I'll Be By Your Side

Chapter 4

Bosco was shocked by what Faith just said to him. "You want me to work with you? I'm a beat cop, you're a detective."

"Bosco, you aren't just a beat cop, you're my best friend. I want the best person to help me find who attacked Emily, I want you." Faith explained.

Bosco couldn't believe that Faith wanted him to help her, that she still trusted him.

"Bosco, just don't cause any trouble. You've only been back one day."

"Me? I would never do that boss," Bosco said with a grin on his face.

Faith and Bosco walked out of the office. He looked up at her with a smile on his face. "Thank you."

She looked at him, confused, "For what?"

"For still trusting me, Faith," he said.

She put her hand on his shoulder. "I'll always trust you, now let's go and get Dante."

((

Faith and Bosco were riding in the car. "Why did you ask me to help you with this? You could have easily gotten Jelly to help you."

"I told you earlier why I want you to help me." Faith explained. "This isn't just any job, this is about my daughter, so I didn't want anybody, I wanted the best," she said, as they approached the club. "I wanted my real partner," she said with this smile on her face, as she got out of the car.

He looked at her; he couldn't believe what he heard. "Do you ever miss being inside of 55 David?" Bosco asked her.

"All the times, Bosco, sometimes, I even forget that I am a detective and I say 55 David on the radio."

Bosco smiled at Faith. She glanced over at Bosco, and she could see that he was smiling. "I didn't want this, Bos, if I could, I'd change everything. Where you didn't get shot, and we were still beat cops, I would."

"Faith,"

"No I mean it, Bosco. If it wasn't for the custody, I don't know if I would have taken the job." Faith explained, as they walked up to the club.

((

Faith and Bosco walked into the club. "I'm looking for Dante," Faith announced.

"He isn't here."

"Where is he?" Faith asked.

"I don't know, he said that he wasn't coming in today,"

"Isn't that funny Faith, Dante isn't here the day after he attacks an innocent girl," Bosco smirked.

"Oh come on Bos, we don't even know if he is the one that did." Faith responded.

"Like hell we don't," he replied, looking deadly, enjoying the role he didn't have to be told about.

"Relax Bos," she says shifting her look towards the nervous teen. "Look, you really don't want him finding Dante alone now do you?" she inclined her head towards Bosco, playing good cop to his bad cop.

The teen looked nervously towards Bosco, his eyes shifting left to right, while he fidgeted.

Bosco then looked and saw that there was someone that could help them.
"Faith, I'll leave you to talk this nice man. If you need help with um… refreshing his memory…"

Faith looked back at the kid, pursing her lips, "So? Are you gonna need help remembering?"

Bosco walked up to the bar, and saw the lady that was here yesterday. "Hi."

She looked up at him. "You were here yesterday," she said, as she touched his scar. "I see that you took the bandage off." Bosco didn't like anybody touching his scar, but if this was going to help find Dante, so be it. He tried not to cringe, hell he'd do anything for Faith.

He smiled "Hey." He let his eyes roam up and down the nutcase's body with appreciation, trying not to gag at the random piercings, using his so-called gift. "Nice outfit," he says, thinking what the hell is wrong with these people?

She looked at Bosco, blushing. "Yeah?" She smiled nervously, "How'd you get the scar?"

Bosco moved closer to her and shrugged. "Just something I had to do." He could see he had her full attention.

"Listen, I'll be back later, will you be here?" At her dazed nod, he continued, "I gotta do something, but I need your help…"

((

A few minutes later…

Bosco walked up to Faith. "Come on, let's go."

She looked up at Bosco. "Bos, we can't go yet."

He grabbed a hold of her. "We're going now." he said, as he dragged her out of the club.

"Why did you do that, Bos? I'm the one investigating this. I didn't have to bring you along." Faith responded.

"You know if you stop talking for a second, I could tell you that I have some information about Dante... whose real name is David
like we suspected," Bosco explained.

"How did you find that out?"

"Well let's just say I still have the charm," Bosco replied with a wink.

Faith had a smile across her face. "You were flirting with that woman weren't you? So you could get me information?"

"Well I wasn't doing it for me."

"Well Bosco, it has been a while," she said, grinning.

"She isn't my type," he said. "Well here's the information I found out, this is where he is living. She didn't want to give me this information, but I worked it out of her.

Bosco put his hand on her shoulder. "We'll get him, I promise you."

She looked into his eyes, and could see that he meant it. All she could do was nod.

Later that night… Bosco and Faith were in Faith's office. "I'm sorry that the information didn't help us," Bosco said.

She smiled. "Bos, it's not your fault."

"But maybe if I had ask about David, he wouldn't have known that we were onto him." Bosco responded.

"Bos, I think he left as soon as he attacked Emily. He knew that I would kill him for hurting Emily."

"Well he should go as far as he can because when we get him, he is going to pay. Messing with a cop's daughter? The guy's insane." Bosco replied.

Faith smiled to herself. It was like old times, her and Bosco investigating a crime. She didn't realize how much she missed this… all she missed working side by side with Bosco. If only… they could be partners again. But that could never happen. She was happy that he was alive, and was able to sit in front of her, and that they were friends again. She had no idea how she would have dealt with everything that was happening with Emily, if she didn't have Bosco by her side.

