Title: It's Going To Be A Long Day
Author: Phyllis
Disclaimer: Characters belong to John Watson, NBC, and Warner Bros.-no profit made-
Only borrowing for a short time
Email: maxbobabe@aol.com
Rating: PG-a little violence
Warnings: None
Summary: Faith and Bos walk in on a robbery
IT'S GOING TO BE A LONG DAY
They were three hours into an eight-hour shift. The July sun beat down, causing the streets to heat up like an oven. Bosco sat looking miserable. Not even the squad air conditioner could cool him off. Once again he fiddled with the controls.
“Bosco, it’s on full blast. Turning it off and on is not going to make it work any better.” Yokas told him for the third time.
Bosco sighed heavily, slapping his hand against the dash. “ Why is it, we always get the equipment that does not work right?”
“It’s working fine, It’s just too hot to compensate. Calm down or you’ll never cool off.”
“This vest feels like it gets tighter every time I breathe.” He whined.
Yokas shot a glare at her partner, “You are NOT taking off that vest. It saved you once. You could need it again. This heat is making everybody nuts. We’ve already had four disturbance calls.”
Bosco knew she was right-about all of it-that didn’t make him any more comfortable. This heat was making for a very long day.
They rode in silence for a few minutes. Bosco could not stand it. Finally, he asked “ How about something cold to drink?”
“Do you want to eat now?” she asked
“No. I do not want to eat. I want something to drink. It’s too early to eat yet,” he replied through clenched teeth.
Faith smiled to herself. “You are aware that we have a dinner break due in less than an hour. Can’t you wait that long?” She thought to herself “This is just too easy.”
Bosco threw his hands up to his face and yelled “Ahhhhhhh….”
“There is no need to yell. I asked a simple question. Are you saying that you can’t wait?” Yokas asked again.
Bosco exploded. “No! No I can’t wait. If I wanted to wait, I wouldn’t have asked, would I? I would just wait. I’m hot and I want something to drink—now. Please!” Bosco turned in his seat to glare at Faith’s profile.
Trying to keep a straight face, she came back at him “ I’ve said this once. I will not say it a third time. There is no need to yell. I’m still sitting right here.”
“
“Now you sound like my mother” Bosco curled his lip and mouthed silently. “You don’t have to yell. Blah. Blah. Blah.”
”And you sound like my son. Only, he’s ten.” The look on his face did her in. She could contain her mirth no longer and burst out laughing.
Bosco just looked at her. He snorted and then grinned. He knew he was acting childish. Heat seemed to bring out the worst in people.
“OK. OK. Ha ha.” But the tension had been broken. The partners smiled as they cruised the area. “Could we, please, just get a cold drink?”
In the block ahead sat another cruiser with its lights flashing. Yokas pulled up beside the other unit. “Hey, Sully.” Bosco called to the officer sitting in the drivers seat. “Anything happening?”
“Nothing much. Traffic stop. The routine “I didn’t see the red light” claim” Sully shook his head.
“We thought we would go over to Franklin and get a drink at Murphy’s deli. Want to meet us there when you’re done?”
Sully glanced at his partner, Ty Davis, and then at the woman they had pulled over, then back to Bosco. He looked at his ticket book. They were about finished here. “Sure. Sounds good. Davis has been whining about the heat anyways.” At this, Yokas burst out laughing. This drew looks from both Davis and Sully. Bosco just dropped his head and lightly banged it against the door panel.
Sully smiled. He understood completely. Davis continued to look puzzled. Sully waved him off as to say “I’ll tell you later.” To Bosco, he said, “We’re two minutes behind you”
A few minutes later, Yokas parked in front of the building in the middle of the Franklin. The deli had been here for quite a while-probably twenty years or more. A pawnshop and cleaners flanked it. Both businesses were closed for the day. The deli was the only shop open on this side of the street.
Taking off her seat belt, Faith reached for the door handle as Bosco asked if she wanted to wait for the other two officers. Yokas looked back for the other cruiser and decided not to wait, “Nah, let’s go on in and sit down. It might take them a few minutes.”
