Author Note -Well I'm back with the last chapter of this story, and I can't really say much in this. It's the end, my friend (thanks Jessie(Boscogirl) for that) and thanks for all your help in this story and letting me complain. Here you go the last chapter, ;)

Chapter 16 – Return to Innocence

Slowly Bosco walked through the gates as he traveled down the tiny paved road. He never liked coming to this place, for it always just creeped him out no matter how much older he got. Getting off the path he stopped and then kneeled down to put a rose on his mother's grave, then Mikey's.

"Been a while since I've been back here, well I'm sorry its been kind of crazy these last couple of months."

He then sat down on the grass that was still damp from the morning showers that had taken place. Winter was coming fast and quick and the only thing you could do was get ready for it.

"So I got a new job, yeah you heard correctly." Bosco smiled. "I never thought that a police officer could change my life, but I've never really been good picking friends anyways."

Sitting there for a second as his thoughts went wild as he tried to figure out what else he wanted to say he then stood up. "Well I promise to come by more often, I just wanted to tell you. See you guys later." Nodding his head he then left the gravesite.

(30 minutes later)

Bosco made it down the sidewalk and the usual guys were out on the stoop but they weren't as bad as they looked. They were the type that just liked to make a lot of noise, but didn't really want much trouble. So as he made his way up, he heard the usual "ahhh Boscorelli." Them all joining in and he just shook his head with a soft smirk on his lips as he passed through the gang. But he then felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey Reggie stopped by."

Bosco was surprised to hear that name, ever since their altercation in front of his apartment he hadn't really heard much from the guy. Quite frankly he was pretty happy because he was finally seeing what Reggie was. A piece of shit that only liked to push people around, and Bosco was done being pushed down and not giving much of a fight. Those days were over.

"Did he say what he want?"

"No man."

"Thanks." Bosco then got up to his apartment quickly and got inside and he half expected to see Reggie standing there. He wasn't even sure why there was an urge of panic that came over him, but then he saw the note on his coffee table that was currently falling apart.

Picking up the note he read it and then reread it again. His friend had gone off the deep end. Bosco didn't know what to do as he dropped the note. He had to stop Reggie from doing something completely and utterly stupid. Bosco then left his apartment as quickly as he came, not even locking the door behind him. Even though the note didn't tell him where Faith and Reggie were, he knew his friend like the back of his hand and Bosco had a pretty good idea where they were. The note Reggie had left behind read,

"You don't want to talk to me anymore, well now you have to because I have your pig. Come get her, oink, oink."

Bosco's body was concealed in the shadows from the tree's hanging over, blocking the light from the streetlight. But Faith was standing right in the middle of the black surface, the light illuminating her as she just stood there.

As hard as he could, he could not see where Reggie was and maybe in some kind of drug stupidity he forgot what he was doing and left. Taking a deep breath Bosco began walking towards Faith but stopped short when he heard Reggie's voice.

"Surprised to see you."

Bosco turned around to see Reggie standing there, with his hand in his pocket but just from where Bosco stood he could tell, Reggie was cracked out, on God only knew what. He was twitchy and this was seeing from a couple yards away. Bosco tried to think what to say but all he could come up with was,

"I could say the same for you." Bosco didn't want to make Reggie pull a weapon, what Bosco pretty much assumed was in his pocket. Bosco keeping his eye on Reggie he slowly began stepping closer to Faith, but Reggie spotted it and pulled the 9 mm.

"That's far enough."

Looking over at Faith, Bosco could tell she was just glaring at Reggie, pissed at the situation that she had no control and really couldn't do anything. She was trapped, because if she tried to run or do something, Reggie would gun her down.

"Do you really want to be doing this?" Bosco asked. It was a stupid question, but what else could he ask. "Come on Reggie, look at what your doing pulling a gun, that's not you man."

Faith knew that was a bunch of bullshit if she had heard any. Reggie was the ideal type to do this; he beat the living piss out of Bosco with a baseball bat. She was just scared what Reggie would do with that gun and if Bosco would be able to talk him down.

