Not a doctor and I don't know much about bulletproof vests, so just go with it! Hope you enjoy the one-shot!
"Officer down, I repeat, Officer down! Officer needs assistance!" Oliver yelled into his radio as he looked down at his blonde partner.
"I'm fine, Shaw!" Gail managed to spit out as she tried to sit up before Oliver pushed her back down.
"You're not, Peck. It missed your vest, you're hit." He said shakily as he started putting pressure on her bullet wound that was sitting near the top of her vest.
"Holly's gonna kill me. I'm supposed to meet her parents tonight." Gail said slowly, out of breath by the end of it.
"She'll be okay as long as you're okay."
"Yeah." She whispered, her eyes starting to flutter.
"Peck, come on, Peck!" Oliver shouted at her before he grabbed his radio again, "Where the hell is my back up and ambulance? She just lost consciousness and there's so much blood! Get me some help, now!"
Holly walked into the Police Station with a big smile on her face, looking around for Gail. After 6 months of dating, she was introducing the sarcastic blonde to her parents; they had reservations at an Italian restaurant in town in two hours.
Holly was supposed to pick Gail up from the station, and then they were heading back to her apartment to get ready.
The brunette frowned when she noticed the hurrying of the officers and the frantic looks on their faces.
"What's wrong, Traci?" She asked when she saw the detective storm by with a radio.
"Officer down." She said shortly, stopping before the radio buzzed to life in her hand, "Hurry that damn ambulance, she's losing too much blood!"
"Traci, please tell me that's not Oliver." Holly said with tears forming in her eyes.
"I'm sorry, Holly." Was all Traci could say before she was interrupted by the radio again.
"Ambulance just got here. Traci, grab Holly and meet us at the hospital; it's bad." Oliver said, followed by a whisper from Gail, "Tell Holly-" Was all they heard before the radio clicked off since he didn't want everyone to hear what she was saying.
"Come on, Holly. We'll get you to the hospital." Traci said as she placed a hand on Holly's back.
The brunette had tears streaming down her face and had taken her glasses off to wipe her face when she turned to Traci.
"She'll be okay, right?"
"Of course she will, Holly. It's Gail we're talking about, alright? You know how stubborn she is and how much she loves you. She wouldn't let anything take her away from you, not now."
"Oliver! How is she?" Traci asked as they ran into the ER waiting room.
Holly gasped when she saw Oliver; he had now dried blood on his hands and uniform and looked thoroughly shaken up.
"I don't know. They took her straight back a little while ago, I haven't heard anything yet. She regained consciousness for a few seconds though; she wants you to know that she loves you, Holly." He said as he looked at the brunette who nodded solemnly.
"Why don't you go wash up, I'm sure they won't come out with news until you get back." Traci suggested.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll go do that. I didn't even notice." He said as he looked down at his partner's blood on his hands.
"Why don't we sit down, Holly?" Traci suggested as she pulled the brunette into a chair, "Do you want me to call your parents or something and let them know what happened? That you can't make dinner tonight?" She asked quietly, rubbing the brunette's back.
"You knew that we were having dinner tonight?" She questioned, surprised.
"Yeah. Gail's been freaking out all week; she made me come up with practice questions to ask her as if I were your parents. She wanted to be prepared; didn't want to let you down." She said with a short laugh.
"That sounds like Gail." Holly smiled slowly.
"You've been amazing for her, you know? She never showed emotion, never got excited about anything other than her work. You changed that. When she found you, she found herself."
"She's an amazing person."
"She is, and she always has been, she just shows it even more now. She talks my ear off about you, and she's never done that with anyone before."
"Really?"
"Yeah. And just the other week when you were at that pathology conference in Vancouver, she came to the Penny with us like old times. She literally just sat there going 'I miss Holly,' and 'I miss Holly, what do you think she's doing right now?' Then someone at the bar ordered white wine and she just looked at it going 'Holly loves white wine.'"
"I was definitely behaving the same at my conference."
"She slept at my place that night because she said she didn't like being alone anymore. You've turned her into a sap." Traci said with a smirk. "It makes me love her even more though; I always knew she had that in her, she just needed to find the right person."
"And you think I'm the right person?"
"Oh, without a doubt."
"Holly!" Elaine Peck said as she rushed towards her daughter's girlfriend.
"Elaine, hi." The brunette said, standing up quickly.
"How's my daughter? Have you heard anything?"
"No, not yet. It's been about 20 minutes so far." She said, looking around the waiting room at all of the off duty police officers that were now congregating there.
Almost four months ago, Gail had gotten tired of her mom trying to set her up with any guy she could find, so she finally brought Holly to a family dinner one night as 'the person she was dating.' Her mom was thrilled because she thought it was going to be one of the many men that she had set her up with.
However, when Gail walked in, followed by Holly, she was surprised to say the least, but was on her best behavior in front of company.
Holly stepped out to take a call for a few minutes since she was on call for work that night, and as soon as she left the room, Gail turned to her mother expectantly. Knowing that she would have something to say.
"Well?" The blonde asked her mother.
"I can't say I'm completely surprised you brought a girl home, I've always wondered. She's very sweet though, and a doctor. That's always a plus."
