Weathering the Storm

Part 11

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All right, I STILL don't own the characters. And I'm still bummed.

OH and remember I don't have any medical knowledge except for all the hours I spent as an injured athlete in the training room in college :) So just go with what I'm saying…I DID research this stuff, and I do know the side effects and withdrawal symptoms.

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35 pills/18 days

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Faith sat in roll call wondering where her partner was. She figured he must really be sick today if he didn't even try to come in to work.

"Yokas." She cringed at the sound of Fred's last name. Since the divorce had been finalized she had been trying to go by her maiden name, Mitchell, but no one could seem to remember it.

"Yes sir." She walked over to the podium where the lieutenant was standing.

"As I'm sure you noticed your partner isn't here today." Faith nodded. "After I witnessed him vomiting in the middle of the office yesterday I sent him home and told him not to come in if he wasn't feeling any better today."

She nodded. "I talked to him last night. The doctor said he had some kind of stomach virus, and he just had to ride it out."

The lieutenant nodded his understanding. "Well, looks like you ride solo once again."

*****

Bosco hadn't even set his alarm the night before. With the way he had been feeling lately he figured it wasn't even worth the effort to go to work. Besides, the lieutenant would probably just end up sending him home again.

He hadn't slept as well as he had been lately. The difference between taking three pills compared to two pills was evident when it had taken him longer to fall asleep, and he'd woken up a few times during the night. But the bright side for Bosco was the fact that his mind was still too numb to conjure up any nightmares.

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He finally mustered up the energy to get out of bed a little after one. He was still dog-tired, but couldn't seem to sleep any longer. Bosco was on his way to the living room when there was a knock on his door. "Hang on," he called out in his scruffy not quite awake voice.

Faith's smile turned to a frown when she took in his appearance. "You don't look so good."

"Thank you Mary Sunshine." He held the door open, and allowed her to come inside. "So what brings you here?"

She held up a container. "I thought I'd bring you some soup."

"And check up on me," he added.

Faith smiled again. "That too." She put the soup down on the table, and turned back to him. "So how are you?"

He shrugged. "I'm all right I guess."

She walked over to where he stood at the end of the table, and put a hand on his forehead. He leaned into her touch. "You don't seem to have a fever." She moved her hand to caress his cheek. "How's your stomach?"

"OK so far. I haven't eaten anything since lunch yesterday."

"You look tired. You sleep OK?"

"Not really," he yawned.

"Maybe you should have taken one of those sleeping pills last night."

"Yeah maybe, but I didn't really feel like taking one." Lying to her was getting easier, and he knew that couldn't be a good thing.

Faith looked at her watch. "Well I gotta get back to work. I just wanted to swing by and see how you were. I'll stop by later tonight if that's OK. The kids are spending the weekend with Fred."

He nodded. "Sure. You gonna come over after work?"

"I'll probably go home and shower first then I'll come over."

Faith kissed his cheek, and he stepped in to give her a hug. "The gun belt kinda gets in the way. No wonder we don't do this at work." He grinned.

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After Faith left, Bosco reheated the soup in the microwave. He figured since she had gone through the trouble of buying it, and bringing it to him that he might as well attempt to eat. "Chicken noodle. How cliché," he chuckled as he sat down on the couch with soup and spoon in hand.

He turned the TV on to ESPN, and brought a spoonful of soup to his mouth. "Aw shit! Hot. Hot!" he quickly put the container down, dropped the spoon with a clang and began to fan his hand in front of his mouth. A few short minutes later he moved his tongue around in his mouth. His tongue and lips felt burnt from the hot broth. He stared at the steam rising from the bowl, and let out an angry sigh.

*****

The half eaten container of soup still sat on the coffee table, ESPN was muted on the television, and Bosco lay curled up on the couch. He stared at the TV screen not really paying attention to what was on.

He'd been lying in that position for close to four hours. He was comfortable, yet somehow felt uncomfortable at the same time. Basically he was drugged. For the past eighteen days he'd been taking those sleeping pills, and never really gave them a chance to work out of his system. He was tired and sluggish but yet he couldn't sleep. Every once in a while he dozed off, but it was only a few minutes before he was awake again.

As his eyes closed once more he heard a knock on the door. He didn't feel like getting up. "Who is it?"

"It's me," he heard Faith say through the door.

"It's open," he hollered back. Faith let herself in to the dark apartment. Bosco heard the rustling of grocery bags, and turned his head so he could see her. "What's all that?"

"Figured you wouldn't have anything here that resembled food, so I bought a few things. I also picked up a couple movies if you're up to watching them."

"What movies?" he asked as he sat up slowly.

She went over, and sat next to him. "Frequency and Field of Dreams."

His face lit up. "You got Field of Dreams?! I love that movie. I used to have it on tape, but I watched it so much the sound and video don't sync up any more."

"Yeah I remember you complaining about it a couple times. I still don't understand why you haven't bought yourself a new copy."

He shrugged. "I'm too cheap I guess."

Faith placed a hand on his knee. "So, how are you feeling?"

"I'm still pretty wiped."

"How's your stomach?" She noticed the container of soup on the coffee table, and picked it up. "You ate half. That's good." She looked at him. "Were you able to keep it down?" Bosco nodded, and Faith stood up to take the container out to the kitchen. "Good. You can eat the rest of this for dinner."

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After making small talk for a while, and watching random shows on TV Faith put the movie Frequency in the VCR. "You ever seen this?" she asked as she tucked her leg underneath her as she sat down.

He shook his head. "Nope."

"It's good."

"Well I hope so," he grinned.

As the movie played Faith looked over at Bosco. His head occasionally drooped forward, and it looked like he was having trouble keeping his eyes open. She paused the movie. "Reese, are you feeling all right?" she asked softly.

