Title: Between Time (3 /?)
Author: X_tremeroswellian
Email: X_tremeroswellian@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: They don't belong to me, but I wish they did.
Rating: PG-13 for language, violence and sexual content
Spoilers: Up through and including "233 Days"
Summary: A serious accident forces Faith and Bosco to re-evaluate their lives as well as their relationship with each other.
Distribution: My site, Only Time, http://www.oocities.org/angel_roswell/onlytime.html
Category: Story
Subcategories: drama/angst/romance/friendship
Feedback: Have you hugged your author today? *grin*
Author's Note: I'm aware there's a similar story being written about this idea, but I've already talked to the author of that story and she encouraged me to go ahead and write mine. I'm pretty sure we're going in different directions with the fics anyway. Any similarities are only coincidental of great minds thinking alike, not of plagarism.
Dedication: For Bree, Dem and CCA, who all encouraged me to write this months ago.
Special thanks to CCA, who gave me the idea for the beginning part of this story. :)
Between Time (Part Three)
"Amnesia," Bosco repeated, staring at Dr. Thomas as they stood in the hallway outside of Faith's room.
"I'm going to run some additional tests in the morning, but that appears to be what we're dealing with, yes."
"So what do we do?"
"Sit and wait. There's really nothing we can do at this point," Dr. Thomas said. "It might only be a temporary condition."
"Wait, *might* be? Are you saying it could be permenant?" he asked in disbelief.
"You have to understand that your friend has suffered very severe head trauma. Cases like this are unpredictable. She could remember everything by tomorrow, or she may not remember anything at all ever. We just don't know."
Bosco leaned against the wall heavily, still shocked and not sure what to say or even what to think.
Dr. Thomas gazed at him. "It's a miracle that she survived that crash at all and that she's awake."
He met the man's eyes and nodded slowly. "You're right. I'm just..." He shook his head, unable to finish the sentence.
"Shocked," the other man supplied.
"Yeah," Bosco said, his voice low. He took in a slow, deep breath. "So what can I do for her? I mean, what do you advise people to do in these kinds of cases?"
"To be quite honest with you, I haven't seen many of these kinds of cases. But what I can tell you is just to offer her your support and patience and understanding."
"Patience and understanding," he repeated, mumbling the words. "In case you don't know it, Doc, those aren't two of my best qualities."
Dr. Thomas almost smiled. "I think you'll be amazed how patient and understanding you can be when someone you really care about needs that from you." He patted him on the shoulder and walked away.
"I hope you're right," Bosco said doubtfully.
Proctor poured Faith a glass of water and held it as the other woman drank it. She'd always liked Officer Yokas. The poor woman had a very long road ahead of her. She watched as Faith winced in pain, though it was hard to tell what injury was causing her the most discomfort. There were just too many.
"I'll talk to Dr. Thomas about getting you something for the pain," she promised, giving Faith a small, reassuring smile.
Faith looked up at her. "Thanks," she answered, her voice still rough from being intubated.
"Sure." Proctor set the glass down on the bedside table.
"What happened to me?"
She looked at the younger woman sympathetically. "You were in a car accident."
Faith's eyes closed. "I don't remember that."
"I know." Proctor checked her I.V. bag to make sure it didn't need to be changed right away. "Your husband will be back soon. He's been worried about you."
"I'm married?"
She hesitated, wondering if she should have let Bosco tell her that. "Yeah." She adjusted the I.V. wires. "I'll go talk to Dr. Thomas about getting you something for the pain." Without another word, Proctor left the room, leaving a bewildered Faith to stare after her.
She was resting her eyes, trying to will away the enormous headache she had when she sensed him enter the room. She automatically opened her eyes and locked her gaze on his face.
His hands were shoved into the pockets of his jeans as he lingered at the foot of her bed. "Hey. How you feeling?" he asked akwardly.
"Confused," she admitted, her voice quiet. She didn't take her eyes off him. *Couldn't* take her eyes off him. He was a good looking guy--short brown hair, clean cut, nicely dressed and the most incredibly deep blue eyes she could have imagined. But he looked exhausted.
"Yeah, I bet." He hesitated for a moment, then walked over to the chair beside the head of her bed. "Uh...is it okay if I sit here?"
She nodded slowly, still gazing at him intently.
"I ran into Proctor." When she frowned, he quickly realized his mistake. "She, uh...she's the nurse that just left."
"Oh."
"She said she'd be back with some painkillers for you soon." He gazed back at her, a worried expression on his face.
"She said I was in a car accident." She saw him wince, then nod slowly.
"Yeah...it was...it was pretty bad," he told her, looking away for a moment.
"You were there?"
