A/N: yeah, well this one took a month to update..ahhh (runs away). I've had quite an eventful month, but I won't bore you with that, I'll just say SORRY for taking so long to update this. I've been trying to be as quick as I can to keep the momentum up on it, I hope you are still interested in this one.

Special Thanks: Every single one of you who respond and give me such great feedback. You rock, and thanks again. Also to Cosmic Castaway for basically being my beta reader, and for her great advice.

Disclaimer: Still don't own them! Don't sue!

Deep Blue Chapter Twelve: Uphill Climb

Mrs. Finney didn't want to admit it, but the doctor was right. She decided to let him prescribe her with some Zoloft and it did make her feel a tad bit better. Better until she stared down at her son, who still remained motionless in his bed. She ran her hands over his hair, a small tear trickled down her cheek. The thought of him never walking again made her scared, but even worse, him not waking up was a nightmare. She didn't think she could tolerate it.

She sat down, looking out at the view from his hospital room. The city lights shimmered showing that this city truly did not sleep, just like the motto had said. She heard his sheets ruffle, and she jolted her head in his direction, seeing his fingers were moving. His eyelids also began to flutter, as if he was trying to wake up. 'Yeah right,' she thought. 'Just my wishful thinking.' She grabbed his hand, squeezing it.

"C'mon Brendan, please wake up soon."

She buried her head in her hands but heard something being dragged across the sheets again. She looked up once more, knowing now that she wasn't imagining it. His eyelids began to move more, and slowly but surely his eyes opened, revealing the blueness of his irises.

"Brendan?" She let out a small laugh through her painful tears. "Oh my God!"

He looked around, squinting from the sudden light. He had a confused look on his face but calmed down when he was his mother's face over him. He tried to speak, but his voice cracked and nothing came out.

"Shh, don't worry about talking." She grabbed the buzzer beside his bed, getting the doctor's attention. She leaned down and kissed his forehead. "I'm so happy to see you awake."

His doctor and two nurses came in quickly, seeing that their patient had finally regained consciousness. The doctor quickly placed his clipboard down, walking to the other side of the bed.

"When did he wake up?"

"Like a couple of minutes ago. It was sudden."

The doctor nodded as he reached for a small flashlight. "That's usually how it happens." He flashed it down into Finney's eyes, making him squint again. His eyes weren't used to the light yet, not from being closed this whole time. "Pupils are reacting good. Officer, how are you feeling?"

Finney raised his hand up but the doctor shook his head no. "No, try and talk for me."

Finney licked his lips, giving a small cough to moisten his throat as best as he could. "I..I'm feeling…okay." That sentence seemed to take a lot of energy out of him, and he was suddenly out of breath from it.

Then the question arose in Mrs. Finney's mind. Could he feel his legs? At the moment she was so ecstatic about him waking up that it wasn't her biggest worry, but it did cross her thoughts. The nurse brought in a pitcher of water, and Finney drank it down as if he had been lost in the desert for months on end.

The doctor walked to the foot of his bed, grabbing his foot. "I know you just woke up Officer, but these are questions that need to be asked." He tried to read Finney to see if he felt his hand on his feet.

Finney was still a tad bit groggy, and was only catching bits and pieces of what the doctor was saying. He looked up at the ceiling. "What..do you mean?"

"Can you feel this?" The doctor pinched the skin on the bottom of Finney's foot, but got no reaction whatsoever.

"Feel what?" Finney looked over at his mother that looked worried, and it suddenly made him panic. "What's…the problem?" All of the talking was making him lightheaded, like he had just got done working out, and all he was doing was lying in a damn hospital bed.

The doctor jotted some notes down on his chart. "I'll come back later for more tests. You seem to not be ready for this yet." He walked out, knowing he had made a mistake opening that up to him right after he had woken up. Finney quickly looked at his mother, frowning.

"Mom?"

She shrugged. "Just rest. Everything is okay."

Faith had just found out about Finney waking up right before it was time for her to go home. She knew Bosco was extremely upset for what happened, but of course who wouldn't be? It wasn't his fault, but she knew him well enough to know he was blaming himself.

She fumbled through her desk, searching for her cell phone that always seemed to hide at the most opportune times. She finally found it under a mound of paperwork. Quickly opening the face, she dialed Bosco's number. It rang several times, and then his voicemail picked up. She waited for the general message, then took in a deep sigh.

"Boz, this is Faith. I have some good news, give me a call when you get this. It's important."

She leaned back in her chair, running her hands through her hair. Should she go to his house? The last time she went to his apartment they fought, but that had been happening a lot lately. She finally decided her best bet was to just wait and see if he returned her call, if not then she could go over there.