Yokas exited on the street side of the squad, while Bosco got out on the curbside and headed for the door. He hesitated as Faith came around the car and stepped onto the sidewalk. Bosco opened the door and stepped inside, holding the door for his partner, Yokas’ head turned as she approached the threshold. “Hey, here they come now.” She stated as she stepped in the door.
Bosco caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned toward it. Two men were standing at the counter. The clerk, the owners’ grandson Jamie, was staring wide-eyed at the officers. Even as the two men turned, the gun in the shorter one’s hand registered in Bosco’s mind. He turned back toward his partner and lunged toward her. “Gun!” he yelled as the weapon came to bear on Yokas standing in the doorway. Bosco threw up his arm and slammed into Yokas as the gun went off. He felt himself going down, but could not get his hands to obey the order to break his fall. He crashed headfirst into the pavement of the sidewalk and the world went black
Yokas barely had time to bring her head around after Bosco yelled, before he slammed into her. Time seemed to slow down at this point. She became aware of several things all at once-a gun fired, twice, Bosco’s hand hit her in the chest, and something hot hit her in the face. She stumbled backward two or three steps before going down. She hit the ground hard and rolled to the front of the squad car and around to the drivers side. Sully and Davis rolled up behind the 55-David squad and Sully threw the vehicle into park. Both officers bailed out on the driver’s side.
“Stay down!” Yokas yelled.
“What the hell’s going on?” Sully’s eyes searched her face as Davis threw his arm, gun in hand, across the back deck of Yokas’ unit. “Are you hurt?” Sully asked her.
Faith reached up and wiped at her face, reaching for her gun with the other hand. “No, I don’t think so.” She looked down at her hand as she spoke. There was blood smeared on it. “Oh, s---!”
Sully took her by the shoulders and turned her toward him. “Let me see.” He told her. He quickly looked over Faith over injuries and found a scrape on her forehead. He also spotted a bullet in her vest. “You’ve been shot. There’s a spent shell imbedded in your vest.” Sully noticed a tear in the elbow of her blouse, which was bloody.
“I didn’t feel anything. It didn’t even penetrate the vest.” She reached inside her uniform blouse just to confirm that statement.
Davis spoke up “I think it might be Bosco’s blood.”
With that, Yokas spun and looked around the front of the squad. She shivered at what she saw. Bosco was lying in the doorway of the deli. His legs were propping the door halfway open. He was face down on the sidewalk on a pool of blood that was staining the ground under his head.
“Oh, God! It’s Bosco’s blood on me.” Tears welled in her eyes, as she thought of her partner dead. “ I had not even thought about where he was. Can you tell where he got hit?”
Sully looked, but shook his head. “No. I can’t tell from here.” He looked at Faith and remembered how he had felt when his partner, Davis’ father, had died in that park so many years ago. It was a scene he did not want to remember, but now it came flooding back as if it had happened the day before.
“Faith, listen to me. You can’t think that Bosco is dead. He might be alive; just playing dead. It would be impossible for him to move without drawing more fire from the gunman.” Sully’s words made sense, but did little to convince Faith that her partner was alive.
“There’s so much blood. Isn’t there something we can do to help him?” Faith’s eyes begged him to say yes. “Do you think he was hit in the head? We have to do something.”
“Not now. We’ll have to wait. Davis has called it in. A bus is probably on the way now. The paramedics will be here, waiting, when we get him out. Be patient. That’s the best way to help him right now,” Even as he finished, they could hear the ambulance in the distance.
“I’ve got movement inside.” Davis called out
All three officers trained their weapons on the storefront. Sully flinched when the radio on his shoulder crackled. “55-Charlie”
He keyed the mike. “55-Charlie. Go”
“Sully. It’s Candy. I’ve got the back. What’s the situation?”
“Thanks, Candy. We’ve got one, maybe two, gunmen in the deli. There’s at least one hostage. Probably more. Yokas was shaken up, but she’s ok. Bosco’s down. Do you want some backup?” Sully waited for a reply, ignoring the look that his young partner gave him. Davis would not like it, but Yokas was too upset and he was the senior officer on scene. That left only Davis to go around back if Candy wanted backup.
“Nah, I’m OK. I have it covered for now. How bad is Bosco?”
