Author Note: Okay this is not one of my longest chapters, but I figured what the heck you all wouldn't mind ;). I do want to say right off the bat, to those who have family down in the affected areas after Katrina, my thoughts and prayers go out to you!

Once again, many thanks go out to my reviewers, you truly help with your comments. By taking the time and telling me what you think helps a tremendously because I know your loving it! SO THANK YOU!

Boscogirl and Mona thanks gals for letting me vent about this chapter ;) Same goes to Laurie and Luke!

Chapter 8 – So Close, Yet So Far Away

Cruz turned onto the street, trying to avoid the many potholes as she went further down the road. Looking at the houses, she couldn't get passed how somebody could live in a place that looked more ready to fall down then anything. House after house had bars on them or were all boarded up with over grown grass giving the house an eerie cast. Ones that looked like nobody occupied them anymore and been had long forgotten about could be the crack houses in this neighborhood. More then Cruz could count on her finger, she had raided places that looked abandoned, and they were far from it. Houses like that were much easier to run your drugs out of; nobody had a claim on the place and they're for, nobody to tie you back to the crack house unless you snitched.

A mental shiver ripped through her very soul as she thought about these houses. There was a fear that nobody knew about laid deep with in Cruz's mind, and that was to be taken to a place like this and left to die. Were nobody cared if you dropped off the face of the earth or not, it was a place somebody could get lost and never be found again. She could only imagine what Bosco was going through if he was actually in one of these houses, unless Logan had lied to her.

Subconsciously she gripped the steering wheel, 'he had better not lied,' she looked left and then right. She hated the fact the sun had been down a few hours, but it was Bosco's life on the line and they had to act fast.

"There…right there." Logan speaking up from the backseat of the vehicle. Cruz tried not to hit the breaks when she heard this, but she had no idea what house he was talking about. Rolling her eyes in the processes, and then she turned her head to the side, "You know, I can't see where your pointing, right now. Every house looks the same!" She turned back around and pulled the car over.

"It's on the right, the brown one." Logan had been watching the house since they had gotten there. He knew were everybody was stationed, and he hadn't been given any indication that there was anybody there. Then again, most of the parties happened in the back, and when stuff went down there weren't that many people around in the first place. The fewer there, the less chance somebody would be able to tell the cops later what happened and nark on them.

"How about this,…I'm going to check the back see if anybody is there, and I'll wave you over."

Logan then got out of the car not waiting for a response from either woman, but Cruz wasted no time getting out as she shut the door silently and grabbing him by the shirt collar pulling him backwards. "I don't think so, your not running the show you got that?"

Faith as well had gotten out of the car and was watching the house, scared that any moment somebody would spot them and get suspicious. But Cruz had kept her voice down as she then pushed Logan back and pressed him up against the car.

"You are going to follow our lead, if you don't…" She just left it at that, figuring that was enough of a threat on Logan.

With that Cruz pulled out her weapon as she then turned back around and faced the house. Her heart began to beat as the adrenaline began to pump into her system. They were going to get Bosco back one way or another. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Faith upholstering her own gun. Without even a single word they both moved on cue with Logan reluctantly following behind them.

They moved towards the house stealthy, not making one single sound as they made it to the front of the steps without any hassle. Logan put his finger up, and silently walked towards the back. Peaking slowly around the corner there wasn't one single soul outside. That had him concerned. 'Were was everybody?'

He quickly came back to were Faith and Cruz were waiting not so patiently. Cruz then moved her eyes towards the door. She began walking up towards it with Faith watching from behind going up backwards. Logan let out a sigh and then followed pursuit and stood next to the two women. Cruz initiated a countdown with holding up her hand and counted up to three. Then she opened the door and they walked in.

Bosco's leg was screaming, and every step he thought would be his last. But he hadn't stopped moving since he had gotten out of that hellhole, looking back down the block his shoulders sagged. He was making much less progress then he originally thought he had. He'd only walked about three blocks.

