Story Notes: part three is the shortest of the three parts, I think. I had the same problem with this as I had with the second part, I felt as though I were writing too OOC. I reworked it a lot and did my best with it, and so this is the finale. I hope you like it, and thanks for reading.
Part 3
"It was selfish of you to do, you know," Bosco said, finally breaking the long, intense silence and looking Faith straight in the eyes. "To only consider how you felt about things after I got back on the job. It was so hard for me and not having you to back me up made it all that much harder."
"I know, Bosco."
"I wouldn't lie to you, ever, not about something important like shooting at the range," Bosco said.
"I know that."
"I'd never doubt you if our situations were reversed, even if I was afraid for you. When you got shot and wanted to ride with me again, I didn't stop you."
"I know, and I'm sorry," Faith said sadly, looking at the table and struggling not to cry. "I understand that you don't want anything to do with me anymore now that you know everything. I get it. You hate my guts for everything that's happened. But you wanted to know the whole story and so I figured you deserved to know it. If this is the last time we're ever going to speak, I understand –"
"Whoa, Faith, slow down. What are you talking about?"
"I'm just saying that I get it."
"Get what?"
"I understand that you don't want to know me anymore."
"Why wouldn't I want to know you?"
"Because I betrayed you for selfish reasons, out of fear. Because I was weak. Because I can't blame you for hating my guts. I hate them too on days when I think too much about what happened to us," Faith explained.
Bosco shook his head. "I don't hate your guts. I don't hate you. You weren't weak."
"But –"
"You were human," Bosco smiled faintly at her.
"I wasn't a good partner."
"You were trying to be a good friend."
"I wasn't a good friend, either," Faith sighed.
"Faith, did you not just say that you shot the guy who had those gunmen shoot me?" Bosco asked. Faith nodded sadly. "I don't know anybody else who'd have done that for me."
"Yeah, but after that, I –"
"You were there for me in rehab and in the hospital and you came to visit. You helped me through my physical therapy. And then later you were so afraid for me that you'd risk our personal relationship to make sure I was safe. I'm flattered you thought that highly of me," Bosco grinned at her.
Now, three years after everything that had happened, knowing the entire story, Bosco felt a rush of affection and gratitude toward Faith for doing what she did after he got back on the job. He never thought he'd be able to feel anything but bitter and angry at her about it, and when the conversation had started, he still felt angry. He wasn't the "let bygones be bygones" type. But now she'd told him everything. He knew now that she'd done what she'd done because she did care about him, not because she didn't care about him anymore.
Now he could see Faith was sorry, why she was sorry. Faith Yokas – head strong, determined, stubborn Faith Yokas – his best friend for thirteen years, was sorry. She was struggling not to cry, he could tell by the way she was blinking quickly and avoiding his eyes. He'd only seen her do it a couple of times before, and he'd hated every moment of it.
Yes, she'd hurt him. She'd made him feel lousy about himself, drove him to drinking…but she'd also killed a man for him. She'd tried to protect him from himself. She was the only one who knew him well enough to know when he was lying. He could fool everyone else, including himself, but not her. He couldn't fool her.
"Bosco," she said so softly he hardly heard her, "I –"
"Don't apologize anymore, Faith. I'm sorry too. I should have known you weren't after me because of your badge or anything…what I don't understand is, why didn't you tell me about all this before?"
Faith looked at him, feeling suddenly drained. "I don't know. It was such a hard time for us and I just…couldn't find the right time or place to tell you. I wasn't ever going to tell you after awhile. I just figured you'd lose more respect for me, be hurt, and use what I did for you against me."
"Faith, I'd never have –"
"I know, but like I said, it was such a bad time, I wasn't thinking clearly."
"Don't you think, after what I'd been through, I would have liked to hear that?"
"I didn't know what to think anymore. I just…you saved my life. I couldn't forget that. I couldn't forget what you'd done for me. You were angry, I was scared, I just decided to leave it," she sighed, closing her eyes. "Let it die, let it all go away."
"It didn't go away this time, though."
"I know."
"This is the first time we've really spoken in three years."