Sully looked at the pool of blood under his head. “Can’t really tell from here. No movement. Lots of blood.” He paused and looked at Yokas. She had her head down, running the cold barrel of her gun across her forehead. “We’ll have to wait and see. Keep your eyes open and your head down.”
“You got it”
From a block down, Kim and Bobby could see the police lights flashing. Kim glanced at Bobby. “Must be the place.”
“Yep, I think so. I’ll circle around and pull up facing the store. That way we can still load the bus from the back if we need to.” Bobby checked the cross street, then turned right to circle around and come in from the north side. “We get around there, stay low”
“Right” was all Kim said as they rounded the building and screeched to a halt at the front of Yokas’ squad. Bobby and Kim got out on the right side and crouched behind the large rear dual tires. “Anyone we know?” Kim asked Bobby who was closest to the front.
Bobby told her “I can see Sully and Davis. Also Yokas.“ He leaned back against the warm side of the ambulance. Bobby bent down and peered under the bus as Kim said, “Bosco must be around back.” Bobby sat back up quickly. “Oh, damn.” Bobby muttered. Kim looked at him.
“What is it?”
“It’s Bosco.” Kim looked at her partner, not grasping his meaning. “He’s not around back.” With that, Bobby inclined his head toward the store.
Kim turned to look under the ambulance. She sat back up, a little pale. Tears stung her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away. “I hate it when it’s someone I know, that I talk to almost everyday.” Bobby gripped her shoulder. He knew exactly what she meant. “Dammit!” was all she could think to say. She glanced over again, then stared across the street. “What do you think? It’s an awful lot of blood.”
“It could be anything. It always looks like a lot of blood.” Bobby sounded as if he were trying to convince himself as much as Kim.
Sully took Faith by the elbow. “You need to get checked out.”
“I’m fine. I’m not leaving”
Squeezing her good arm gently, Sully drew her attention back to him. “I didn’t say leave. I said get checked out. You have a scrape on your forehead and your elbow-hadn’t noticed it had you? Not mention the bruise you’ll have under the vest. Now, go over and ask Bobby or Kim to clean the scrapes.” He gazed into her eyes to make sure she was listening. Faith blinked once, then again slowly. She sighed and nodded. Staying low behind the car, she went over to where the ambulance sat.
Kim met Faith and led her to the back of the ambulance. Bobby exited the vehicle with the trauma box. He opened the box and started to clean Faith’s injuries. Kim stood by and offered Faith moral support, asking what had happened.
“It’s so stupid. Bosco and I were stopping to get a cold drink. Sully and Davis were right behind us. We just wanted to cool off. I started in behind Bosco when he yells out “Gun”. Then he straight-armed me out the door. I don’t know if he was trying to save me or just get out himself, but I felt something hit me in the chest and I went down. I got behind the car about the time Sully and Davis got here.” Suddenly, Faith started to cry-just tears at first. Next came the sobs. The female half of 55- David took a deep, ragged breath and released it slowly. “Sully told me I had blood on my face. I wiped it off and it occurred to me that it wasn’t mine. That’s when I saw Bosco.”
Faith turned her face toward the store. Kim gently pulled it back. “Don’t. You can’t do anything, so let us do our job and then you can get back to yours.”
Faith looked Kim straight in the eyes. “I think he took it in the head. Bosco’s probably dead.” The tears flowed again.
Kim could not stop her tears either. “Don’t bury him until we know he’s dead. Bosco’s hard to kill. I think he has the luck of the Irish. He’s not Irish-just has their luck. Besides, only the good die young and no one ever accused Bosco of being good.” They both chuckled at that.
“No. No one ever said he was good. He’s a hardheaded, bigoted, loud-mouthed dumbass most of the time. But, for all that, he really is a good cop. He tries hard to do the right thing. He doesn’t always succeed, but he does try.”
Kim nodded in agreement. “I know. We all know. Keep positive thoughts and we’ll say a little prayer for him. OK?” Kim squeezed Faith’s hands tightly.
Faith returned the squeeze. “OK.”
Just then, the radios crackled again. Muffled voices could be heard. Everyone was listening hard to hear the words. Sully’s eyes narrower and he took a hard look at Bosco. Had he moved? Faith swung in beside him. “Sully!”
