Chapter 9, finally, lol. Just a little transition to home life, well, home life with Rose...and a visitor. Short chapter, yea, yea, it will get going and I'm pretty sure it ends on 10. LOL BUT I ain't making no promises! hehe Thanks for the reviews.. and cough I'm not sending Emily to jail, OR having Bosco beat her up! ROFLMAO!! :P

M.

Truth or Lies

Chapter 9

"Oh Maurice, baby I'm so glad you're finally home," Rose opened the door to the house, as he held it open for her to walk in before him, "finally, its all over with." Dropping her purse on the entrance table, her keys in the small bowl sitting beside an arrangement of fresh flowers, she headed into the kitchen, "I've got a lasagna in the freezer all ready to pop into the oven, hope you're hungry mister."

Standing smiling at her retreating back Bosco slipped his jacket onto the coat stand, "Yea, me too Mom, and that sounds great, I can fix the garlic bread if you want." Following her after closing and locking the front door he heard her yell back for him to fix her a drink, there were beers in the fridge and join her.

Giving a small shake of his head as he headed into the dining room, standing before the small liquor cabinet he decided a beer would not do, pouring himself a double shot of Jack Daniels, downing it, before making up her Crown and Seven. As the cool burning sensation ran down his throat he put his head back with a sigh, eyes closed. Taking a moment before continuing he was glancing around the room, as he did so he spotted a picture, it looked new, squinting he couldn't make out the picture in the glass frame from across the room, picking up the Crown Royal bottle he poured a shot into the crystal glass as he glanced again at the picture before pouring the Seven Up over the ice cubes he dropped in. Pouring himself another double of Jack, he picked up Rose's glass and stopped next to the picture a moment before heading to the kitchen to join her. It was of the only family vacation he could remember, back before everything in their lives went to crap, Rose and Anthony looking so happy, not more than 26 each probably, he thought he and Mikey might have been 6 and 4, taken somewhere in the mountains, but he could only really remember the large lake behind them as someone unknown took their picture. Swallowing back his emotions as he stared at Mikey's grinning face, Bosco set the picture back down as he heard Rose ask where her drink was, heading on into the kitchen, "Here you go Mom," holding out her drink, his own held carefully against his chest with his casted hand.

"Baby," Rose looking up scowled, "Whiskey? You, at this time of day? You know what that does to you Maurice." Turning to him, hands on hips she stood frowning before taking her glass, his smirking glance at her drink bringing a sigh of, "Don't start Maurice Lewis."

"Salute," Bosco taking his drink into his good hand clinked his glass against hers, before downing the entirety of the contents of his drink, a slight gasp escaping him as he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, "and Mom, I know what it does, that's why I'm drinking It instead of beer. And don't YOU start, please. I'm not driving anywhere, and I'm sleeping upstairs..." winking at her as she started to argue, "or the couch, whichever comes first." Moving around her, "Now, where's the bread knife again," reaching for the roll of French bread on the table he felt her arm wrap around his middle as she pressed her face into his back, hugging him tightly.

"I'm so glad you're finally out of that place baby," Rose seemed almost afraid to release him as they stood there, tears coming to his eyes as he stopped and turning pulled her close.

"Don't cry Mom," Bosco murmured against her hair, kissing the top of her head, "its over now. Time to have a celebration remember?"

Reaching up she placed her hands on his face, pulling him to her, kissing his forehead, cheek and mouth quickly before pushing him lightly and playfully away, "That's right, so stop being such a sap and fix that bread, and remember, lots of garlic Maurice, and put some of that shredded cheese blend on it. Its in the fridge, lots of that too."

"Yea, yea, I know," he smiled now for the first time freely as he turned back to the table, "I never put enough garlic, Mom a whole head of garlic isn't enough for you, you'd think you were fighting off vampires or something with your garlic brea...oUCH!" Laughing finally as he felt the popping sting of the dishtowel on his butt cheek through the dress pants.

"Always such a smartass," Rose pretending a snit smiled at his back as she heard his laughter again, "you have your nerve, the way you pile on the cheese I'd swear you were a mouse!"

"Learned from the best, MOM," he smirked giving his behind a quick rub, then, holding the loaf in place with his cast he began to cut the bread open, closing one eye as he waited expectantly for another pop from her towel.

"Keep it up Maurice," she warned with a laugh as she put the pan in the oven, "you'll be icing that ass down instead of my drinks."

