Of all the actors on Third Watch, Coby Bell (officer Ty Davis, Jr.) lived the closest to ground zero. He and his new bride, at home two blocks from the World Trade Center complex, woke to the sound of the first plane passing over their building. They thought a pilot had broken the sound barrier.
   About 10 minutes later, fellow cast member Jason Wiles (Officer Maurice "Bosco" Boscorelli) phoned to be sure they were OK -- and told them to turn on the TV. He was on the phone with Wiles again when the first building collapsed.
   "I was watching it on TV and then the TV went out. When the rumbling stopped, this big cloud of dust came whooping around the corner, and it was just like night," Bell says. "Absolute darkness."
   When the second tower collapsed, Bell's building lost electricity. At that point, he'd been joined by five strangers admitted by the doorman and told to go to higher floors where the air would be cleaner. Bell heard the conversation and invited them in.
   "I didn't know what to talk about or how to feel," Bell says. "It was all so surreal. I asked them if they wanted something to drink and we all made small talk. I remember one woman had become separated from her husband."
   Word came to evacuate the building. The Bells and their guests joined others boarding boats for Liberty State Park on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. Bell hasn't heard if the woman they met that day found her husband.
   It was almost three weeks before the Bells were allowed to return to their apartment. But not for long.
   "We actually considered moving before, but this made it definite," Bell says. "It's just the way things are here. You're constantly surrounded by it. Also, for convenience's sake, all of the subway stops we used to use are all closed. Now it's a long walk to get in and out of here."