Disclaimer - I don't own anything Third Watch - everything else is my own...
At 3 am Sera's body was beginning to feel the tell tale signs that she had dealt with more than her fair share of traumas for one night. The muscles in her neck bunching tightly to form a huge knot at the base of her skull, she slipped into the nurse's lounge hoping for a moments respite to rest her weary body. Her mind however would not still; it was running in a hundred different directions all at once. The victims from the earlier MVA were still playing on her mind…losing the baby girl was still weighing heavily on her mind. Intellectually she knew there was nothing more that she or anyone could have done for Angel. That didn't stop her from feeling rotten that such a tiny life was cut short before it had even really begun.
All she wanted to do now was go home, wash away the grime accumulated over a crappy day, down a large glass of wine before crawling into her warm bed – even though she'd be crawling into it alone. She pulled out her cell checking for messages, realizing that her mother had not yet called. She frowned in concern – the shop was always closed by 1am at the very latest, maybe Rosa had just forgotten to call…That would be just like Mama… Seraphina thought to herself, staring the cell and rubbing her hand over her weary face.
She was dialing her mother's number when Haylee stuck her head around the door.
"I'll be out in a minute Hailz – have we got a trauma on the way?" Seraphina asked listening as her mother's voicemail message cut in.
"Sera, it's your Mom."
"Did she call? Honestly I thought that parents were supposed to be the ones fretting when their child doesn't call…I mean isn't that the unwritten rule?" She asked snapping the phone closed with out leaving a message.
"No, um she's here."
"Here? As a patient?!" Sera flew out of the room in time to see Dr Marlow enter exam room 1. "Now Mrs. Jasper, what have you done to yourself?" He asked gently, his voice warm and trustworthy. "Mama!" Sera quickly took in her mother's disheveled appearance, the graze on her left cheek, blood dried on her cream blouse. Sera gentle grasped her mother's cheek, tilting it into the light so that she could get a better look at the wound. Rosa brushed her daughter away, annoyed. "Don't fuss Seraphina – we're okay, we just had a little accident."
"We? What kind of an accident?" Sera demanded, hands on hips, looking stern.
"We are all okay – that nice young officer sorted it out for us."
"Officer?" Sera's mind boggled. "Like a Police Officer?" She asked, spinning around and seeing a uniformed officer enter the room, not immediately recognizing who it was. "Ma, what the hell is goin' on?"
Bosco took in the scene between mother and daughter, astonishment playing across his face momentarily. It didn't take him long to decide to play this one carefully. "Mrs. Jasper, would it be alright if I took your statement now?" He asked politely pulling out his notebook. Sera glanced at him as though he was an alien - she'd had a little to do with him since she started at Mercy and never once had she heard him be polite; she assumed he didn't have any manners. "Please young man, I've told you call me Rosa." Sera paced in the background; looking between Boscorelli and her mother as he recapped the details he had so far.
"Okay Rosa. So you were taking inventory with your sister Camilla, after you had closed the store."
"Si, we own the store together."
"Bruno Lisi was also present?" Bosco asked.
"Si – my sister's husband."
"Mrs. Lisi told me that you lost track of time - you were talking and suddenly there was a man inside?"
"I don't know how he got in." Rosa said frowning.
"Is it possible that a door was unlocked?" Bosco watched carefully as she answered looking for any sign that she was stretching the truth of covering up something.
"We always locked the doors when we count our takings. Bruno fixed one of the locks just this week." Rosa said, her accent getting heavier the wearier she became.
"You told me you called a handy man." Sera accused.
"Bruno is a man, no? He is handy no? Same thing. The door, it was a fixed." Rosa flippantly shrugged away her daughters concern. Bosco watched as Sera gently bit her bottom lip, seeing that she was trying to keep in control. "Alright so you saw the man, what happened next?"
"Milla screamed. Did she tell you that, I bet she did not?" Rosa said playfully. Seraphina was watching her mother in amazement – she seemed to be enjoying the whole process meanwhile Sera was barely keeping a lid on her frustration. Bosco shook his head, making a production of writing down "Milla screamed. What then?"
"After the screaming, he say he wants money. I tell him, we've been to bank, no money inside. I tell him to shoo."
