Collision Course, Chapter 46

"Well, it's about time you woke up, sleepyhead." Kathy teased, when she saw Bosco open his eyes.

Bosco blinked several times and looked around the room. He was surprised to find that he was back in the ICU. He yawned and brought his hand up to his aching chest. Feeling a bandage under his hospital gown, he began to pull at the cloth and crane his neck curiously.

"Don't pull at that." Kathy ordered as she reached for his hand. Bosco scowled at her, remembering the 'happy juice.'

"And I thought you were on my side." He grumbled.

Kathy grinned and said, "Of course I'm on your side, Off-i-cer."

Bosco wasn't amused. "Is my lung ok?"

"Of course your lung is ok, silly. Everything went smoothly. And you had a nice nap to boot. It's almost 10:00. You should have visitors in a few minutes. And then it will be time for dialysis." Kathy replied.

Bosco yawned once more and brought his hand up to rub his eyes. He stopped and stared at his wrist for a long time when he noticed that there was no line attached to his IV.

"Dr. Poole wanted to discontinue the pain pump." She reported when she saw his confusion.

"I can't have any pain medicine?" Bosco asked with a frown.

"Now, Bosco, do you really think we would make you go without pain medicine. He changed it to a patch. See." She replied as she pulled his gown back and pointed to the patch that was opposite the dialysis catheter. "This way the only thing you will be getting through the IV is your antibiotics."

Kathy heard voices outside the door and turned to look back. "Looks like you have visitors. I'll leave you alone now."

As Kathy walked out, Bosco was a bit surprised to see who his visitors were.

"Good morning, Maurice. How did the procedure go?" Rose asked.

"Fine a guess." Bosco mumbled.

"Hey, Bosco. How's it going?"

"It's going fine, Sul. How about you?" Bosco answered.

Rose could sense the hesitation in his voice. "Officer Sullivan came by to have breakfast with me downstairs and I thought you might like to see him." Rose reported.

Bosco just looked at his mother and then back at Sully. Breakfast? "Um…that was nice of you, Sul." I guess.

They chatted for a while over this and that. Finally Rose cleared her throat. "Maurice, your father…"

"I don't want to talk about Dad, Ma." Bosco interrupted her.

"Maurice, please." Rose tried again.

"Don't think I'm going to be nice because Sully's here, Ma. I don't want to see Dad. And I'm not going to discuss it."

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Bosco was about an hour into dialysis when Dr. Poole entered the room. "Hello, Officer Boscorelli. I see that you're tolerating dialysis ok."

"Yeah, it's going just grand." Bosco replied sarcastically.

"Well, it's a necessary evil for now. But I may have some good news for you." Tim Poole continued.

"Oh yeah, what's that?" Bosco asked. Kathy looked on curiously.

"How would you like to move to a regular room this afternoon?"

"A regular room? That… that'd be nice, I guess." Bosco answered.

He was shocked by the suggestion and honestly a little apprehensive. Despite his accusing Kathy of working with the enemy, she had taken really good care of him and he trusted her. A new room would mean new nurses, new orderlies, new everything.

"Yep, a regular room. You're doing quite well and honestly I have another patient who needs this bed a lot worse than you do right now." Dr. Poole reported.

"Whatever you think, Doc." Bosco didn't suppose it would do him any good to argue. Jokingly he continued, "Do I get to take my nurse with me?"

"No, unfortunately I'm afraid she stays. But you're going to 5 East and they have excellent nurses there." Tim assured him. "I'll go write your transfer orders. By the time you finish dialysis they should have a room ready for you."

XXXXXXXX

Faith looked up from the desk to see Lieutenant Swersky approaching with Cruz right behind him.

"Look Lieutenant, I'm fine. I don't need to be on a desk yet. I've got nearly six months left in this pregnancy. I'll be crazy if I have to ride a desk for that long." Cruz pleaded.

Swersky stopped in front of Faith and turned to face Cruz. "You're on the desk, Maritza. And that's final. I'm not going to put this child at risk."

