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

Collision Course, Chapter 48

Bosco was flipping channels on the television set. It had been a long day and he still felt a bit spaced out from the "happy juice" that Dr. John had given him early this morning. That seemed like days ago, and the night was still young. Rose had called to check on him, telling him again how sorry she was that she had to go to work on his first night out of the ICU. He assured her that he'd be ok. Although, honestly, he was a bit unnerved by the new environment and particularly by Nurse Brandi.

A soft knock on the door caught Bosco's attention. "Come in." He muttered.

The door opened and Kim entered, dressed in her uniform.

"Hey, Bosco. Carlos and I were downstairs and we heard you'd been moved out. I just wanted to stop by and check on you." Kim said as she approached Bosco.

Bosco swallowed and cleared his throat. "H…hey, Kim."

"Wow, you look great, Bos, considering. How are you feeling?" Kim asked.

"I'm feeling ok." Bosco answered.

They chatted for a while about trivial things.

"I guess I'd better get going? Carlos is going to be looking for me." Kim stated.

Bosco didn't reply. He was staring ahead at the wall with a slight frown on his face.

"Bos? Bosco?" Kim reached out and tapped his shoulder lightly.

Bosco looked quickly at Kim. "What?" He asked.

"I said I'm going to have to go. Are you ok, Bosco?" Kim questioned.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine Kim. Just tired. Thanks for stopping by." Bosco assured her.

Kim nodded and turned to leave.

"Kim" Bosco called out, causing her to turn back to him. "I didn't…. I mean I never got the chance to say 'thank you'." Bosco said. "So, umm… thank you."

"You're welcome, Bosco. I'm just glad to see you're doing better."

XXXXXXXX

Faith and Cruz had been in the ER at Mercy for nearly 30 minutes working a case. They were waiting to talk to an armed robbery suspect who had been shot by a patrol officer.

"Looks like it's going to be a while yet. I'm going up to check on Bosco." Cruz stated.

Faith just glanced at her and nodded.

"You coming?" Cruz asked.

"Uh….no. I'll just wait down here in case the doctors finish earlier than expected." Faith replied.

"Suit yourself." Cruz mumbled, as she turned toward the elevator.

XXXXXXXX

Cruz knocked on Bosco's door twice but got no answer. She slowly pushed the door open, not wanting to wake him if he were asleep. She found him staring blankly at the television while his right hand played with the edge of the sheet.

Cruz walked up to the edge of the bed, but Bosco's gaze never shifted. "Bosco? Bosco?" Still he didn't look at her. She noticed that his breathing was quick and shallow. "Chico" she whispered, as she reached out and touched his cheek.

Bosco flinched, then cut his eyes towards Cruz. He took a deep breath.

"Hey" he mumbled.

"Hey yourself. Where were you?" Cruz asked.

"What?" Bosco replied, confused.

"I called your name twice and you didn't even know that I was here. What were you thinking about?" Cruz questioned.

"Oh, I don't know. Nothing I guess." Bosco answered.

"Nothing, huh." Cruz didn't believe that, but she didn't push him. "So how are you liking your new room?"

"It's ok." Bosco shrugged and looked down at the bed. Looking back up, he suddenly asked, "Where's Faith?"

"She's down stairs waiting for the doctors to finish up with a suspect." Cruz reported.

"Oh" Bosco replied. He hesitated a moment. "I think she may be mad at me."

"Mad at you? For what? Why would you think that?" Cruz asked.

"Well, she hasn't been by in the last few days. I mean, everything seemed fine and then she just disappeared. I don't know. I just wonder what I could have done to upset her." Bosco explained.

"Bosco, why is everything with Faith always your fault? You haven't done anything." Cruz argued.

"I don't know. I don't know what to think anymore." Bosco answered, as he leaned up and tried to scoot himself up further in the bed with his good arm and leg. Cruz didn't miss the grimace on his face.

"Should you be doing that? Do you want me to get some help?" She asked.

"No, just push that pillow behind me a little more. This bed is hard as a brick." Bosco grumbled.

Cruz did as he asked, pushing the pillow behind his back. Bosco groaned as she bumped his ribs. "Sorry."

Bosco gritted his teeth and let out a slow breath. "It's ok."

