TITLE: A Price To Pay: The Sequel
AUTHOR: Pedellea
E-MAIL: [email protected]
DATE: October 16, 2000
RATING: PG-13 for a tad of violence
SUMMARY: Dan Baxter resurfaces to torment Bosco once again. Will he be caught this time?
SPOILERS: Just Another Night At The Opera
DISCLAIMER: Third Watch belongs to John Wells Production and Warner Brothers. There you are. Short and sweet.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Here is the promised sequel to A Price To Pay. Sorry it took a while to post... blame writer's block! This takes place one year after the events from A Price To Pay, but Bosco and Nicole's break up does not take place (as it did in the show). Thought brackets again noted with [these]. Hope you enjoy!

Nicole's Apartment
6:40 am

Bosco was tossing and turning in bed again, and it woke up Nicole, yet again. She gazed at him, concerned, as he mumbled incoherently, his eyebrows knitted with worry.

Ever since his ordeal a year ago, his sleep has been plagued with dreams of the time he spent held up in the basement of the Baxter brother's former house.

Recovery from his physical injuries took months, and he just ended his physiotherapy session for his leg injury not long ago. For a long time, he walked around with a limp, and only recently did that limp disappear.

As for his emotional side, Bosco insists he "can handle it", but his partner convinced him to see a therapist to talk about it. He went to about 3 sessions, but said he felt weird pouring his feelings to some shrink, so he stopped going. He and Faith have talked about his ordeal as well, and he says that it helps a bit to let it out.

The quick trial of Thomas Baxter, one of the brothers, helped ease off his anxiety a bit. Knowing that one of his tormentors was now sitting in prison, paying for the damage he had done in Bosco's life was somewhat comforting. But Bosco would rather have beat the crap out of Tom and left him for dead in the middle of nowhere, but society's justice system didn't work this way. Well, any punishment was better than no punishment at all.

He says what happened to him doesn't really bug him anymore, except the fact that Daniel Baxter is still on the loose.

But to Nicole, it was evident that the ordeal still haunts him. Besides the reason that one of his captors was still at large, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that his memories can't just fade away in an instant. No amount of therapy or anything else, for that matter, would speed up the healing process.

Nicole sighed and shook Bosco gently, waking him with a start.

"Wha...?"
"You were dreaming again."

He looked at her, swallowed hard, and closed his eyes.

"You wanna talk about it?"
"No... no, I'm good. What time is it?"

Nicole looked at the clock on the night table.

"It's almost seven... go back to sleep."
"No... not sleepy. You sleep."

He sat up on the bed and rubbed his face, then ran a hand through his ruffled hair.

"You sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, sleep, you need it."

He pushed her dirty blonde hair behind her ear, gave her face a gentle stroke, and got off the bed, heading to the bathroom. Nicole stared at him anxiously as he disappeared behind the door. She breathed a deep sigh and collapsed back in bed.

---

The warm water splashed down on Bosco's face and body, and it helped shake off the remnants of the dream. The nightmares have eased off over the course of the year, but once in a while they would come back to haunt his sleep. The truth of the matter is that no matter how hard he tried to forget the details of his ordeal, it would creep up on him over and over in his dreams. People keep telling that these things take time to heal, but frankly, he was tired of having his feelings being so vulnerable.

He was able tired of constantly feeling the threat of Daniel Baxter. There were very little things that he feared in life, and Dan was on of these things. It was not that he was terrified of him, because Bosco knew he wanted to kick Dan's butt any day, but he was more afraid of the power Dan can have over him if Bosco ever got himself into a vulnerable situation again. He sighed at the thought, and turned off the water.

Hearing the phone ring, he stepped out of the shower and quickly towelled off, wrapping the towel around his waist. He rushed out and grabbed the phone on the third ring.

"Hello?"
"Officer Boscorelli. How nice to talk to you again."

A chill ran down Bosco's spine. The voice definitely belonged to none other than Daniel Baxter. He chose to remain silent.

"I suppose you're doing well..."

Another moment of silence went by.

"What? Don't you want to talk..."

Before Dan could finish his sentence, Bosco hung up on him. He dialled *69 to trace the call and cursed when he was informed it was an unlisted number - probably a pay phone. He hung up the phone and went to Nicole.

"Nicole... wake up. You gotta get out of here."
"Why? What's wrong?"
"Daniel Baxter called."
"What?"
"He got hold of your number, but I don't know how. You gotta go. Go to your parent's house. Go to my mom's house. Go to a friend's house. Just get out of here, and stay away from here. It's not safe."
"Where are you gonna go?"
"To the precinct."
"Now?"
"Yeah... report the phone call, see what else I can dig up."
"Want me to come with you?"
"No... it's safer if we stay apart."

Nicole sighed worriedly.

"Okay... but promise me you'll be careful."

Bosco nodded, and took hold of her hands.

"Come on, pack some clothes. Better get going."

---

55th Precinct
3:30pm

"He what? He called you?," Faith exclaimed after hearing Bosco's story.