"Faith… I've been calling your name for the last few minutes," he said, annoyed.

"Sorry, Bosco, what were you saying?" Faith asked.

"I was saying that I think it's time for you to go home."

Faith shakes her head. "I'm not leaving until I find Dante," Faith explained.

"Faith, this isn't gonna do you any good. We'll look for him again tomorrow. We'll see what we can find out about his family, we'll catch him, but not tonight. You're exhausted. Let me take you home."

"Okay fine, you know I'm not sure I like this level headed Bosco that I've been seeing."

"Don't worry, it won't last long, I'll go back to the insensitive jerk that I always am."

"That sounds better," she said, laughing, as they walked out of the office.

(((

Bosco and Faith were at her door. As she opened it, she said, "Thanks for bringing me home. You know you didn't have to walk me to my door."

"I wanted to, Faith. I miss this." he said.

"Are the two of you going to just stand there, or are you coming in?" Emily asked standing by the door.

"I was just bringing Faith home," Bosco said.

"Well why don't you come in, and have some dinner?" Emily offered.

"No, it's fine," Bosco replied. "I should really be getting home."

"Bosco, come on, I know you're hungry."

Faith laughed. "You can't say no to Emily can you?"

Bosco smiled. "Okay, I'll come in." Bosco said, as they walked into the apartment.

An hour later…

Emily, Bosco and Faith were sitting in the living room.

"So what movie do you want to watch?" Faith asked, as she stood up."How about we watch this one?" she said.

"I'm not watching Troy," Bosco replied. Emily started to tense up, Bosco turned around. "Em, how are you okay?" he asked.

"That was the movie me and mom were going to watch, we were talking about it, just before I was attacked."

"I'm so sorry, honey, I didn't realize I picked up the movie." Faith replied as she grabbed her hand.

"Its fine, mom. So how was work?" Emily asked.

"We don't need to talk about work."

Emily nodded. "So how does it feel to be back, Bosco?"

Bosco was happy that Emily changes the subject, and they didn't have to tell her about the case they were working on.

"It's great, Em."

"You know I visited you in the hospital when you were in a coma," Emily
said. Faith looked at Emily with surprise.

"I'm guessing by your look, Faith, you didn't know," Bosco replied.

Emily looked at Bosco. "It was after you met me at school, and you told me that Bosco could see visitors. I didn't want to wait for you to take me, so I went later that day to see Bosco. I thought I would be afraid to see you."

"You did?"

"But I wasn't scared," Emily replied. "After that, I went as often as I could and sat by your bedside, just talking to you. I miss you Uncle B."

Bosco hugged Emily. "I missed you too, Em."

"Well I should finish my homework." Emily said, as she got up and walked away from Bosco and Faith.

"She has matured a lot lately," Faith replied. "I think her living with me has helped. I never thought it would, but it's been great us living together."

"You're a great mom, Faith."

Faith smiled. "Thanks."

"So how's Charlie?" Bosco asked.

"He's doing okay, the divorce is still hard on him," Faith explained.
"When I called Fred about Emily's attack, Charlie seemed really down."

"How about me and him do something this weekend, I said when I got out of the hospital, that I would see him, but I haven't had time to do it, but I'm free this weekend."

"Bos, that would be great, I'll talk to Charlie tomorrow." Faith replied.

"So how was Fred when you told him about Emily?"

Faith laughed. "He wasn't very happy. He wanted to take Emily to his place, but Emily told him that it wasn't my fault and that she wants to stay with me. I thought Emily would love to get away from me." Faith said with this grin on her face.

"I guess she is learning what I've known about you for a long time. You're not that bad," Bosco replied. "Well I should be getting home, seeing as I have to get early in the morning, if I am going to help you tomorrow morning. Why can't detectives work like beat cops, later in the afternoon?"

"Bos, you don't have to come in early in the morning, I can meet you later in the afternoon, and you can help me then."

"I want to help you all the way, remember we're partners in this." Bosco replied, as he was putting his jacket on. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said, as he headed towards the door.

"Wait!"

He turned around. "Yeah, Faith?"

"Why don't you come to the apartment tomorrow morning, and we can ride in together?" she said.

He nodded. "Sound good, See ya."

((

Later:

Faith was walking to her bedroom when she saw that Emily's light was still on. "Em, it's time for bed," she said, as she opened the door.

"Are you and Bosco partners again?"

"We're sort of working on a case together."

"So, you are partners." Emily replied. "Maybe not permanently, but you are working together. You're working on the case about my attacker aren't you?"

Faith looked at Emily with this concerned look on her face. "Yes we are, Em, let's not talk about this."

"Mom, it's okay."

"I know, I just don't want you to have to think about it," Faith explained. "Now it's time for bed." Faith hugged Emily. "See you in the morning," she said, as she stood up and was just about to walk away, when Emily called her back.

"Mom, I know that you are going to find my attacker, because the two best cops are investigating, if anybody can find him, it's you and Bosco."

Faith smiled. "Thanks."

"I might not like you being a cop all the time, but I know you are a damn good one. I'm proud to be your daughter. I just wanted you to know that."

"I do, goodnight baby," Faith said, as she shut the door.

She walked into the living room, and thought about everything that happened today and how she and Bosco were back as partners, even if it was only temporary. It still felt good to have him as her partner. Just like old times.