"To shoo?" Bosco bit the inside of his cheek, trying and failing to mask his amusement, he looked across at Seraphina meeting her eyes, smiling slightly but she didn't seem to be in a joking mood. "Yes but then he pulled out a knife." Rosa declared dramatically
Sera crossed herself muttering in Italian, "Una lama! Diami la resistenza." (A knife. Give me strength!) Bosco didn't need a translator to decipher that Rosa's daughter was not impressed with the turn of events.
"That's when I threw at him the, the…um vase del fiore." Rosa said proudly, gesturing with her hands as she unconsciously slipped into her native Italian tongue.
"I'm sorry the what?" Bosco looked up from his notebook slightly bewildered.
Sera quietly translated, "The flower vase" for him.
"I got him pretty good too. He fell down like a sacco delle patate." Rosa grinned proudly.
"Sack of potatoes." Sera mumbled
"I got that one." Bosco nodded still endeavoring not to smirk.
"Don't frown so much mio caro, it's not pretty. Such a beautiful girl but always frowning. I tell her all the time frowns won't get her a husband!" Rosa chastised her young daughter wagging her finger. As though frown lines deterring potential suitors were a bigger concern for Seraphina than the fact that her mother had just been held up at knifepoint. "You wonder why I frown Mama. How is it that we are genetically related?" Sera murmured turning away from her mother to fuss with one of the monitors in the room.
Bosco watched the interplay between mother and daughter with interest, trying to keep from laughing he attempted to redirect the conversation to the matter at hand.
"How did you get that injury?" He pointed to his own cheek with his pen. Rosa had sustained what looked like a superficial graze to her left cheek – but honestly, what would Bosco know he wasn't actually a medical professional.
"I was calling Polizia, he tried to get up, pulling on the counter – a pastry case fell down, a menu flew up and hit me."
This time Bosco did grin, "Okay Mrs Jasper I think I've got everything I need for now. You'll need to come by the precinct house tomorrow and we can sort out the paperwork." Bosco was talking to Rosa but looking straight at Seraphina as if to say, makes sure she remembers. He gave them all a curt nod before leaving the room.
Seraphina ran her hands into her thick dark hair, shaking her head at her mother's antics. "Alrighty Rosa, I'll get that cheek cleaned up for you then Seraphina can take you home." Rosa nodded, leaning back with her eyes closed. The earlier excitement at the shop had left her exhilarated for a short while but now she was exhausted, only wanting to shower and sleep.
Bosco walked towards the nurse's station, Seraphina a few steps behind him. "Officer Boscorelli…"
"It's Bosco." He told her his voice mockingly stern.
"Bosco, thanks for taking care of my Mama. She's a little…" Sera shrugged, unable to think of an appropriate word. "Excitable?" he offered, grinning broadly. "It was pretty much under control when I got there. I gotta tell you, your Mom's got balls."
Sera chuckled humorlessly, "She's got something alright." Bosco watched as a look of concern passed across her face. "Listen, there really isn't anything to worry about. We caught the guy the damage was minimal and apart from the scrape on Rosa's cheek there were no other injuries." He paused for a moment noticing that his little spiel wasn't having the desired effect, Sera still looked worried, tense. "When your Mom comes by the house tomorrow to give her statement, I'll give her a lecture about security."
"You can try…she probably thinks this will make a thrilling anecdote to tell the ladies at bridge." Seraphina sighed resignedly.
Bosco shrugged as if to say What can you do? "Earlier with the little girl…I mean that had to suck?" he asked her clumsily. Sera closed her eyes and sighed trying to erase the image of the little girl from her mind. "It's never easy Bosco." She told him shortly, walking in the nurses' station and grabbing a patient's chart. Her body language, her whole demeanor told Bosco that the topic was not up for discussion. Bosco stood there a moment longer watching people come and go as Sera actively ignored him waiting for him to get the point. He got it already he was just being stubborn, something he excelled at. He was halfway to the emergency bay doors before he called out "See you around." Sera hadn't even realized he'd moved away. She caught his eye and Bosco nodded, walking outside through the ambulance bay to his waiting RMP. Sera ran out into the cool night, the wind biting at her through her thin scrubs as she followed him out. "Bosco!" Sera called before she could stop herself. "Remind me sometime that I owe you a beer." Bosco raised an eyebrow in surprise before grinning. "I'll remember to collect on that. G'night." Sera raised her hand to wave before turning back to the ER to take her 'excitable' mother home.