Friends, I just posted chapter 100 of 100 chapters of this story on another site, but the chapters are not linked. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to try to post all of the chapters here. I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original characters or places.
Collision Course, Chapter 51
Day 21, 10:15 AM
"I'm sorry, Miss. But you can't go in if you're not on this list." the security guard outside Bosco's room repeated.
"But I'm an old friend. I'm sure he'll recognize me if you'll just let me see him."
The security guard shook his head. He'd heard 4 or 5 different women tell him the very same thing. "I'm sorry, but my orders are not to let anyone in who is not on this list."
"Well, who decides who gets on the list?"
"I think Mrs. Boscorelli and Officer Yokas made the list. Maybe you can talk to one of them about it, if they know you." The guard suggested.
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"Thanks, Meredith. I'll see you tomorrow." Bosco said to the physical therapist as she left the room. He wanted to get out of the hospital bed and move around, but for now he was only allowed to do range of motion exercises. They had x-rayed his arm and leg this morning and the orthopedist had said that everything looked good. Still, it would be another three weeks before the cast on his arm could be removed. He could potentially move around on crutches in another week, but that might not be feasible with only one good arm. So for now he was stuck in the hospital bed or resigned to having someone push him around in a wheelchair. And the second option was limited, however, by the reporters lurking around the hospital hoping for a chance to interview New York's newest hero.
But despite being stuck in a hospital bed, things were looking up a little. The nightmares weren't as bad as they had been. And he hadn't had a panic attack in a couple of days.
Bosco looked up when he heard a knock on the door to see Dr. Poole enter with a satisfied grin on his face.
"What's up, Doc?" Bosco quizzed.
"Well Officer, I finally got a chance to review your lab work." Dr. Poole reported.
"And?" Bosco questioned.
"And it looks ok. With your urine output increasing over the last couple of days, I think we're ok to hold the dialysis for today at least and see what happens." Dr. Poole replied.
"So what does that mean?" Bosco asked eagerly. "Do you think my kidney is going to work again?"
"I'm hopeful. Things are definitely looking better than they have been."
"So if I don't need dialysis, when can I leave this joint?" Bosco questioned.
"Whoa, Officer, let's not jump the gun here. First we have to see what the kidney does. And you still have a few more days of IV antibiotics." Dr. Poole replied.
Bosco's smile spread from ear to ear. "So, what? A few more days? Maybe a week? If you weren't a guy, I'd kiss you, Doc. This is the best news I've heard all day. I was beginning to think that I'd be stuck on dialysis for life. How long do you think it will be before I can get back on the street, Doc?"
Dr. Poole put up a hand. "Slow down. First of all, I said your kidney might be going to recover. And I never said anything about you getting back out on the street."
"But the ortho guy said that my leg would be ok in time, Doc. So if the kidney works, I should be good to go. Right?" Bosco asked hopefully.
Dr. Poole cleared his throat. "Well…um… actually we do need to discuss that Officer Boscorelli. You see… even if your kidney starts to recover, you probably will have some residual deficit. And with only one kidney left, there is no way that I could clear you to go back on street duty."
"What?" Bosco asked, hoping he had heard Dr. Poole wrong. "What do you mean, Doc?"
"It would be irresponsible for me to allow you to go back out on patrol with only one kidney, Officer Boscorelli. I've reviewed your chart. In 12 years on the police force, you've been seen in the ER 19 times. All of them were trauma related with the exception of one visit for respiratory problems after 911, your first panic attack, and one episode of Chinese Chicken food poisoning. It's just too risky to put you back on patrol. Besides, Dr. Scanlan says you have a long way to go with the PTSD before you will even be ready for desk duty." Dr. Poole explained.
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1:45PM
"Hey Hank. How are things going?" Faith asked as she approached Bosco's room.
"Going ok, Officer Yokas." the guard replied. "Officer Boscorelli sure must have a lot of names in his little black book. He has a new woman trying to visit him every day." Hank smirked.
Faith laughed and knocked on Bosco's door. She heard Rose say to come in and opened the door. As she entered she saw that Bosco was turned onto his right side with his back towards the door. Rose, who was sitting beside the bed, looked up with a sad expression on her face. When Faith got closer, she noticed that Bosco's shoulders were shaking slightly and she heard what she thought was quiet sobbing. "What's wrong?" she asked Rose quickly.
Rose got up and motioned for Faith to follow her outside. Once outside she told Faith what Dr. Poole had said. "Dr. Poole called me to tell me what was going on. He's completely devastated, Faith. I don't know what to do. I don't know how to make it better." Rose confided.