He looked at her, and she could see how tired he was. "I just feel kinda out of it."

She shifted positions on the couch. "Lay down. You can use me as a pillow."

"No I'm all right."

"Humor me," she said sternly.

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Faith sat on the couch, Bosco's head in her lap as they watched the movie. She rotated between gently rubbing his chest, and rubbing the back of her fingers on his cheek. His eyes would drift shut once in a while, but would open again before too long. Faith kept a watchful eye on him.

He looked up at Faith and grinned. "This is a pretty trippy movie…I like it." For a second all her worries disappeared, and she smiled.

*****

"Is it hot in here?" he asked as he wiped the sweat off his forehead with his hand.

"No, not really." Concerned was etched on her face.

He let out a long breath. "It's hot. I gotta go change." Bosco slowly made his way to his bedroom, and rummaged through his drawers until he found a pair of shorts. He emerged from his room wearing just the shorts. "That's better."

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"Ty Cobb wanted to play. But none of us could stand the son of a bitch when we were alive, so we told him to stick it," Bosco quoted the movie word for word.

Faith couldn't help but chuckle. He'd been quoting almost every line since they had started watching Field of Dreams. At first it was annoying, but it grew on her. She always knew that Bosco had a goofy side, but when he changed the tone of his voice to imitate each character she knew that it was something that he would only do in front of her and no one else.

She had her hand on his bare chest. Under her hand she could feel the beating of his heart. It was comforting to her. He grew quiet, and was no longer quoting the movie. Faith started to wonder if he had fallen asleep. She looked down at his face. His heart was beginning to race; she could feel it against her hand. "Reese? What's wrong?"

He looked up at her as he gasped for air. "I can't…I can't breathe."

"What?!"

Bosco put a hand on his chest. "Hurts." He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself down.

"Panic attack?" she questioned softly.

He nodded. "I think so."

"What do we do?" she asked quickly. "Do we need to go to the hospital?!"

He shook his head, and continued to breathe fast ragged breaths. "It'll…pass."

Unsure of what else to do Faith just sat with him, and tried to help calm him down. A small eternity later his breathing was under control, but his heart was still racing. "What's going on? How come…I mean…it's been ages since—"

"I know."

"Come on. Let's get you into bed." Faith helped Bosco off the couch and guided him to his bedroom. "Well, at least I don't have to pull the covers back," she chuckled at his unmade bed as she tried to lighten the mood.

"Yeah," he whispered as he slowly sat down on the bed. When he was lying down he ran his hand over his face.

Faith sat down on the edge of the bed. She pulled the covers up to his waist, and placed her hand over his heart. "Things seem to have slowed down. How you doing?"

"I'm exhausted," he replied weakly.

"You just try and get some rest OK?" She placed a kiss on his forehead, and he closed his eyes.

He felt her movement as she got off the bed, and he quickly opened his eyes. "Where you goin'?" he asked in a panic.

"I'm just gonna get ready for bed. I'll be right back."

*****

Faith had her arm around Bosco's chest, and her head on his pillow as she lay next to him.  Her eyes were closed, but she couldn't sleep. His panic attack earlier had caused great concern. She knew he wasn't feeling well, but could that have caused the attack? It just didn't seem right to her.

Bosco couldn't sleep, but he kept his eyes closed. He didn't want Faith to know he was still awake. That attack earlier had scared him. The last time he had suffered from one of those was close to a year ago. What would cause one now? He was over all of that. He turned so he was facing Faith, and wrapped his arm around her. Maybe if he were closer to her this uneasy feeling would go away. She felt his arm wrap around her, and instinctively moved closer to his warm body.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed when she felt his arm twitch a couple of times, but didn't pay much attention to it until it turned into a constant tremor. Bosco felt it as well, and quickly removed his arm and rolled onto his back. Faith propped herself up, and looked him over. His eyes were open, but he wouldn't look at her.

His hands were resting on his chest, and she could see them shaking in the dim light from the street lamp outside. "Reese you're shaking. Are you cold?" Without waiting for an answer she pulled the covers up around his chin.

He was feeling incredibly nauseous, and wrapped his arms around his stomach. "Faith I don't feel so good."

"What's wrong?" She ran her hand through his hair.

Bosco swallowed hard. "My stomach," he groaned.

"Is it pain or are you nauseous?"

"Nauseous."

"I'll go see what you have in the medicine cabinet." She quickly got out of bed.

When she was out of the bedroom a cramp ripped through his abdomen, and he shot up in bed. "Oww," he cried out as he tried to will the pain to go away.

Faith ran back into the bedroom when she heard his shout. "Reese?!" She quickly made her way over to him. "What…?"

"Cramp," he said through clinched teeth. He tried to shift his body, but that only seemed to make it worse. "Oh gawd this hurts!"

As quickly as it came the cramp went, and Bosco laid back down. Faith pushed the sweat-matted hair off his forehead. "I'll be right back." He nodded and closed his eyes.

Faith stood in front of his medicine cabinet wondering what she should give him. There was a bottle of Pepto Bismol tablets on the middle shelf. "Tough guy can't handle the liquid he's gotta have the pills," she chuckled softly. "This should help with the nausea. I don't know what to do about the cramp," she thought as she lined up the arrows on the lid and the neck of the pill bottle. She held the tiny bottle in her right hand as she flipped off the lid with her thumb. The lid popped off, and skittered off the sink. She quickly grabbed for the falling lid, but wasn't able to catch it before it landed in the garbage can.

She bent down to pick the lid out of the trash when she saw the prescription bottle in the wastebasket. "He must have knocked this off the sink." She picked it up out of the trash.

Her eyes grew wide as she stared at the pill bottle.

It was empty.

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Author's Notes: This will be continued as another story :) Hope you are still enjoying it!