my foot in the middle of her back, forcing her still. Just wait a second here, let me think about this, this isn't right, something's wrong here...

All of a sudden, the pictures of the life I had lived shifted before me. You know what I mean, like that machine they use when they exam your eyes? And you look through it and it's kind of blurry but not too bad? And then they shift the little thingys, and it gets a little better. And, and then they change it again, and it's a little better still. And you're thinking, you know, okay this is pretty good, this is how I see and its fine, and then…then they flip it one last time, and you just...you just had no idea you could see that clearly. You had no idea that's what your world really looked like...

Yeah, so that's what happened. One second, I'm looking at Bos and all I can see is that stupid, little puppy that I just knew was going to hurt me, was going to run away from me, was going to break my heart if I loved it too much. So I couldn't, I couldn't love it too much, you know? So I had to let him be kept away for his own good...for my own good. And then...damn, damn, damn it. It all changes, my vision changes and I see him. And I'd been so wrong about this man. Oh my God, I'd never seen this man. He wore the pain and heartbreak of the past year on his face, and it made him beautiful. The maturity and anguish that had been forced upon him wrapped him in a serenity that soothed me. He was the knight in shining armour he tried so hard to convince the world he really wasn't. I was so fixated on the past, so worried about my present, I couldn't see my future. But he was there all along, I just couldn't see him, my vision had been blurred.

Crap. Okay, I've stopped breathing. Whoa, vertigo. Combined with the rapidity of the shifting images that surrounded me, I buckled at the knees. He was at my side immediately, arm around my waist, supporting me. As I sank to the chair, I sat squarely on my housekeeper. I think I've killed her.

Good.