XXXXX

After dinner, Bosco was lazing in the recliner watching a ballgame, enjoying his freedom when the doorbell rang, Rose upstairs yelled down at him to answer the door, "Yea, yea," he muttered, feeling more than loose from the dinner and drinks he'd consumed, struggled to his feet and wandered slowly to the door. Opening the inner door he saw Dave Swersky standing on the steps, blinking at him in surprise, Bosco quickly opened the glass door, "Lieu? What are you doing here? Something wrong?" The tiny spark of fear in him suddenly flaring as it irrationally crossed his mind that the Judge had made a mistake, or changed her mind and he was going to be heading to jail instead of upstairs to bed after the ballgame was over.

Smiling at him, Dave shook his head, "Bosco, no, nothings wrong, I just wanted to check on you, make sure everything's going ok?" Glancing past him with an expectant look on his face he smirked as he saw the still shell-shocked look on Bosco's face, "You gonna invite me in or should I just settle in here?"

"Huh?" Bosco's booze and Lasagna numbed mind taking a second to comprehend that Swersky wasn't here to cuff and stuff him finally caught up, "Oh, oh yea, sure Lieu, come on in," stepping back as Swersky smilingly entered the hallway, "can I take your coat, or, um..." At a lost, none of his bosses ever visiting his home, even though Lieu had been around the hospital a lot over the last several weeks, Bosco wasn't sure what the procedure was here.

"Yea, thanks," Dave shrugged off his jacket, handing it to him, Bosco quickly draped it over a hook on the coat rack, as they stood in the hallway, Dave taking a quick look around, "Rose has a nice place, this where you grew up?" Not mentioning to him he'd been here a few times to check on Rose while Bosco was in the hospital, both at the jail and Mercy.

"Um, yea, its nice," Bosco stammered, "mostly, I mean yea this is mostly where we grew up, this and one street over for a few years. My grandparents helped her get it after my Dad...um, hey come on in, sorry." Indicating the livingroom at the end of the small hallway, he waited until Dave smiling still headed into the room before grabbing the end of his dress shirt and stuffing it back into his pants waistband, wiping his face and running his good hand through his hair quickly, as he followed him, "Here," moving the newspaper he'd been reading earlier, "sit here Boss." Tossing the newspaper onto the floor next to the still open recliner, he reached down as Swersky sat on the opposite chair and grabbing the lever with his good hand yanked it closed before sitting himself.

"How's your hand?" Dave asked in a friendly tone, "Cast still coming off next week?"

"Yea, Doc says it looks good," holding up the cast he smirked, "if I don't do anything dumb like fall down the stairs on it, should come off by Friday I guess."

Dave laughed, "No, please don't do that, you've been off work long enough, time for you to get your butt back on the street."

"Huh?" Bosco blinked at him, realizing it hadn't really occurred to him when or if he'd be able to go back at all, "You mean, I still have a job?" The surprise and shock evident in his voice as well as his expression.

Shaking his head, Dave started to make a comment about his denseness, but decided not to tease him seeing the look of sudden fear tinged longing on his face, instead he quietly commented, "With full back pay, and a clean record of course. Maurice what did you think would happen once you were cleared of the charges?"

Attempting, not to successfully considering the Jack Daniels he'd consumed this evening, to control his emotions, Bosco muttered, "Honestly Boss, I tried not to think about it much, I figured I was fired...I..." dropping his eyes to the floor he cleared his throat as Dave decided the pictures on the wall were in need of scrutiny, giving him a moment to collect himself, finally, a half unsure smile on his face that quickly grew he added, "full back pay, huh?

Nodding as he continued to check out the pictures, Dave could hear the relief and smile in his voice, a welcome difference in how he'd been sounding these last several weeks, "Full back pay, just like the suspension never happened, and since," turning back to him, "the charges weren't just dropped, but you were actually exonerated of them, there won't be anything in any of your department records about the charges. Course that doesn't mean you can't pursue legal actions against the department or jail if you wanted to, or against Fred or Emily."

Dave saw his face tense up as he spoke the last sentence, watching the emotions race over his face, "Maurice, I want you to know that if you decide to press this against the department and that jail guard or anyone else, I'll back you up a hundred percent, while they had to take you in, you should have gone to the hospital first, not to the infirmary, I'm pretty sure that medic Neito will testify that he and his partner tried to take you, and the Detectives refused to allow it."