"Afterward. I didn't realize it was you until the paramedics already had you out of the truck." His voice was pained, as though he were reliving that moment as they spoke.
"I didn't mean to worry anyone," she said softly, unsure of how to comfort the man who sat beside her.
He looked up and met her gaze again. "I know." He hesitated for a moment. "The doctor said that...you probably wouldn't wake up...that your injuries were too bad. But I knew better." He gave her a small smile.
She tried to return the gesture, but she couldn't. She looked down at the blanket covering her. "I don't remember anything."
"Yeah, Dr. Thomas said you have amnesia."
"But it's only temporary, right?" she asked, feeling anxiety form a knot in her stomach.
He opened his mouth to reply, but hesitated once more, looking down at the tile floor. "He doesn't know. He said he was going to run some more tests in the morning."
"Great," she said tiredly, closing her eyes tightly as she felt tears form behind her eyelids. She held her breath, trying to stop the urge to cry as it rose in her throat.
"Hey."
She opened her eyes again and looked at him through her tears.
He reached out and laced his fingers through hers, squeezing her hand gently. "You're alive, Faith. That's the only thing that matters," he said gently, gazing at her seriously.
She dropped her gaze to their joined hands, her heart skipping a beat. She swallowed hard. "I'm sorry, I...don't know your name," she admitted, feeling suddenly shy for the first time since he'd walked into her room.
"Bosco," he supplied quickly, shaking his head. "Sorry, I didn't think again."
"Bosco," Faith repeated, the name sounding so foreign to her, though when she looked at him, she realized it suited him.
"It's my nickname. Short for Boscorelli. Maurice Boscorelli. But no one ever calls me Maurice except Ma and Mikey...uh, my brother," he told her.
"And my name's Faith?"
"Yeah."
Faith Boscorelli, she thought. At least their names sounded good together. She turned her gaze to him. "How long have we..." She bit her lip.
"Oh. Almost nine years."
"That's a long time," she murmured and he gave her another smile. She managed to smile back at her husband.
For a long moment they just gazed at each other.
Then another thought occurred to her. "Bosco?"
"Yeah?"
"Do we have any kids?" she asked softly.
For a moment, he appeared to be frozen. "What?"
"I just thought since we'd been married so long, maybe..." Her voice trailed off. "No kids?"
He stared at her for a moment. "Uh...what makes you think that we're married?" he asked carefully.
Faith looked at him in confusion. "That nurse said we were."
"Proctor told you I was your husband?"
She frowned. "Well, no, but she said that my husband was worried about me and that he'd be back soon and you were here when I woke up, so I guess I just assumed that..." She bit her lip. "We're not married?"
Bosco shook his head slowly. "No, we're not married."
Embarrassed, Faith looked down at the blanket again. "I'm really sorry."
"Hey, don't...it's fine, really." He squeezed her hand again. "If I was in your place, I probably would have thought the same thing," he said gently.
She was still embarrassed at having jumped to conclusions, but his words made her feel a little better. "Thanks."
"Sure."
There was a moment of silence.
"So if we're not married...how do we know each other?" she asked, not looking up.
"We work together. We're friends." Bosco gazed at her. "Best friends," he added quietly.
Faith finally turned her head to look at him. "We are?" she asked softly.
He swallowed hard, hesitated. "Well...you've always been mine." He gave her a small smile.
Despite the fact she didn't remember him, she was touched by his words and felt the need to reassure him, though she wasn't sure why. She was the one who squeezed his hand this time. "What do we do?"
Bosco frowned slightly, a confused look on his face. "What do you mean?"
"You said we work together."
"Oh. Yeah. We're police officers. Partners."
Her eyes widened and she stared at him. She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting him to say, she just knew *that* wasn't it. "Really? Police officers?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Surprised?"
"A little bit," she admitted, nodding. She closed her eyes as the slight motion caused the pounding in her skull to begin all over again.
"Hey, you okay? Should I get a doctor?" Bosco asked, alarm in his voice as he sat forward in his chair.
"No, it's just...my head hurts. That's all. That's probably normal, right?"
He frowned deeply. "I don't know, but I don't want to take any chances. I'm going to go find Proctor or Dr. Thomas. I'll be right back, okay?" He squeezed her hand once before he let go. He stood up and quickly headed for the door.
Faith shifted uncomfortably in the bed, closing her eyes again, trying to will away the pain coursing through her body. This time when she opened her eyes again, there was a tall man with a bald head standing a few feet away, gazing at her intensely. Alarmed, she struggled to sit up as she stared back at him.
"Welcome back, Babe," he said, a forced smile on his face that didn't quite reach his eyes.
Faith swallowed hard, feeling uncertain and nervous. "Who are you?" she whispered.