"It doesn't look ok." Cruz said with concern. "Do you need something for pain?" Cruz reached for the nurse call button.

"NO!" Bosco shouted.

Cruz looked at him in surprise. "Bosco, you're obviously in pain. Why don't you want me to get your nurse so you can take something?"

"I'm ok. Just don't bother Brandi." Bosco pleaded.

"Brandi? You say that like you've known her for a while." Cruz questioned.

"Yeah, well we've met before. And she's not exactly happy to see me again. Just don't bother her."

Cruz smiled slowly. "Who is she? Some chick you ditched?" Seeing Bosco's ears turning red, Cruz chuckled. "Oh, this is rich."

"It's not funny." Bosco protested. This only made Maritza laugh harder.

"I'm in pain here and your laughing about my misfortune." Bosco scowled.

"Misfortune? Is that what you call it? Sounds like justice to me."

Cruz stopped laughing when she saw the pouting look on Bosco's face. She couldn't help but feel sorry for him. How could she not? He looked like a little kid. "Look, if you are really that scared of her, I'll go and ask her for you."

"I'm not scared of her." Bosco protested. After a moment, he continued, "Would you mind asking her?"

Cruz smiled in amusement, then left the room. After a few minutes she returned. "She said she'd be right down. Seems like a nice lady."

Bosco wondered if perhaps Cruz had spoken with the wrong nurse.

Looking at her watch, Cruz sighed. "I guess I had better get back downstairs. Get some rest, Chico."

XXXXXXXX

Cruz and Faith had finished talking to their suspect and were headed back to the station. Maritza was still thinking about something that Bosco had said. She knew that she would probably regret this, but she did it anyway. "So Yokas, why didn't you want to go up and see Bosco?"

"What?" a distracted Faith asked.

"Bosco thinks you are mad at him because you haven't been by lately. I was just wondering what was going on?" Cruz explained.

"Nothing's going on. I've just been busy." Faith replied.

At Cruz's questioning look, she continued, " Besides I assumed he'd want to spend some time with just you and the baby." Faith bit her lip. As soon as she'd said it, she wished she hadn't.

A stunned Cruz sat in silence. Finally she spoke. "And all this time, I thought that you were angry about riding with me because I shot you." Cruz said sarcastically. "But you're actually angry because you think that Bosco is the father of my child. Unbelievable!"

Faith pulled into the station and parked the car. She and Cruz stared at each other hatefully for a long time.

"You honestly believe he's the father, don't you?" Cruz asked.

"Well isn't he?" Faith questioned.

"NO! He's not!" Cruz said angrily.

Faith didn't look convinced. Cruz sighed. "I can't believe this. I can't believe that you would refuse to see Bosco because of this. And he thinks he's done something wrong to upset you. It's not his, Yokas." Cruz was furious, yet she knew that she needed to convince Yokas for Bosco's sake. "The baby is not his! I was raped!"

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

Collision Course, Chapter 49

Bosco gently rubbed his left side with his good hand. It had been at least 40 minutes since Maritza left and still there was no sign of Brandi or his pain medication. He had even called down to the desk once and reminded them that he'd asked for some. Finally, there was a knock on the door and he thought he would soon have some relief. He was disappointed to see one of the orderlies enter, carrying a washbasin and towels.

"Good evening, Officer Boscorelli. My name is Demetric. I'm your nursing assistant for the night. Are you ready for your bath?"

"Uh… actually I was waiting on some pain medication." Bosco said hesitantly.

"I'm sure your nurse will bring that soon. And you'll be nice and clean and ready for a good nights sleep." Demetric replied, as he turned to the sink and began filling the basin with water.
XXXXXXXX

Bosco bit his lip, fighting the tears welling in his eyes, as Demetric rolled him farther onto his left side to wash his back. He had learned to block most of bath time out to spare himself the embarrassment of thinking about someone else bathing him. But he could not block this pain out. It hurt to breath with his weight on his broken and battered ribs. The longer he lay there, the shorter his breaths became. He could feel himself beginning to panic and tried to remember the meditation techniques from his yoga classes. But when he closed his eyes, the scenes he saw only made matters worse. Snapping his eyes back open, he let out a soft moan.