Nodding slowly, Bosco gave a small shrug, "I don't know what I want to do about that yet Boss, or about the others, most of me wants to just forget it."

"And the rest of you," Dave asked with a searching look, "what does that part want?"

"Take that son of a bitch Detective Asshole and kick his ass from here to Jersey," he muttered angrily, "and you don't even want to know what I would like to do to that guard." Giving Dave a hard look, he continued, "Those animals in that cell, I wouldn't have expected anything else from them, shit if they were anything better they wouldn't have been there right? But him," staring into Dave's eyes, "it'd be worth another suspension, and a new cast just to beat his ass down with this." Stopping as he felt his blood pressure skyrocketing, the acid in his stomach threatening to bring back up the dinner and drinks, Bosco gritted his teeth as he stared off at the TV still tuned to the ballgame.

"Well," Dave nodded serious now, "he was arrested, the guard that is, and now he's the one sitting in a jail cell. You might end up back in court, but this time it will be to testify, not to be tried."

"Good," Bosco ground out, "I can't wait." Rubbing his fingers over his cast, "As for Fred, Lieu, like I said before, I don't blame him, hell if it was my kid, Faith would have been going to a funeral, not a trial. I love their kids like they were my own, I doubt I'll ever understand why Emmy did what she did, but I don't blame Fred for believing her, hell, I wish my Dad had believed in me like he does those kids."

Nodding again, Dave realized he'd not once mentioned Faith in any of this, bringing that up now, "And your partner..." Leaving the question open to give him a chance to answer however he wanted to.

Now Bosco looked up at him, straight into his eyes, Dave saw the hurt there as Bosco responded, heard it in his voice though he tried to hide it, "I don't know how I feel about Yokas, Boss," the use of her last name instead of her given name speaking volumes to Dave, "she's known me for 12 almost 13 years, she knows how I feel about bastards who do to women, and kids what Emmy claimed I did to her, and she didn't even a.s.k. me what happened, or if anything HAD happened. I mean she should have trusted Em, but still, she just assumed I'm the kind of guy who would hurt a child like that, her child..." Bowing his head he swiped his face with the back of his good hand, sniffed hard once and cursed softly.

Before Dave could respond, Rose came into the room, "Maurice who was at the...Ohhh David!" A smile breaking over her face, she greeted him with a small hug as he stood up, "What are you doing here? Not that I'm not very happy to see you."

"Rose," he gave her a smile back, hoping to distract her from Bosco's reaction to his questions, though he was very happy to see her and the smile was genuine, "I'm glad to see you too, especially with a smile on that pretty face instead of worry and that frown you've been wearing so much. I just came to see how Maurice here was doing his first night of freedom, making sure he wasn't getting into too much trouble."

Laughing as she flirted harmlessly with him, "David, I swear if I was, um, Three years younger, and You weren't married...Maurice might be calling you Step Dad instead of Boss!" Dave burst out laughing, as Bosco half shouted, half stuttered in shock, "MOM! MY GOD!"

"Oh Maurice," Rose winked at Dave, "grow up, we're just flirting." Giggling as she turned to look at him, hearing Dave laugh again as she teased him, "Look how red your face is, I swear sometimes I think you'll never get that stick out your ass. Lighten up and fix Dave a drink, and I'll have another one while you're at it." Turning to Dave, as he laughed harder, Bosco looking now like she'd hit him with a tazer, "Guinness or Rye Whiskey tonight David?"

"A Guinness will be great," Dave trying not to look at Bosco again, smilingly replied, "I'm driving, don't want to get arrested on a DUI."

Rose turned, seeing Bosco still sitting in shock gave him a slight push on his shoulder, "Well? Go! And you look like you've had enough yourself, I've got some of those nasty Mountain Dews you're always gulping down, in the fridge, drink that instead, well, move it Maurice!"

Shaking her head she motioned for Dave to sit again as she took Bosco's seat, "Now, tell me again about those precious grandchildren of yours, are they still visiting?"

Mumbling, "Oh my God, I'm in hell," Bosco slowly walked to the dining room, "hell, I've died and gone to hell, my life is over..."

Rose staring after him, hearing Dave laugh outloud again, exclaimed, as she turned to Dave, "I swear sometimes I have no idea what he's talking about!"

TBC...