"How do you know what I want anymore? I don't even know you man. Hanging out with the fucking po-po's, narking on our kind." Reggie then spit towards Bosco looking him up and down. "You know what, its all this bitch's fault."

Bosco looked at Faith, and saw how her eyes went from calm to a slight panic. She really didn't like where this was headed and could only see it getting worse if this continued down this line of path. She just hoped somebody would hear the loud angry voices and get suspicious and call the cops on them.

"Reggie, just put the gun down man, we can talk about this just there is no reason for this."

"You know, I always hated how they try to talk you down, I know what I'm doing is right…and quite frankly its neither one of us, its her and I'm doing you a favor."

It was slow motion all of a sudden for Bosco as he saw the intent in Reggie's face and in his eyes. The gun cocked back and then with everything Bosco had he sprinted and ran towards Faith. Screaming for Faith to get down do anything but stand there watching as Reggie had a malice smile on his face as he fired the gun.

Faith let out a yelp as she heard the gun go off and felt her body hit with the impact of Bosco's weight colliding into her as they slammed into the ground. She looked up at Reggie thinking he was about to fire another shot off, that maybe he had missed but then quickly she realized something. Bosco wasn't moving. She then looked down and could only see his brown spiky hair and nothing from where she was laying under him. Still watching Reggie like a hawk, she then squiggled out from under him and turned Bosco over and was mortified.

Blood was beginning to puddle around his chest and slowly soaking his shirt and then trickling down onto the pavement. Faith then slowly put her hand on the wound and pressed down, which caused Bosco's eyes to shoot open. She then glanced up at Reggie who had begun quietly walking up slowly. What he saw made him drop his gun, which made a loud clank when it hit the pavement. Slowly he sank to his knees as he then whispered, "Oh God….what have I done?"

Sirens could be heard in the background, coming to their location. Somebody had heard the gunshots and they were coming, that meant Bosco would be okay, Faith assured herself. She smiled down as Bosco was trying to focus and try to figure what just happened.

"Hey just hang in there okay, do that for me?"

Bosco's eyes glistened up in the corners and one lonely teardrop escaped and went down the side of his face from the pain he was in as his body slowly went into shock and began shutting down functions. "I never….thought," Bosco's eyes closed as a full wave of pain hit him, "take a bullet for you."

Faith smiled but it wasn't one out of happiness, but sadness as she watched Bosco's eyes start to slowly close. Panic set in and she put more pressure on the wound. "No don't do that," turning her head she could hear the sirens were closer, 'come on, what's taking them so long?' "Don't shut your eyes Bosco, keep them open and focused!"

Bosco's head moved to the side, and couldn't find much energy to move it back up to look at her. He squinted his eyes and saw the playground in front of him. A memory flashed in his mind,

Being helped up Bosco brushed himself off and looked up at who helped him out.

"Reggie, and you are?"

"Bosco….thanks."

"No sweat 'Co."

Funny the place that began the friendship of Bosco and Reggie, would be the end of it. Bosco's head moved back to stare up at Faith with a soft smile. "You were….my," Bosco never thought it be so hard to be able to speak, "true friend." He saw tears running down Faith's face, "thank you."

Faith then watched as Bosco let out a gasp, as his eyes moved around a little more and then they stopped. His entire body went slack, as he had just taken his last breath.

It wasn't a couple seconds after Bosco had died right in front of Faith that the police showed up, and then EMS followed very shortly. But there was nothing the medics could do, he was DOA and it had turned into a crime scene.

The lights from the emergency vehicles blurred all into one as she looked up with tears slowly coming down her face, as she tried to comprehend what just happened in only a couple minutes. If they had gotten there only a few more minutes earlier, he might have been saved. Standing up she then began walking away, not wanting to have to understand that a life was now taken because of something so stupid.

She didn't even hear her name being called as John Sullivan, called out to her. He just watched as she left the scene, and he turned back around. He looked down at the lifeless body of Boscorelli and then finally kneeled down and closed his eyes. Glaring up at Reggie, Sully getting back up on his feet he then took a few steps to Reggie. "Get up."

"I….killed him."