"We're almost through, Officer." Demetric assured him.

XXXXXXXX

Bosco was trying to recover from his bath, when Brandi finally came in with a small cup containing his long awaited pain medication.

"I'm sorry it took so long, Maurice." She said innocently. "We've been extremely busy."

Bosco scowled at her. "I needed those before my bath." He grumbled.

"Well if you don't need them now, I can take them back." Brandi replied spitefully.

"NO!" Bosco shouted, as he grabbed the cup from her hand.

XXXXXXXX

Faith sighed as she entered the locker room to change. It had been an extremely long shift. And Cruz's revelation had absolutely floored her. Not only was she angry at herself for doubting Bosco and refusing to visit him; but she found herself almost feeling sorry for Maritza Cruz, her arch enemy. As she crossed the room, she noticed Cruz sitting on the bench in front of her locker, staring into it. She hesitantly approached.

"Sarg?"

Cruz rubbed her temples with her left hand. "What, Yokas?"

"I….uh…. I just wanted to say…. Well, I ….I wanted to say that I'm sorry ….that I pushed things earlier. It was really none of my business. And, well, I'm sorry." Faith muttered. She could hardly believe that she was apologizing to the woman who had almost killed her just a few months ago. Who would have thought?

XXXXXXXX

Brandi entered Bosco's room once again and found him sleeping soundly. If she were not required to document his condition, she would have just stayed away until he called for something. She walked over and turned the television off. Then she reached for the switch controlling the light above Bosco's bed. She hesitated, remembering the night that the lights went out in her apartment while Bosco was visiting. Although he tried to hide it, she could tell that he was terrified of the dark. A small smile started to form on her lips as she flipped the light off.

XXXXXXXX

Faith trudged into her apartment with her head hanging and her shoulders slumped.

Fred looked up from the couch. "Hey, babe. How was your night?"

"You don't want to know." Faith replied, as she sat down beside Fred and laid her head against his shoulder.

"That bad, huh?" Fred questioned as he placed his arm around Faith.

Faith sighed. "I'm an idiot, Fred."

"No you're not, babe." Fred assured her. "Why would you say that?"

"I found out that Cruz's baby is not Bosco's. She was raped, Fred."

"Wow. That's terrible. I mean, it's good that it's not Bosco's; but….. I wouldn't wish that on anyone, even Cruz." Fred replied.

"Yeah, I know." Faith whispered.

Fred gave Faith's shoulders a squeeze. "So, did you straighten things out with Bosco?"

"I tried to. But by the time I could get back to the hospital, visiting hours were over. I thought maybe they'd let me in with me being a cop and all. But there was some Nazi nurse working tonight, Candi or Brandi or something. She refused to let me in. Said he was asleep and I would have to follow the rules like everyone else." Faith explained.

"Well, you can go by tomorrow and talk to him. He probably needs his rest. You look like you could use some rest yourself, Mrs. Yokas. What do you say?"

XXXXXXXX

Day 15, 3:00AM

Brandi watched the heart monitor at the nurse's station, noticing that Bosco's heart rate was much higher than earlier. As she watched, it would speed up quickly, then gradually slow down a bit. Finaly, when it went above 130, she decided that she would have to go and check on him. She stalked down the hall, pushed his door open, and flipped on a light switch. Bosco was flailing around in the bed, mumbling to himself. As she approached the bed, he became more agitated.

"Maurice. Maurice!" She called out as she gently tried to wake him. "Maurice, wake up. It's just a dream."

Bosco pushed her hands away as his breathing quickened and his heart rate continued to rise.

"Maurice, wake up!" she said, as she shook him a little more forcefully.

Suddenly, Bosco shot up in the bed, wild eyed. He struggled to get up as Brandi tried to push him back down. "Stop! Let me go! I can't….can't breath!" he stammered, as he continued to struggle. He grabbed frantically at the oxygen tubing. "Help me! Help me!" he pleaded.

"Maurice, calm down. Tell me what's wrong." By this time, Brandi seemed genuinely concerned.

She pushed the nurse call button to try to get some help, but no one answered. She turned back toward the door, intending to call for someone. But Bosco caught her sleeve. "No….don't…..leave…..hel…help…..me…." he begged between gasping breaths.