"You okay, Faith? Bosco was crouched beside me, hand resting at my waist.

"Uhhh, stood up too fast, or something…I guess" I shifted experimentally, trying to gauge the status of my squashed housekeeper. Nothing. Maybe I'd really done it. I'd killed her. I was flying solo here…

"Okay, well just relax for a sec" He stood up, putting his hand on and squeezing my knee as he turned and lowered himself into the chair across from me, not noticing the self-satisfied little smile Emily shot across the room at me. He reached for a slice of the now-cold pizza. When did I start ordering an extra large pizza for just Em and I?

"So what do you need, Faith?" Emily's snort of laughter bounced across the room. I shot her a look as she slapped her hand over her mouth, but she made no real effort to cover her laughter. She mumbled something; all I could make out was "going... room" and took off down the hall. Bosco looked up after her, puzzled. He and Emily had become pretty good friends in the past months, but he wasn't keen on looking to closely into the mysterious ways of teenage girls. I think on some level, all men still have a teenage boy living inside of them, still frightened by inner workings of the mind and body of a teenage girl. He chose to ignore her sudden exodus and kept on eating.

"Bos..." He up looked at me expectantly. I had no idea what to say next. In spite of he and I sharing the most intimate details of our lives over the past years, this was light years beyond where the boundaries of our safety zone lay. Apparently, I could tell my partner about my abortion, about how often my husband and I did it, and my deepest fears about losing my kids, but I couldn't tell him about the new boy I had a crush on.

Nice Faith – why don't you start giggling and playing with your hair.

Housekeeper? Is that you? You still alive in there? Hello? Nope, must have just been some sort of knee-jerk, Pavlovian echo.

I dropped the strands of hair I had twisted around my finger - I wasn't playing with it! - Okay, Faith. You're a big girl, you're a New York City police officer, come on, you can ask your partner…you can ask him…huh…

That's just it, isn't? Ask him what, exactly? Emily had had kind of a point. Going on a date would seem well, anti-climatic.

I don't think the term anti-climatic would ever apply to Bosco. I clapped my hand over my mouth as a giggle threatened to explode. Oh man, if this is the sort of thinking that my hormonal housekeeper had been protecting me from, I was in serious trouble.

These thoughts raced through my mind as Bosco continued to stare at me expectantly, a slight smile forming on his lips.

Ohmygod - I had just told him everything. I closed my eyes and dropped my head into my hands. I was so flustered I had forgotten to hide. I forgot how we could carry on conversations just using our body language, the shift of our eyes, the tilt of our heads saying all we needed. We were good at it. Really, really good. Like, no need-for-actual-words-I'll-just-figure-it-out-from-my-partner-here-by-osmosis-good. I typically knew what he was thinking at least 7 seconds before he did. And it worked in reverse. Especially if we were both paying attention at the time, you know, watching each other, tuned in the way partners are - and just now, he'd been watching me like I was the Oracle, about to reveal the meaning of life. Odds were good the internal debate I'd been having for the past 15 seconds or so had just played across my face like a movie, sub-titles conveniently added for those fluent only in Boscorelli-ese. I stayed slouched over, as if I was still a little dizzy.

No, I am a lot dizzy.

I looked up – directly into the eyes of my partner, leaning into me, about half a breath closer than skin.

"Hey" Red alert!

"Hey"

"What's going on. Faith?" He asked softly, reaching up to push the hair that had fallen in my face away...All the better to see you with…

Oh man, this was not good.

Wanna bet? What?

This was the very dangerous, ConcernedBosco, the I-am-Worried-About-You Bosco. I had always been vulnerable to this Bosco

Maybe because he was the real one?

Yeah, maybe.

Even when housekeeper was alive, she'd had a hell of a time keeping me safe from ConcernedBosco.

Maybe she's not really gone - um, hello, housekeeper? Ms. hormonal housekeeper, ma'am? Please come back, I'm scared…

Might as well just head for the bedroom.

Who keeps putting this stuff in my head?

I swear I heard giggling; it seemed to be coming from the direction of my daughters bedroom. Hmmm, that was interesting. Maybe my daughter had staff, too. I could envision impish little pixies - slipping a key to my apartment into Bosco's pocket, making room on my shelves for his stuff, playfully tugging at the gauzy veil that had been clouding my vision for years, teasing me with glimpses of the Bosco that my housekeeper had worked so hard to keep from me and finally, set loose on me by my daughter, to pull it clear…

Pixies. I could work with this…okay, kids, lead on

"Do you want to go see a movie or something" Well there it is, no going back now. Bosco and I never did anything of a really social nature together, just the two of us. We did stuff with other cops, our families, other people – my housekeeper allowed me that. But just the two of us? Un-huh. Yesterday, if he had asked me, I would have been freaked out. Hell, I was freaked out just saying it. But now? I have new staff, helping me out.

Bosco just stared at me for a what seemed like three full revolutions of the earth around the sun and then he smiled – Lord Jesus, the full-monty Bosco smile, the one I'd seen flashes of at the women he was trying to charm, flashes that had, even at their deflected voltage, left me tingling and burning at a slightly higher wattage, just for a bit.

"Sure" Okay, see that wasn't so bad. Maybe there was something to what Em had been saying. Maybe there was something to see, something that others did see. Maybe something that Bosco had seen, too. Funny - maybe his occasionally blurred vision had allowed him to see more clearly than me. His smiled seemed to indicate he was on board with this. Let's see…

"Or maybe something to eat…"

"Sounds good." He put down the pizza he was eating and moved forward, sliding into a crouch in front of me and putting his hands on my knees.

"We could just go for a walk..." I was starting to grin back, as I put my hands over his, and twined our fingers together.

"I'm there. Whatever. You name it, it's yours."

"Bosco" Oh, fun. Flirting with Bosco…

"What?"

"You said, I name it, it's mine, so I said 'Bosco' "

Whoa, I'd better be careful with the powers bestowed on me by my new found friends. I'm going to hurt something here. The smile on his face changed, becoming a bit dangerous, a lot sexy. His pupils dilated until there wasn't anything but black visible– very, very hot black. There was a sudden intensity radiating from him that had a tangible energy. If I looked, I was sure I could see it burning across my skin.

"Careful what you wish for, Faith" Oh boy - thank you little pixies, thank you…

"Why, you going to start granting wishes now" How'm I doing, pixies?

"Tell you what, you tell me your three wishes, I'll see what I can do…"

Yeah, right. I was blushing just thinking of my three wishes. I sure wasn't going to say them, especially with pixies belonging to a 17 year old girl fluttering about.

Okay, so I likely didn't have to actually articulate my three wishes to him. He seems to be a quick study in this area - he probably had them figured out, prioritized and organized in order of preference and cross-referenced into wish-granting criteria based on preferred location, anticipated duration and required equipment.

"Why don't we just start walking, see where it goes. You know, one step at a time…"

We stayed where we were, continuing to stare at each other. Apparently the pixies could stop time. As I looked into his eyes, I swear I saw the beginning of time and of life…my life

Just over his head, movement caught my eye. Emily's bedroom door opened and she peeked out. She gave me a quick thumbs up and went back in, closing the door behind her. Bosco and I may have sat there for days, just grinning like idiots, but the sound of her door brought him out of his reverie. Pulling me to my feet with him, he stood and headed towards the door, walking backwards, never letting go of my hands or breaking eye contact, the pixies steering him around tables, chairs, scattered debris on the floor.

As he helped me into my coat, I lifted my scarf and wrapped it around his neck, pulling him closer into me.

Oh, man, this is going to be so much fun...