For somebody who was healthy and hadn't had the shit kicked out of them, they would have made it to where they wanted to be. But for Bosco it was thousand times worse. His entire body had been through hell and back and now he was making it do something it didn't want to do, and that was walk as fast as he could go without causing more suffering on his body. His kneecap was being unbearable to him. Bosco tried to take as much weight off of it as he could, but even that wasn't helping for pain still ripped up and down his leg. When he would then try to swallow it and put it into the back of his mind, his ribs would then grind up against one another. It seemed every few seconds he would have to stop and attempt to recollect himself and for that, it was slowing him down tremendously.

But he had to find help, and get it quickly before he passed right there out in the street. 'This has been the worse few days of my life.'

Faith's heart was threatening to jump out at her at any moment. She was so scared what she was going to find, or what she wasn't going to find. She was praying that they would find Bosco alive and healthy. But if they didn't, what would she do? As they began to clear the house and with no sign of anyone, her worst fears was slowly beginning to rise and accelerate into a near panic. Outside she was calm but inside it was a whole different situation.

"Clear."

"Also clear." Cruz yelled back. The house was empty and as they meet up both Cruz and Faith stared at Logan. He was just as clueless as they were right now. The only other place they had yet to check was the basement. He leading the way they walked towards it and he looked up. Even though both women were trying so hard to hold back their fear, it was greatly evident on their faces of what they would find in that basement.

Faith looked around and saw the flashlights sitting on the table. She grabbed them and gave them to Cruz and Logan. It was very obvious these people didn't care much about paying for an electric bill, and this was their means of seeing in the dark.

Just as Logan was beginning to open the door, Faith stopped him. "Wait." It wasn't that she heard something and that she wanted to make sure they weren't walking into a trap. It was the fact Faith was just not yet mentally ready to see whatever she was going to see down there. Cruz turned and looked at Faith.

"If you want to go sit in the car…" Cruz suggested. For once it was not meant to be mean, it wasn't a jab at Faith trying to control this flooding emotion that was rising quickly.

"No…" Faith then moved Logan out of the way, and taking a breath she flung open the door.

"So did you catch the game yesterday?" Kyle asked his partner who was driving and concentrating.

"Hell yeah, I love watching Michigan kick the shit out of Ohio State." John looking over with a chuckle as he spoke about the game. He pulled onto one of their regular streets they went down on. If there was one thing that was annoying about doing late night jobs in this jurisdiction, it was so much harder to see. When you go to a much nicer area it's lit up and much calmer at night and you can see so much better. But a place were things had been left unattended, streetlights that had gone out long ago and never been replaced made it much harder on them when looking for somebody. It was much easier for the criminal to sink back into the shadows and avoid detection.

To some it sound like a bad place to work but in retrospect they wouldn't change it for any other Precinct in the city of New York. Going from one call to the next, hassling those on the street who were up to no good. Going to those selling drugs and the prostitutes it was always a crazy night. There truly never was a dull moment.

"Hey look at this guy." John said. He had seen the guy up the street as they were creeping along, canvassing the area for any kind of disturbances. At first glance he thought it was a crack head who had just scored some, but as John and Kyle passed him they both looked at each other.

Kyle cued his radio asking for a bus as they turned back around, stopping behind the guy. They both got out of the car and walked up to the guy slowly who still was completely oblivious to the fact they were behind him.

"Sir…" John spoke, not sure how yet to address this kind of situation. No telling what this guy had been put through, and how he would react to uniforms. For all they knew, just some poor sap that wandered into the wrong side of town and got roughed up.

Bosco was almost terrified to turn around. He hadn't heard anybody come up on him; he hadn't even seen the RMP that had passed him. His thoughts were so concentrated on not passing out, and to finding somebody that he wasn't even paying attention.

Slowly he turned and saw the two cops standing there with worried looks on their faces. At first he wanted to tell them everything, but then he thought of Logan and that betrayal. For all he knew they could be working with the same person that had kept him hostage for god only knows how long. But then he felt his equilibrium start to go, and he felt his body began to sway.

He had to tell them that he was a cop, that there were people searching for him before he lost his grip on reality. But as he tried to concentrate harder, he found himself quickly losing his grip on the world. He could see the officer's mouths were moving but no words were coming out, and slowly blackness began to creep into his line of vision as he then collapsed into a state of unconsciousness.