He nodded. The two were sitting at a desk opposite each other.

"He called Nicole's place. I dropped her off at a friend's house. Told her not to go to work today, just to be safe."
"And you've been here ever since?"

Bosco nodded again, and turned his eyes to the file on Dan he had been looking at. Faith's look of surprise turned into a gaze of concern.

"Are you okay?"

Faith knew her partner was tough, but she was worried all this may be too much on him.

"I'm good," he responded quickly, continuing to leaf through the contents of the file.
"You sure?"
"Yeah."
"'Cause if you aren't, you don't hafta hide it."
"I'm not hiding anything. I'm fine, Faith."
"Okay."

Faith picked up one of the sheets that had fallen out of the file and began reading it. The words on the page were familiar. She had read this sheet once before, a year ago when Bosco went missing. Remembering the ordeal her partner went through gave her the chills. It's a wonder that he didn't end up with severe psychological problems, and for that she's grateful.

"Found anything yet?," she asked him.
"Nothing. Nothing recent at all. Practically all the stuff in here is old," Bosco sighed with frustration.

Faith touched her partner's hand lightly.

"The detectives are on it. They'll find something."
"I know, but I just wanna catch that... I just wanna get Baxter."
"I know... me too."

Bosco looked up at her and gave her a nod.

"C'mon, we gotta go."
"Yeah, okay."

With that, the two officers got up and headed out to their squad to begin their day's work.

---

2 Days Later

Bosco sat silently in the driver seat of the squad, deep in thought. Faith had gone into a nearby café to get her and her partner coffee.

For the past two nights he had stayed over at his mom's place, spending sleepless nights on the couch, usually accompanied by soft talking from the infomercials and sci-fi flicks that aired late at night on the TV. Most of the dialogue flew past his head though; his thoughts were of the events of the past two days and he seemed not able to think of anything else. The captain had advised him to take a few days off, but Bosco insisted that it was okay for him to stay. He had thought about changing his mind and staying off work, but that would definitely hurt his pride, and it was probably what Baxter wanted to see, so he decided against the idea.

As for the case itself, the detectives have been working hard on it, but there was very little they could go on. Baxter hadn't made any other known contact with Bosco or with anybody since two days ago. They figured that Dan Baxter had gone under an alias and fled out of New York, and possibly out of the country. The phone call made to Nicole's house was traced to a payphone near of the United States and Canadian border. Cars going across the border both ways were searched intensively yesterday for Baxter, and also anything or anyone suspicious was also checked. The searches were stopped in the morning, though, because the detectives figured that Baxter was long gone by then. Both American and Canadian authorities have been notified about Baxter and are on the lookout for him.

Faith opened the car door and Bosco looked at her. She handed him his coffee and sat down in the seat, a coffee in her own hand. As he sipped his coffee, Faith studied his face. He looked really tied, with bags under his eyes.

"Not getting enough sleep at night, Bos?"

He looked at her again and sighed.

"Yeah."
"Case getting to ya, huh?"
"No kiddin'."

Just then, a blue car sped past their squad.

"What the...," Bosco exclaimed, starting the engine.

Turning on the sirens, he stepped on the gas in pursuit of the speeding car, while Faith called it in.

"55-David to central. We're in pursuit of a speeding vehicle."
"Copy that David. Can you make out the license?"
"Yeah. It's dark blue with plate number William-Lincoln-Robert, 695."

Luckily for the speeder, the street was pretty clear.

"Pull over, please," Bosco announced over the speakers, "...what kind of idiot would speed up near a police car?"
"It's happened before," Faith said, remembering the time when she literally chased a man and the stolen car that he was driving off a parking garage.
"Well, this one better stay put," Bosco muttered.

He unbuckled his seat belt and pulled open the car door while Faith radioed central with an update. The driver had pulled over as per his instructions. As he walked towards the driver side of the car, he flipped open his ticket book. The occupant slowly rolled down the driver side window, and a voice called out.

"Hello, officer Boscorelli."

Before Bosco could match the voice up with a name, a loud band sounded out and something hard slammed into his chest, knocking the wind out of him and making him stumble backwards and fall hard on the pavement.

Faith watched in horror as her partner took a shot and fell. She screamed his name quickly undid her seat belt.

"55-David to central. Officer down, I repeat, officer down! Shooter in vehicle, requesting backup and a bus!"

Faith returned fire, trying to shoot out the tires. Unfortunately, she missed her aim and the car screeched away.

"55-David to central. Vehicle with shooter now on the move along 109," Faith reported as she ran to her fallen partner.

"Bosco?!," she called out, concern etched on her face.

Faith sighed in relief when she saw no blood spilling out from her partner. The vest had stopped the bullet from entering. He groaned and winced.

"Baxter..." he said haltingly, trying to catch his breath. It kind of hurt to breathe.
"Ambulance should be here any minute. Just stay put."
"No... hafta get Baxter. He's getting away..."
"Baxter?"