Faith was almost too stunned for words herself. She had anticipated what might happen if Bosco's kidney didn't recover, but she had never even thought of this possibility. Knowing Bosco the way she did, she knew that he had to be devastated. Bosco's job was his life. And he hated paperwork or working the desk.
"Will you talk to him, Faith?" Rose pleaded.
"I….I'll try, Rose." Faith assured her. Returning to the room, she quietly circled the bed. Her heart broke when she saw the tears streaming down Bosco's face. "Bos?" she whispered.
"Go away, Faith." Bosco muttered, as he pulled his pillow down over his face. His shaking increased as his sobs grew louder.
Faith rubbed his back gently. "I'm sorry, Bos. I'm so sorry."
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Faith barely heard a word that Swersky was saying during roll call. She had arrived at the station early and informed Swersky and Cruz of the latest news about Bosco. When roll call was over, she headed towards the front desk. She was still driving for Cruz when needed. And although she still didn't like the woman, they had basically called a truce of sorts. Faith realized that, although Bosco and Cruz weren't an item, they were friends. And Bosco needed all the friends he could find right now.
Faith's thoughts were interrupted by a voice calling her name.
"Officer Yokas?" A brunette with a slightly prominent nose asked.
"Yeah, I'm Yokas." She replied.
"Officer Yokas, I'm Natalie Goldsberry. I…uh… wanted to talk to you about Officer Boscorelli." The young woman stated.
"What about Officer Boscorelli?" Maritza Cruz butted in when she heard what the woman was saying.
Natalie looked at Cruz a bit startled.
"Sargeant Cruz." Faith introduced Maritza. "What is it that you wanted to talk about?" Faith asked curtly.
"Well, I'm an old acquaintance, I guess you would say. And I need to see him." Natalie replied.
"How many times have we heard that in the last week, Yokas?" Cruz questioned.
Faith looked from Cruz back to the young woman. "What makes you any different from all of the others who have said that?" Faith asked.
"Well, it's sort of personal." Natalie answered. "I'm sure though that Maurice would agree to see me." She hoped that she sounded convincing.
"Look, Officer Boscorelli is busy trying to recover. We can't just let anyone in who wants to see him." Faith replied. "If you have a legitimate reason to see him, we're going to have to know what it is." Faith was obviously getting impatient. The last thing Bosco needed was all of these fickle women coming to visit him.
"Well, I … ah… I really didn't want to discuss this with anyone but Maurice." Seeing the growing displeasure on the faces of Yokas and Cruz, she added, "But I guess I'll have to tell you or show you." Having said that, she reached into her purse and pulled out a picture, handing it to Faith.
Faith looked down at the picture in her hand. In it was a little boy who couldn't have been any older than two if that old. He had dark brown hair and the deepest blue eyes. Faith had seen those eyes before and that smile….on Bosco.
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Disclaimer: I don't own them..
Collision Course, Chapter 52a
Faith stared at the picture in her hand, until Cruz snatched it away from her.
"What are you trying to pull?" Cruz snapped at Natalie.
"I….I'm not trying to pull anything." Natalie answered warily.
"Who is that?" Faith asked.
"That's Jacob, my son. Maurice's son." Natalie almost whispered.
Cruz laughed slightly. "You think you're going to waltz in here out of the blue and claim that Officer Boscorelli is the father of your child. Do you think we're stupid? Anybody could come in here and claim that. What do you think you're going to get out of this?" Cruz scowled. Faith just stood by in shock.
"I don't want anything out of this. I just want my son to know his father." Natalie replied.
Faith cleared her throat. "If a …. If he is Bosco's son, why are you showing up now? Why didn't you tell him while you were pregnant? That does look kind of suspicious you know."
"I couldn't tell him. It's kind of a long story. You see, we met in a bar in the early morning hours on September 11th. We ended up going back to my apartment in Soho. The next morning I went out to find breakfast, and when I came back Maurice was getting ready to leave. Then we heard the first plane hit. And Maurice went down to help. And then the buildings collapsed. I didn't even know if he was still alive. And I couldn't remember his last name. I mean it's not that common an Italian name. So I didn't know how to find him, until I saw his picture on the TV a few weeks ago. I would have come forth sooner, but I didn't think it would be fair to his family to just show up while his condition was so critical." Natalie explained.
"You expect us to believe that?" Cruz snapped.
"Sarg." Faith grabbed Cruz's jacket sleeve and pulled her away. Cruz continued to protest as Faith pulled her into an adjacent office.
"Get your hands off of me, Yokas! That kid could be anybody's. She's just some gold digger that's out to take advantage of Bosco." Cruz grumbled.