"Lieu, please. At least let me go out and supervise when a Sergeant is needed." Cruz continued.

"Ok, you can go out when a supervisor is needed, but only with a driver." Swersky relented.

"A DRIVER?" Cruz glared at Swersky, obviously appalled.

"Yes, a driver." Swersky reiterated.

Faith could not help but chuckle out loud at the look on Cruz's face. It was priceless.

Swersky, hearing Faith laugh, glared at her then looked back at Cruz. "Officer Yokas here will be your driver." He announced. He then looked back at Faith with a satisfied smile on his face, only to see her mouth drop open as she began to object. "That's an order officer, not an option."

He grumbled and turned to walk away. That will teach them. If they want to hate each other off duty, that's their business. But if they're both working for me, they are going to have to learn to tolerate each other while they're here. Their lives may depend on each other some day.

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Kathy placed Bosco's chart at the end of his bed and looked up into those bright blue eyes, perhaps for the last time. "You take care of yourself now, Officer Bosco. And don't give Ms. Green too much trouble, ok."

Bosco gave her an innocent look, "Me? Trouble?" His smirk caused Kathy to laugh.

"So, I hope you're not still mad at me about this morning." It was more of a question than a statement.

"I guess I'll forgive you this time. Just don't let it happen again." Bosco answered.

"Ok then, well, I'll see you around." Kathy patted his forearm and turned to leave.

"Um…Kathy." Bosco called to get her attention.

"Yeah?" Kathy questioned as she turned back.

"Thank you." Bosco said sincerely.

"You're welcome, Officer…"

"Bosco" he reminded her.

"Bosco" Kathy replied with a smile.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original characters or places.

Collision Course, Chapter 47

Faith and Maritza Cruz were about 3 hours into their shift and headed out to their third call. They had been called out to two homicides, and now they had been called about a missing child. They had barely spoken a word to each other so far.

Faith glanced over at Cruz who absent-mindedly rubbed her hand over her belly. Faith was amazed that she hadn't noticed before that Cruz was pregnant. She had definitely gained some weight and was just beginning to show. Faith cringed at the thought that the child Cruz was carrying could be Bosco's. She had been debating that issue for three days now. Fred, whom she was finally speaking to again, told her that she should go talk to Bosco and ask him. She knew that Bosco was doing better and she'd considered talking to him. But she didn't think she could stand to see him if he told her that he was the father. So she didn't ask him. In fact she hadn't been to visit him at all since the night she'd heard the news.

"YOKAS! Will you slow down and watch where you're going. You're going to get us killed." Cruz snapped.

"Well, if you don't like my driving, Sergeant, you can always ask for another driver." Yokas replied sarcastically.

"Believe me, I have every intention of talking to Swersky again at the end of the shift tonight." Cruz grumbled.

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Bosco picked the phone up from the bedside table to dial Faith's number. He normally didn't like to talk on the phone a lot, but he was actually glad to finally have access to one. Faith hadn't been by in a few days and he was beginning to get worried about her. But surely if something had happened to her his mother would have told him. After reassuring himself that she had to be fine, he began again to wonder why she hadn't visited him. Maybe he'd done something to make her mad. Although, he didn't see how he could possibly have done something to make her angry while he was still in the ICU. But this was Faith and their relationship hadn't been very stable recently. He heard Emily's voice saying hello on the other end of the line.

"Em?"

After a long pause, Emily finally spoke. "Uncle B?"

"Yeah, Em. It's me." Bosco answered.

"How… I mean, where are you calling from? Aren't you in the ICU?" Emily asked confused.

"No, Em. I was moved to a regular room this afternoon." Bosco explained. "Is your mom there?"

"Oh. No, she's not here. She's at work." Emily replied.

"Oh, yeah. I guess she should be. Sorry, I loose track of time in this place. I'll call her there." Bosco continued.

"Ok. Uncle B?"

"Yeah, Em." Bosco answered.

"How are you feeling? I mean you must be doing better if you moved to a regular room, right?" Emily questioned.

"Yeah, Em. I'm doing a lot better. Thanks for asking." Bosco replied.