Bosco sat and stared into the mirror that was behind his mother's bar. He never understood why bar owners put those up, as if someone wanted to actually see themselves get plastered. He ran his fingertip over the rim of a shot glass that a few seconds ago held Jack Daniels. He wasn't exactly sure why he even came to his mom's bar, the last thing he wanted was to be mothered, but maybe it's deep down what he needed, but he'd never admit that out loud.

"So what's bugging you Maurice?" His mom lit a cigarette, blowing the smoke into his face without even thinking.

He waved it away, sitting back. "I just wanted to come have some drinks with my mother."

She smirked. "That's a good joke." Her face then grew serious. "Something happen at work?"

He knew she'd see right past him, she always could. He nodded, remaining silent. Grabbing for the bottle of whiskey, he was startled when his mom was quicker, taking it from his grasp and placing it below the bar.

"What's going on Maurice?"

He bit his lip as he shifted his weight on the barstool. He was really skeptical about telling her, but she always had good advice, though he'd probably not even take it. "I was having to train a rookie."

She nodded. "Go on."

"He was chasing a perp down. They somehow got to the top of a building, the suspect wrestled with him and threw him over the side. Finney fell a couple of stories onto the roof of another building. He's in a coma right now. Not sure if he'll ever walk again or wake up for that matter."

"And you are blaming yourself?"

Bosco looked up at his mother as if she was from another planet. Of course he was blaming himself, in his mind he did it to Finney. "Yeah, I am."

"Why?"

Now this was something Bosco really didn't want to get into with her. She'd never understand, she's not a cop. But she was his mother, and she always had ways of making him feel better. He needed someone to vent to anyway, and right now he didn't want to vent to Faith.

"I was senior officer, I should've never let Finney chase him down like that."

"How long has Finney been on the job?"

"Couple of months. Not enough experience for something I allowed." He paused, staring at the empty shot glass. He hadn't realized how much he relied on alcohol now. "It was just a bad situation, and now I can't get it back." He looked up at his mom, teary-eyed but fighting it off. He hated crying in front of her.

She placed her hand on top of his. "It's not your fault. It's not like you were controlling Finney with a remote control."

He stood up, putting some money down. "Yeah, it is my fault. Thanks ma." He then walked out into the cold night, not even realizing Faith had left him a message about Finney.

Faith was growing really impatient. She had left Bosco the message 2 hours ago. There was no telling what he was doing or where he was, but her first attempt to find him would be his house. She knew he'd be pissed to see her, but she didn't care. Maybe the news of Finney waking up would make him come out of the shell he built around himself, but she doubted it.

She walked to the elevator, going to his floor. Her heart was beating quickly, she wasn't even sure why she was so nervous but she was. The elevator ding made her jump, thankfully no one was around to see it. She slowly walked into the hallway, her legs feeling heavy as she approached his door. She went in to knock, but a voice stopped her.

"Faith?"

She looked to her left, seeing Bosco standing there. "Boz, hey!" A nervous laugh erupted from her lips, making it more awkward than she anticipated it to be.

"What are you doing here?" He unlocked the door, knowing Faith would follow right behind him despite the fact that he didn't invite her in.

She took notice to his apartment yet again. She was a detective, it came natural for her to observe things though she knew she shouldn't. His housekeeping really fell behind, never before did he let it get as messy as it was. She could say he was just a guy being lazy, but no that wasn't like him. She didn't realize she hadn't answered him, and he grew impatient.

"Faith?"

"Did you get my message?"

He grabbed his cell phone from his pocket. "Nope. Been ignoring all my calls." He threw it down on the table with some force, probably damaging it.

"You'll find some good news with that message." She flashed him a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

He arched his eyebrow. "Yeah right. Good news, not even sure what that is anymore."

"Well this is in fact something you might wanna know."

He sat down, staring up at her. "What?"

"Finney woke up. He's talking and alert." She tried to read him, but he was like a book in a foreign language, it was impossible to comprehend him. "You should go see him or something."

"Go see him? Faith, I'm the one that put him there, I don't want to go see him. Just because he woke up doesn't mean that it's good. It should've never happened."

Faith sat in a recliner across from him. She expected this from him. He was so unpredictable in some matters, but when it came to stubbornness she could basically lay out how he'd act. "It did happen Bosco, and you have gotta stop blaming yourself. I think it'd mean a lot to Finney and his family if you went." She stood up. "Call me if you want someone to go with you." She turned and walked out, knowing he wouldn't call her, nor did what she say make a dent in his line of thinking.

Bosco sat in silence after she left. 'At least he's awake' he thought.

Finney was still curious as to why the doctor asked him if he could feel something. And he didn't understand why he couldn't feel his legs, it was like a numb sensation, and no one would answer the millions of questions he had about it. His mom was now asleep, so he was left alone. Nothing was on TV so he just sat and stared, trying to recall most of what happened that got him put here.