"I know that too," Faith said, and downed what was remaining of her second Cosmo of the night. Was it her second? She wasn't sure. The waitress had come by a couple times while they'd been talking, but she wasn't sure how much she'd been drinking. She saw an untouched cup of coffee in front of her, realizing that the waitress must have come by with it. She saw Bosco had one too, and that it was hardly touched as well. His glass of Jack Daniels was still in front of him. She wondered how much he'd had.
"So I'm sorry too," Bosco said. "For letting this all go on, for letting it get so out of hand. I was a jerk. You were getting to me and I went on the defensive like I always do. I shouldn't have gotten so angry. I'm sorry too."
Faith smiled. "That's okay Bosco. You'd been through a lot."
Bosco reached out and touched Faith's hand. "We both had."
The waitress came by with the check. Faith made a grab for it but Bosco beat her to it. "I told you," he said, "This is on me."
"It wasn't just a drink. It was a full meal. Come on, at least let me pay for my own," Faith pleaded. "Like we used to do."
Bosco shook his head. "I always used to buy on your birthday. You used to buy on mine. It's your birthday. I brought you here. I'll buy," he said with finality, handing some bills to the waitress.
Faith realized that she'd actually forgotten it was her birthday as she watched the waitress walk away, and then she looked at Bosco again. She opened her mouth to say something, but couldn't find any more words. She'd said them all, and he knew everything. She hadn't wanted to tell him, but now that she had, everything didn't seem so bad anymore. It felt as though a weight had come off her chest. The dread and nervous anxiety she'd felt earlier was gone, she felt as though she could breathe freely again. The silence was no longer awkward.
Bosco got his change, handed the waitress a tip, then stood up and pulled his jacket on. Faith followed suit, and together they walked out of the restaurant.
"How much have you had to drink?" Faith asked Bosco.
"Not much. Don't worry, I'm okay."
They stood facing the parking lot, and Bosco checked his watch. Faith saw it was the one she'd given him five years ago for Christmas. She couldn't help feeling a little warmer on the inside than she did a moment before.
"It's midnight," he informed her, both of them staring into the nearly empty parking lot. There were a couple of other cars, but the Mustang was all by itself in a row of unoccupied spots. Bosco wondered for a moment if the Mustang was lonely sitting there all alone.
"We've been here for at least three hours," Faith smiled. "Felt like a lot longer."
"Felt like a lot less time than that, too," Bosco grinned. "It wasn't so bad, was it?"
"No," Faith shook her head. "Not bad at all. It was a nice birthday, Bosco. The best one I've had in four or five years. Thanks."
"You owe me big time," he chuckled. "I haven't had a good birthday in a while either."
"You spend your past few birthdays alone too?"
"Yeah. Pretty much. Ma calls and I go out to the cemetery to have a beer with Mikey, but that's pretty much it."
They started walking towards the car, and they saw a police car shooting up the street, complete with flashing red and blue lights and blaring sirens. Bosco stopped walking, remembering something. "You remember the last time we were really at peace like this?" he asked Faith as she stopped beside him.
"Not really," she admitted.
"It was when I got out of the hospital. When you had 55-David and the police escort waiting to take me home," Bosco said. He had a light smile on his lips.
Faith smiled faintly as well. "Oh yeah. Swersky gave me a very loud lecture later, but I don't think he was actually mad, because he smiled and betrayed his own words. I think he had seen something like it coming and he knew I was going all out for my partner."
"You did go all out for me."
"No, Bosco, you went all out for me. It was the least I could do."
"Remember what happened after that?" Bosco smiled again.
"We fought?" Faith said with a grin.
Bosco laughed. "No, I mean before that."
Faith was slightly confused. "What happened?"
"I went like this," Bosco said, and he turned, wrapping his arms around Faith's waist, hugging her.
"Yeah," she said into his ear. "Yeah, and I hugged you back." She put her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, happy to finally feel like things were normal again.
"I've missed you so much. You're still my best friend," he whispered into her ear.
Faith looked at him, pursing her lips a little before kissing his cheek and whispering, "Yeah, I've missed you too, partner of mine."
They stood in that hug for a moment, each reflecting on their lives without the other and reveling in the happiness that came with knowing they had found each other again. They heard the door behind them creak open. Looking back, they saw that one of the other waitresses had come out for a cigarette break.
They disengaged from the embrace and started walking back towards the car. A couple steps away from the car, Bosco halted again, and grabbed Faith's arm.