XXXXXXXX

After hanging up with Emily, Bosco called Faith's cell phone. But the voice that answered was not the one he expected.

"Officer Davenport." He heard on the other end of the line.

Davenport? "Uh… this is Officer Boscorelli. I was trying to get Officer Yokas." Bosco spoke.

"Oh, is that who this belongs too? She must have left it by mistake. She's out on a call. She's driving Sergeant Cruz tonight." Davenport said.

"Excuse me?" Bosco was sure he must be going crazy. "Did you say she's driving for Cruz?"

"Yeah, that's what I said. Say, how are you doing, Bosco? You're the last person I expected to talk to tonight."

"I'm doing ok." Bosco answered.

"That's good to hear. We've missed you, believe it or not. You want me to tell Faith that you called?" Davenport asked.

"No, that's alright. And thanks, Davenport. You tell the guys to watch out. Boscorelli will be back kicking butt in no time."

Bosco said his goodbyes and hung up the phone. He hoped he'd be back kicking butt again, if his kidney would only start working.

Faith riding with Cruz. Bosco shook his head and sighed. They'll probably kill each other before the night is over.

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Faith and Cruz continued to ride in silence until Cruz's phone rang. Faith couldn't help but listen to Cruz's end of the conversation.

"Cruz" She spat into the phone.

"Oh, hey Chico. What are you doing making phone calls?"

"Oh, really. That's great."

"Yeah, it's true."

"I don't know what he was thinking."

"Yeah, I'll try. So how are you feeling?"

"That's good. I'm sorry I didn't get by before work. I had a doctor's appointment."

"He said everything looks good. The baby looks healthy."

"Yeah, I know."

"Yeah, we're headed to a call right now."

"No, nothing major. Nothing for you to worry about."

"Yeah, ok. I'll talk to you later. Don't give your new nurses too much trouble now."

"Ok. Bye."

Faith watched as Cruz stared at the phone with a slight smile on her face. Cruz hadn't noticed that they had pulled up to the scene. Faith cleared her throat to get Cruz's attention. "We're here, Sarg."

"Oh, yeah. We are, aren't we?" Cruz looked over at Faith. "That was Bosco. He's been moved to a regular room."

"A regular room? Really? That's great." Faith answered.

Gets moved to a regular room and you're the first person he calls. That's great. Just great.

After hearing Cruz's conversation and seeing her reaction to it, Faith had no doubt now who the father of this baby was.

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"Officer Boscorelli, I'm going to be leaving in a few minutes. Do you need anything before I go?" Nurse Green asked. She was a thin African American woman who looked to be in her early forties.

"No, Nurse Green. I'm ok for now. Thanks." Bosco replied.

"Ok. Now, you remember that you have pain medication that you can take up to every six hours if the patch is not enough." Nurse Green reminded him.

"I'll remember. Thanks again."

XXXXXXXX

Bosco was about to dose off when the door to his room opened. He looked up to see a red headed nurse enter. He was thinking that she looked awfully familiar when she spoke.

"Hello, Maurice. Remember me?"

Realizing that this woman was someone that he had dated a few times and dumped, he struggled to remember her name. He was sure she couldn't be too pleased to see him anyway and he sure didn't want to add fuel to the fire.

"Uh…yeah… I remember you. Candi, right?" He said, crossing his fingers on his good hand.

"It's Brandi. Not that I'm surprised that you would forget, seeing how you forgot about our last date." Brandi seethed. "I'm going to be your nurse for the night, Maurice."

Bosco cringed at the way she said his name. Her voice was dripping with venom. He sure hoped that he wouldn't need anything tonight, because he wasn't asking Brandi for it. He cowered back slightly as she approached the bedside.

Looking around she spoke. "You know what this place could use? Some flowers to brighten it up. Funny thing about flowers though. You have to be careful with them. Why I know someone who got a bouquet of flowers once that was mixed with poison ivy. Can you imagine?" Giving Bosco one last evil smirk, she turned and headed towards the door. "Sleep tight, Maurice."