He remembered chasing someone and fighting with them, but after that his mind went blank. He averted his eyes to the entrance of his room, seeing Grace standing there. She smiled as she walked to his side.

"Hey Brendan." She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead. "How are you feeling?"

He grabbed her hand and squeezed. "I'm confused. I need my doctor to stop walking on egg shells with me and just tell me what's going on."

It was as if the doctor could hear him, because moments later he walked in, a clipboard in his hand. He took note to Grace being there, and hesitated.

"It's okay, she's family. She can stay here." Brendan squeezed her hand again, knowing the news he had wasn't good by the somber look that he had written across his face. "So, are you going to tell me what the hell is going on or let me live in suspense a little longer?"

The doctor took in a deep breath as he flipped through some papers. He noticed that Mrs. Finney was now awake too, which was good because he didn't want to repeat this twice. It'd be hard enough saying it once.

"Officer, you have a dislodged vertebrae in your spine. There's a chance it'll work back into place, but also there's a chance that it won't."

Mrs. Finney had already heard this from the doctor, but it was more painful this time because Finney was hearing it for the first time, and the worry in his face made her heart ache.

"What are the chances that it'll work back into place?" There was shakiness to his voice. He tried to hide it as best as he could but there was no possible way.

"We are unable to tell that. You'll have to go through rehab, and work your body. Eventually after you undergo that for awhile and there's no improvement we should be able to tell. Sometimes it moves in one week, sometimes a year if any at all."

"When do I start treatment, the sooner the better."

"As soon as your concussion gets better, which is soon since you have finally regained consciousness." He walked to the door. "I'll be back later."

Finney looked at his mother who was crying. "It's okay mom, I'll walk again. You know me, I won't let this get me down." He shifted his weight. "Now I need to know what happened, cause it's a complete blank after a certain point." Only one person could give him the full story, and at the moment there was no way he'd be coming to the hospital.

Bosco looked at the clock as he walked into the station house, it was 2:50. He had 10 minutes to change so he sprinted up the stairs, but was stopped by Swersky at the top.

"You go see Finney yet?" Swersky folded his arms over his chest.

"Can we wait and discuss this after role call so I can get dressed?"

"It was a simple question Bosco, did you go see him?" Swersky knew the answer to that, he was just trying to get Bosco's reaction to it.

"No, I haven't." He pushed past him, now only having around 5 minutes to get changed.

"See me after role call Bosco." Swersky yelled down the hall at him, hoping he'd heard it.

He went to the role call room where he did announcements, letting everyone know Finney was awake and needed visitors and support. "Eyes and ears open out there." He walked to his office, where Bosco was to meet him.

Bosco knocked, slowly walking in to see Swersky standing behind his desk. 'What did I do now?' he thought as he closed the door behind him. He said nothing as he waited, a million thoughts racing through his mind as he waited for his superior to break the silence.

"Why haven't you gone to see Finney yet?"

Bosco scoffed, shaking his head. "You are still stuck on that? I just haven't gone, I haven't had time."

Swersky nodded. "Haven't had time? I think there's something more there than you having time Bosco. You wanna tell me what's going on?"

"No."

Swersky nodded. "So there is something going on?"

Bosco ran his hands over his hair. "What makes you think something is going on Lieu? I just haven't had time, the kid is better off with me not around anyway." Little did Bosco know that with that last sentence it was a dead give away that there was something wrong.

"I know something is wrong because I've seen how close you have gotten to Finney. You might not try and show it, but you do care for him. And you handing me this line of not having time to go see him is bullshit Bosco! You are blaming yourself, when you shouldn't. You've gotten close to him, don't let this ruin it."

Bosco had nothing to say. Swersky was right but of course he wouldn't admit it. He stared down at the floor. "Just give me some time Lieu."

"You are riding the desk until I know your thinking is stable." He knew that Bosco wasn't levelheaded enough to be out there, and putting him on the desk would piss him off, but in the long run it was the right decision.

Bosco felt like someone had just punched him in the stomach. "So basically what you are saying is, if I was to go visit Finney in the hospital you'd let me out on the street?"

"No, until you stop blaming yourself for this you'll be riding a desk. Now get out of here, the paperwork is waiting."

Bosco gritted his teeth, but said nothing more as he turned, slamming the door so hard behind him that pictures on Swersky's walls got knocked around, even a few fell. Swersky sat down, hoping that Bosco would come to his senses soon, not just for himself but for the sake of Finney too, who needed all the support he could get, especially from the officer who had became so close to him.

TBC…..

I was told that is no longer allowing us to respond to reviewers within our stories, so I guess my next plan of attack for letting you guys know how much I appreciate you is to say THANKS to all of you who have given me reviews. You know who you are, and I wish I could give you each a personal message like before but I can't…so this is the best I can do. I couldn't do this story without you guys, so thanks so much again.