"Sarg., Bosco told me that exact same story. Said he went home with some girl with a big nose from Soho that night." Faith argued.
"That doesn't mean anything, Yokas." Cruz seethed.
"What about this, Sarg.?" Faith questioned as she pulled the picture from Cruz's hand and held it up for Cruz to see. "Look at him."
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"Maurice, baby. Do you want something to drink? You need to drink something. You didn't even touch your lunch." Rose admonished.
"Leave me alone, Ma. I don't want anything." Bosco mumbled.
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"Even if he is Bosco's, what business does she have showing up now?" Cruz questioned. "I don't trust her."
"Maybe she's telling the truth. I mean, it sounds reasonable. She wouldn't be the first girl that Bosco tried to sneak out on after a one night stand. Maybe she really didn't know how to find him." Faith answered.
"Well, I still don't like it. What are we going to do about it?" Cruz inquired.
"What can we do about it?" Faith asked.
"Well, we can't let her see him. This is the last thing he needs with everything else that's going on." Cruz insisted.
"For once you're right, Sarge. With the shape he was in earlier today, he doesn't need to find this out now. But we have to be careful. He's not going to be very happy if he finds out we're keeping this from him."
"So what do we do with her?" Cruz questioned.
"Well, she's waited this long. Maybe she'll be willing to wait a little longer." Faith replied hopefully.
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Still don't own them.
Chapter 52b
Day 22, 10:00 AM
"Maurice, what has gotten into you this morning? I can't believe that you were that mean to Meredith." Rose chided Bosco.
Bosco sat silently with a sullen expression on his face.
Rose was about to continue, but stopped when the door opened and Dr. Poole walked in.
"Officer Boscorelli, what is this that I'm hearing about you being uncooperative this morning?" Tim Poole asked. "Your nurse called to tell me that you refused to let the lab tech draw your blood this morning. And now she tells me that you refused your medicine and refused to do your physical therapy."
Bosco glared at Dr. Poole before speaking. "I want out of this place, now!"
"Well, I understand you're frustrated after our conversation yesterday, but you're not ready to be discharged." Dr. Poole replied.
"Then I'll sign out AMA!" Bosco grumbled.
"I can't stop you from doing that, if you have someone who will take responsibility for you because you can't take care of yourself with those casts." Dr. Poole replied calmly and glanced at Rose Boscorelli.
Rose looked down to meet Bosco's eyes. "You can forget that, mister! I'm not taking you anywhere." She huffed, as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"FINE!" was Bosco's reply.
"Look, Officer Boscorelli." Dr. Poole began. "I'll get you out of here as soon as I can, but you're going to have to help me out here. I need to see your blood work to make sure that you don't need dialysis again today. You're urine output looks good, but we can't always rely on that."
"I'm tired of being poked and prodded! And I'm tired of all these tubes too!" Bosco shouted, as he pulled his oxygen tubing from his nose. "I don't need this anymore!"
"You're probably right about that, Officer. If you don't want to wear the oxygen, you don't have to." Dr. Poole agreed.
"What about this?" Bosco asked, as he threw his cover back and pointed to the foley catheter. "I can pee on my own!"
"Well, we can consider taking that out, but we still have to collect your urine and follow your lab work. So if you'll agree to that, then I'll have the nurse take the foley out. What do you say?" Dr. Poole asked.
"Whatever." Bosco mumbled.
"Now, about your medicine…." Dr. Poole began, but was interrupted by Bosco.
"I'm sick of feeling drugged!" Bosco snapped.
"Well, I understand that. But you should get more used to the medications with time and might tolerate them better." Upon seeing that Bosco was about to protest, Dr. Poole put up his hand. "But I'll ask Dr. Scanlan to take another look at them, ok?" As if on cue, Dr. Poole's pager went off. "That's the OR. I need to go, but we'll talk more later." With that he turned to leave and Rose followed him out the door.
"I'm sorry, Dr. Poole." Rose apologized. "I don't know what's gotten into Maurice."
"That's ok, Mrs. Boscorelli. This is actually not that uncommon. Maurice probably feels like his life is out of his control right now, because basically it is. So he's trying to take control wherever he can, even if it's something as simple as refusing his labs or refusing to take his medicine. I was actually planning to take the foley catheter out anyway, but it's ok with me if he thinks that it was his idea." Dr. Poole explained.
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1:15 PM
"Are you sure that telling Mrs. Boscorelli is a good idea?" Cruz questioned.
Faith stopped outside the hospital elevator and looked at Cruz. "We've been through this. I'm sure Rose knows her son better than we do and she may be able to give us some idea of when it's ok to tell him. Besides, she is Jacob's grandmother."