The flashlights bounced up and down as Faith, Cruz, and Logan made their way down the stairs. The sound of the staircase creaking and straining as they walked down them had Faith a little worried if it was going to be able to carry all of their weight combined. She then glanced over at the walls, and revolted at how filthy and unkempt they looked. Never in her life had she ever felt so claustrophobic and they hadn't even made it down the stairs completely. There wasn't even any wallpaper left, and as she made it to the last step she felt a spider web catch her in the face. Faith almost fell backwards trying to move out of its way and felt for any spiders that had jumped onto her when she had hit it.

Cruz and Logan got to the bottom as well, Cruz swiping angrily at the last remains of the spider web. She felt a crunch under her boot and slowly she turned her shoe and shined her light down to find a half alive, half crushed cockroach squirming around. Putting her boot back over it she then turned it slowly crunching it as she then began to look around.

"There's nothing…." Faith was happy they didn't find Bosco dead, but she was beyond petrified as to what had happened to him and why he wasn't there. Faith had come back towards Logan who was shocked more then the other two, for the last time he had seen Bosco was down here. He squinted when Faith put the light into his face.

"Where would they have taken him," when Logan took to long to respond to her question, Faith grabbed him by the throat, "ANSWER ME!" All she could see was red at the moment and the one she was going to take it out on was Logan.

"Faith…" Cruz looking over at them, then back to what she found. She repeated Faith's name but when she got no response she then grabbed Faith by the arm. "Faith!" She said her name again but this time a little more loudly and with a bit more force to it, to get through Faith's rage.

Turning her eyes onto Cruz, Cruz let go of her arm and then pointed her flashlight towards the spot that she had found scanning over the basement. Faith turned her head and stared at the stain not wanting to move from her spot. It had taken a spot for her eyes to adjust to what she was looking at and register it. She then walked towards it and kneeled down and dabbed her finger in it. Blood.

There was no doubt in Faith's mind it was Bosco's blood. He had laid down in this god forsaken place, hoping that somebody would rescue him from this nightmare that she was now living. As she looked at it more, the one thing that only put some hope in her mind was that it wasn't a lot. If they had found the basement drenched in it, then she knew she would be burying her partner, but with only a tiny bit it meant he had been moved to another location. They just now have to figure out were this next place was.

Turning her eyes back onto Logan, Faith still kneeling on the ground she stood up. "So, where is he?" Cruz turned her head to stare at Logan as well, both wanting the same answer.

"Your guess is good as mine right now."

John and Kyle watched as the ambulance arrived on the scene. They got out quickly one grabbing their red bag and both dropping beside the victim and beginning to check his vital signs. While one was beginning to put the c-collar around his neck, the other medic looked up with a smile. "Man guys, you really roughed him up, what did he do to piss you off?"

"Very funny Bailey," John replied, with Kyle jumping in on it, "yeah we found him like this numb nuts." Although to anybody it would sound like they were being harsh and criticizing each other for what they did on the job, in actuality this was their playful batter. The four of them knew each other quite well and would never pass up the opportunity on getting on one another's case if they could. To the medics it would look like the officers had chased down a suspect and got a little rough on him. But further inspection they found this was not the case at all, in fact the man looked worse off then they original had thought.

"This guy looks to be in pretty bad shape," finding broken ribs on them when they pressed down gingerly, "You said you just found him like this?" Both officers nodded their head to the question as they watched the medics began to load the man up into the gurney. One medic climbed in as Kyle put his hand on the back of the bus watching this whole scene play out. "Yeah, he was just walking along….really strange." Shrugging his shoulders, "Guess will get more info when he wakes up, see you at the hospital."

The other medic climbed into the driver seat as Bailey closed the doors to the ambulance and they pulled away slowly. Looking down at the man who remained unresponsive to the world throughout the entire conversation, he couldn't help but wonder 'what's your story and what the hell happened to?"

TBC…

To those that reviewed, my shout out to you!

Boscogirl, Lloydie, Warrior of the Shadow, Wapps921, Dani

I am so happy to hear that I'm writing the characters ;) Bosco, Faith, and Cruz that makes me quite happy so thanks! I love hearing from you guys and telling me what you think of my story so thanks again!