"What?" she asked.
"Are we okay now?" Bosco asked, hoping they were.
"I don't know. Are we?" Faith asked. She felt all right, but maybe Bosco didn't feel that way. She didn't want to force him into anything.
"I like you much better than I did a couple of hours ago," he said, smirking slightly.
"Yeah, and I'm comfortable with you again," she nodded.
"So we're okay?"
"I'd like to think so, but how do we go on from here?" Faith asked. Now that she and Bosco were friends again, how does one move on after a three year hiatus? "Do we just pick up where we left off and pretend the past three years never happened?" she asked incredulously.
Bosco thought for a moment, and then said, "Let's not go on from here. Let's go on from that day you picked me up from the hospital. I…I loved you so much that day for everything you'd done for me while I was in the hospital, and then the car thing."
"You really loved me that day?"
Bosco looked away. "Yeah. In a lot of ways, I really did."
Faith smiled, slightly flattered that Bosco would consider her worthy of his love -- something he hardly ever handed out. "I was so proud that you'd made it. They didn't think you'd wake up. They didn't think you'd be able to function. They said you'd never go back to work. But you beat it. You beat them. You kicked the ass of everything that was against you. You..." she trailed off. She'd forgotten about this. There was still one thing left for her to tell him.
"What?"
"Well, when you were first shot, Swersky came to find me, to reassure me that you'd make it. I told Swersky that he didn't see you, and he said you'd make it because you were Bosco. I said you weren't Superman."
"So?"
"So you made it. You overcame it all, and I was so proud of you. You walked out of the hospital and you were my Superman that day," Faith said, a faint trace of embarrassment in her voice.
"Superman," Bosco smiled, and there was a note of the old, familiar cockiness is his voice. Softly, he added, "I can live with Superman."
"So let's start over new then?"
"Well, yes, but not new, exactly. Not 'Hi my name is Maurice Boscorelli but don't ever call me Maurice' new," Bosco said, and Faith laughed. "But let's go on from that day when I left the hospital. We won't pretend this never happened, because it did, and it was a valuable thing for us, but we'll go on feeling the way we did that day. Do you get what I mean?" Bosco asked. He was being way too deep for his own good. Sensitive, well-thought out words were never his strong suit. But Faith wouldn't laugh at him. Faith knew what he was trying to say.
"Yeah," Faith said easily. "I get what you mean. We won't forget, but we'll go on like always. We'll pick up where we left off before we started fighting. Let it all go but remember what it's done for us."
Bosco nodded. "That's what I meant….you know, I meant what I said when I said that I've really missed you. You read my mind sometimes. You knew me. Nobody else knows me like that. Nobody else gets it the way you do."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Faith smiled. "I've truly missed you too."
"Think we can live with all this? We usually just bury things."
"This was too big to bury. We needed more time. We actually needed to talk about it all."
"Yeah. Can you live with all this baggage?" Bosco grinned.
"Yeah. I can live with all my best friend's baggage. I hope he can live with mine," Faith smiled.
"Yeah," Bosco grinned again. "I can live with it."
"You think we'll be all right?" she asked.
"Yeah, I think we'll make it. We've always made it before. Nothing can beat us."
"We sometimes beat ourselves."
"Maybe we should try communicating better from now on," he said thoughtfully, unlocking the car doors.
"Yeah, that's a good idea. It worked tonight," she nodded. Communication would solve a lot of their problems. "So we'll make it?"
"Yeah," answered Bosco, opening his door and getting into the car, and Faith got into the passenger side. "Yeah, we'll make it. We'll find a way through it all."
"We always do."
"Yeah. Always."
The doors slammed shut, the key went into the ignition, and the Mustang sped away. The car held two passengers, Maurice Boscorelli and Faith Yokas, but it held a lot more than that. It held a little bit of everything. It held two beat cops from the 55th precinct's third watch, who rode for years as 55 – David. It held a beat cop of the 79th precinct and a detective of the Major Case Squad who had just shared their first meal together since earning those positions. It held thirteen years of friendship and three years of intense dislike. It held the memories of yesterday and the dreams of tomorrow. It held two old friends with new hope for each other and their relationship together.
It held something old and it held something new.
Something old, something new.