"That is if he is even Bosco's son. We have no proof of that, you know." Cruz grumbled. "We need to make her get a DNA test or something."
"Yeah, well, we can't do that without Bosco's permission." Faith reminded her.
"I'm just not sure that we have to talk to Mrs. B now." Maritza reiterated.
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"Maurice, what are you doing?" Rose screeched, when she came out of the bathroom to find Bosco sitting on the edge of his bed with both feet dangling.
"I have to get out of this room, Ma." Bosco answered, as he pushed the button and lowered the bed closer to the floor.
"You have to wait for the orderly to bring a wheelchair, Maurice! You know that!" Rose argued.
"I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR TWENTY MINUTES!" Bosco shouted.
"Maurice Louis Boscorelli, don't you dare speak to me like that." Rose scolded. "Now you lie back in that bed this instant!"
Any further argument was interrupted by knocking. "COME IN!" They both shouted.
The door opened slowly and Faith peeked her head in. "Is everything ok in here?" she inquired. "Can we come in?"
"Please do come in." Rose replied. "You may have just kept Maurice from getting a good spanking." She grumbled, as she looked back at her son.
Bosco scowled at her and looked at the floor.
"That I might like to see." Cruz smirked.
"You going somewhere, Bos?" Faith asked.
"Yes, I am if I can get someone to bring me a wheelchair." Bosco growled.
Faith and Maritza looked at each other. "I'll see what I can do about that." Maritza replied.
Within a few minutes, she came back in with a wheelchair and an orderly. After positioning the wheelchair next to the bed, the orderly turned towards Bosco.
"I can do it myself!" Bosco snapped. Then he scooted closer to the edge of the bed, until his right foot touched the floor. Reaching out, he placed his right hand on the arm of the wheelchair and lifted himself into a standing position. He hopped once on his good foot. The grimace on his face did not go unnoticed by the women in the room. Reaching over to the other arm of the wheelchair, he hopped again and collapsed into the seat with a groan. The orderly lifted his feet onto the foot rests.
"Where did you want to go, Officer Boscorelli?" he asked.
"I'll take him." Maritza replied. She saw the questioning look on Faith's face. "You can stay here and visit with Mrs. Boscorelli." she continued.
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Maritza pushed Bosco's wheelchair down the hall as the security guard followed a few feet behind.
"Was there any particular place you wanted to go?" she asked.
"I just needed to get out of that room. I'm going crazy in there." Bosco replied.
"Bad day, huh?" Cruz asked.
"Bad life." Bosco muttered.
"Come on now, Chico. Things could be worse. At least your kidney is beginning to work again. You're lucky. You could have been on dialysis for life or even dead."
"I wish I was dead." Bosco mumbled.
Cruz didn't reply at first. She wasn't used to seeing Bosco like this and didn't really know how to handle him. "It will get better." she finally said.
As they approached a very long window along the wall, Cruz stopped the wheelchair. In their wandering around, they had managed to find the nursery. "Look at all the little chicas." Maritza said with a smile.
"Yeah, I wonder what hell they'll have to live with." Bosco replied wearily.
"It might not be that bad. You never know." Cruz replied as she rubbed a hand over her growing abdomen.
"Yeah, right. I'm sure they've all got the Brady's as parents." Bosco muttered.
"Well, we don't all get to have fairy tale families, but that doesn't mean that everything is bad. Sometimes we just have to do the best we can." Cruz answered.
Bosco looked up at Cruz's sad eyes. "I… I didn't mean anything by that."
"I know. I just wish that I could give her a more normal family." Cruz confided.
"You'll be a great mom, Ritza." Bosco assured her.
"Yeah, right. I don't know the first thing about babies, Bosco."
"Yeah, well. I'm sure you'll do a lot better job than a lot of the parents out there. I mean, the poor kid could have someone like me for a parent." Bosco replied.
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"What do you mean she says that the baby is Maurice's? He would tell me something like that." Rose asked, confused.
"Well that's just it, Rose. He doesn't know." Faith went on to explain the story that Natalie had told them.
"Do you think she's telling the truth?" Rose questioned in amazement.
"Well, there's no way to know for sure without blood tests. But we do have this." Faith replied, as she pulled the picture of Jacob out of her pocket. In the confusion yesterday, she and Cruz had somehow managed to hang on to the picture that Natalie had shown them.
"Oh dear….." Rose stared at the picture for a long moment before reaching for her purse. After a brief search, Rose pulled an old worn photo out. Handing it to Faith, she whispered "Look."
Faith was utterly amazed when she compared the two pictures. Jacob was almost a replica of Bosco at the same age.