He nodded as Faith radioed central about Baxter. Bosco tried to sit up and instantly regretted his hastiness. His ribs screamed in pain, and he gritted his teeth, trying hard to suppress a groan. Faith noticed his actions anyway, though, and she put a hand on his arm.

"Take it easy, Bos. Central has someone out to get Baxter. They won't let him get away. Not this time."
"No... just help me up. I'm good. We gotta get after him!"
"Bos..."
"Just help me up!"

Faith sighed at her partner's stubbornness. But she would probably act the same way had she been the one kidnapped.

"Okay, but I'm driving."

She offered a hand to help Bosco up. He winced as he got upright.

"You should really get to a hospital."

He ignored her comment.

"Let's go."

The partners quickly got into their car. At the same time, Faith radioed central yet again to cancel the bus, and informed them that they were on their way to catching up with Baxter. Central in turn told them the current whereabouts of Baxter. Putting the car into gear, Faith floored the gas and tore down the road, in the direction of where Baxter was currently moving. Not long after, the car they were in pursuit of was in sight.

"There... there he is!," Bosco called out, pointed in front of him.

They could hear other police cars in front of Baxter's car by the wail of the sirens. There was no way Baxter could get out of this one this time.

Baxter accelerated his car again, not caring if he crashed into the cars ahead. The squads in front swerved just in time to avoid a collision with Baxter, but this meant that Baxter was no longer caged in and that Bosco and Faith were the only ones following him.

"C'mon Baxter, give it up," Bosco muttered.

His eyes were peeled on cars and other hazards that might get in the way. At the next intersection, Baxter tooka sharp turn to the right, trying to cut off the remaining officers in pursuit. Unfortunately for Baxter, the officers kept on his tail, but not without a narrow escape of a collision with another car. Bosco radioed central with their current location.

The two cars sped down the road. Being 3:30 in the afternoon, the street had few cars, ones that Baxter and Faith could easily dodge.

"Come in, 55-David."
"55-David. What's up?"
"55-David, where are you at?"
"Still southbound on 106. Next intersection is Wellington."
"10-4, David. We'll be sending back up units."
"Alright, central. 10-4."

Soon after, Bosco and Faith could hear the wail of sirens of other cruisers nearby. Sully radioed central to say he was moving in front of Baxter.

"This is it," Bosco said, a determined look on his face.

Sully front must have stopped abruptly because the next thing Faith and Bosco knew was Baxter had screeched and swerved to the right into the sidewalk and into a store front. Faith stepped hard on the breaks and swerved to the left, the rear crashing into Baxter's.

"You okay?," Faith asked Bosco when the car came to a complete stop.
"Yeah..." he managed with his teeth clenched. The impact had jarred his ribs.
"You're getting checked out..."

Ignoring his partner, Bosco yanked the door open, stepped out and drew his gun.

"Bos..."

Faith's voice was lost on him. He joined Sully and Davis, who were already disarming an unconscious Baxter who had blood pouring down from a gash on his head. Definitely not getting away this time.

"Breathe a sigh of relief, Bosco. He won't hurt anyone ever again," Sully reassured. "He'll probably spend the rest of his life in jail. He deserves it too."

Bosco nodded. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"C'mon Bos. Let them take care of it. They won't let him get away."

He sighed, feeling weary all of a sudden. He dropped his head and nodded.

"I know," he said quietly.
"Let's go. I'll take you to the hospital to get you checked out."
"Okay."

He winced as he turned around, and stood still for a moment, closing his eyes.

"You okay, Bos?"
"Yeah... just give me a sec."
"Alright... I'll be in the car."

Faith made her way back into the squad. She gazed at her partner who was surveying the scene. [I wonder what's going through his mind?], she thought with a sigh.

These past few months have been hard on her partner, and it's no doubt that the next few months won't be a breeze either, with court appearances that will involve her partner big time, being a victim of Daniel Baxter and his brother Thomas, who is currently in prison. Hopefully Dan's trial will be short. It's time Bosco got to move on in life.

Bosco stared as Kim and Bobby worked on Baxter. On one hand, he wanted to take out his gun and shoot him until he was unrecognizable, but on the other hand, Bosco knew he should leave in up to the justice system to deal with Baxter. That's the way things have to be. He felt drained from all that happened today, and his ribs were throbbing with pain. He probably should take the rest of the day off.

He turned to look at her partner in the car. She gave him a reassuring smile. He knew he could depend on her partner no matter what. Although they bickered sometimes, they both know that their partnership is strong. They would back each other up in all circumstances. Right now, Bosco needed to know that he could depend on someone to help him through the next few months. Faith's smile helped reassure him of this partnership, this friendship that they had. He made his way over to the squad.

Bosco opened door and heaved a sighed. He ducked into the car, wincing as he sat down.

"Ready to go?," his partner asked him gently.

He looked at her and nodded.

"Yeah."

Without a word, Faith pulled away from the scene, away from Baxter, and away from the paramedics, investigators, and police officers that were dealing with the aftermath of Baxter's take down.

It was time to begin the journey to leave all this behind.

Hope you enjoyed the sequel!

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