Sully looked at Davis, who then grabbed him by the arms and began reading his rights. Reggie remained silent, and not because he didn't want anything used against him in court, but the pure fact he had just killed his best friend. The only one that had been his friend his entire life.

It would only be a few more hours and the entire site was cleaned up. If you looked hard you could see where the spot Boscorelli had been laying on the ground, bleeding and then died on the spot. Kids would continue playing, never to question the stain, thinking something had just been spilt there, being forever sheltered that a man had died there that day, a man that was finally changing his life around and getting on the right side. The only people that would ever truly know what happened at that spot were the ones before and after.

Epilogue

A lone woman stood at the graveyard staring down at a specific headstone. She then brought the rose up to her nose and then gently laid it down on the ground. Her eyes traveled over to the other two roses that had been left by the markers, but the petals had begun to fall off from being exposed for so long.

She then bent down so she was on the balls of her feet and she gently laid the rose down. Then stood back up, pulling her coat towards her.

"That was an ending I didn't expect, quite frankly I thought you would live the happy life. Came into this world with a shitty start why not get a second chance?"

Faith then let out a sigh as she then willed herself not to cry, she had cried way to many times and crying wasn't going to solve anything. It was done, Maurice Louis Boscorelli was dead and nothing would change that.

"I'm sorry, that had to happen and I wish I could change it."

She shook her head and looked towards the tree as a squirrel began gathering nuts to get ready for the cold winter to come. Something so small as that almost brought a soft smile. Life will always continue, even if you feel like it should come to a halt.

"I never thought I would befriended you Bosco. If somebody would have told me that to begin with, I would have thought they were crazy."

A another soft sigh escaped her lips, "Thank you for saving my life….and I promise I'll come visit you." She then took her hand kissed her fingers and then placed it on the gravestone. She then left Boscorelli's headstone, which was right next to Angela Rose Boscorelli, and Mikey Boscorelli. Nobody though saw, a man once named Maurice Louis Boscorelli, have his innocence once return to him as he once again reunited with the ones that loved him, his family.

THE END!

(Insert Enigma's Return to Innocence lyrics here)

Still rather disappointed I can't put songs up, check up the lyrics it works well with this story ;)

Okay I hope you don't hate me for ending it the way I did, but everything will be explain in my author notes. I don't generally do them, because I never feel like I have to explain myself. But this story had way to much foreshadow, and reasons behind things I did in this story, Anyways, to those that replied. I can't thank you enough.

Boscogirl, Yammy, and Firefly120, thank you for your nice and thoughtful comments about Chapter 16.

To those that have left me a course of reviews over this length of this story thanks again, and once again don't hate me for doing this.

Author Notes: Because I can't make an individual author note, I figured I'd do it right now and get it over with. The basic of this story as you know was to walk Boscorelli on that borderline of criminal and cop. Jason Wiles mentioned that Bosco was, so I wanted to take the story and run with it, of course some parts didn't come out the way I had planned.

Now some of you figured, because Faith was no longer married she would be open up for Bosco. This was never my plan to have them get together, I'm just one of those that could never see it, I'm sorry.

The reason behind her marriage failure, was in Season 1, Officer Involved Bosco talked to her about was it really worth to her kids to go through the divorce because he had no idea they were separating, his mother and father. So the idea was, if Bosco wasn't there to say that, and kind of push her like no one else did, who would stop her? So when he came along, as the criminal he still ended up getting through to her.

I also wanted to do the bond they had on the show, and enforce that and say its kind of destined friendship sorta thing. Even though he is on the wrong tracks, he still ends up being a close friend.

I also wanted to figure out how Bosco could go on the wrong side, and the only thing I could think was his mother actually did protect him from his father for the most part. So evidently his father was the one that turned his son into a piece of work.

Return to Innocence, and the reason behind the name. I really knew from the get go Bosco was going to be killed, I just couldn't see this guy surviving. His life turned out crappy and for him to fully turn back into that child of innocence he had to die.

So once again, thanks for all the support and reviews over this story's life. It was one of my babies and, thanks again! Till next time, ;) which won't be long because I have to update Ransom now lol. Later