"Yes, she's incredibly intelligent and an amazing person. Do you approve of me dating her, or should I just leave now before it gets ugly? Because we don't need to deal with that."
"Stay. I'd like to get to know her more."
Needless to say, it had gone way better than Gail had expected it to and Elaine had actually taken quite a shine to Holly; she thought that the brunette was excellent for Gail.
"So what happened tonight, Officer Shaw?" Elaine Peck asked once they were all sitting down waiting for news.
"Well we were heading back to the station to clock out when we got one last call for the evening and decided to take it since it was on the way back to the barn. It was a domestic disturbance; neighbors called it in. Before we could even knock, this guy came barging out the door, shooting at us. Gail stepped in front of me and he shot her, couldn't have been more than 5 feet away from us. She got a bullet in his shoulder though before she got shot and I got him in the leg. So he should be turning up in some hospital somewhere."
"Did she look alright though? Aware and conscious?" The Superintendent asked.
"No, ma'am. She did for about a minute; even tried to sit up. But once I opened her vest I saw how much blood she was losing and started putting pressure on it. She was still talking for a bit, but it was really shaky and she was out of breath. Then she just stopped talking. Finally right as the ambulance got there, she woke up for about 30 seconds, but then started coughing up blood on the way to the hospital."
"What? She was coughing up blood?" Holly asked suddenly after not hearing that part earlier.
"Yeah, I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. It slipped my mind I guess."
"Dammit." She whispered, a fresh batch of tears coming to her eyes.
"How bad is that?" Elaine asked quietly.
"Well it's not good. It means severe internal bleeding for sure, so surgery is definitely happening."
Just as Elaine was going to ask another question, a doctor walked out.
"Blood relatives of Officer Peck?" The doctor asked since he knew that all of the police officers were 'family.'
"Here." Elaine said as she stood up, pulling Holly with her.
"Your daughter has some very serious internal injuries at the moment. The bullet went through her shoulder and managed to travel downwards through her spleen, so we'll likely have to remove both the bullet and the spleen. We've already had to do a blood transfusion and will almost certainly have to do at least one more. Surgery could be up to 3 hours or more depending on how extensive her injuries are once we get in there. I'll send someone out periodically to give you an update."
"Thank you, doctor." Elaine said, shaking his hand.
"Oh, is there a Holly Stewart here?"
"That's me." Holly said shakily, raising her hand.
"Miss Stewart, you've been named as Officer Peck's Advance Directive and Power of Attorney, so you're in charge of what medical decisions are made and signing some paperwork. Can you come with me, please?"
"Uh, sure. Of course." She answered, not knowing that Gail had updated her information to make Holly the one in charge of her medical decisions should the blonde be unable to do it herself.
"We need you to sign some paperwork for us. Specifically the DNR." The doctor said as he grabbed Gail's chart.
"Do not resuscitate?" She asked, taken aback.
"Yes. You just need to check one of the boxes as to whether you want us to resuscitate or not if it comes to that."
"Definitely resuscitate, but if it's gotten to a point when you still haven't gotten her back and you're worried about brain damage, then let her go." The brunette said, choking back a sob. "She doesn't want to live if she can't be herself and take care of herself." Holly said, remembering the night that Gail had brought up what should happen if she were to be in a health emergency.
"Understood. We'll do the best we can, Miss Stewart, I assure you that much."
"Thank you."
Holly made her way to the bathroom quickly, shutting and locking the door before she started sobbing into her hands.
More than 5 hours later, Gail had miraculously pulled through surgery, being the fighter that she is. She had coded twice on the table, but they managed to get her back quickly.
Most of the officers had been told to go home, but a handful of them where still there, telling funny Gail stories to make everyone laugh a little.
Holly was definitely enjoying them, since she hadn't heard most of them before.
The doctor walked out to tell them that she was finally able to be seen by family members only, causing Holly to frown slightly. He did say that Gail would be knocked out from the anesthesia for at least another few hours.
Elaine and Steve both went to see Gail together, coming back about 10 minutes later.
"I think we're both going to head home for the night and come back when she's awake in the morning, you should all do the same." Elaine said as Steve nodded.
All of the officers said their goodbyes before Traci, Steve, Elaine, and Holly were the only ones left.
"Are you going to see her, Holly?" Elaine asked.
"I thought it was family only?"
"Honey, you are family. I'm glad that Gail found you; I like you a lot more than that tool, Nick Collins, she was engaged to for a while." Elaine said bluntly, causing Traci, Steve, and Holly to snort out a laugh.
"Thank you, Elaine. I think I'll spend the night in her room if that's okay."
"Are you sure? I can wait for you to visit her and then drop you off at your place." Traci said, since they had driven to the hospital together.
"That's alright; I'd rather stay here, thanks though."
"Alright, well call us if anything changes." Elaine said as she brought Holly into a hug.
Somewhere around 3am, after the initial shock of seeing a lifeless looking Gail connected to so many wires wore off, Holly managed to fall asleep with her hand on top of Gail's and her head on the bed. Between 6 and 7am, Holly felt something brush her head lightly; she quickly lifted her head and saw that it was Gail's hand.
"Hi Hol." The blonde croaked out as Holly stood up and offered her some water.
"I didn't miss dinner with the parents, did I?" Gail asked weakly.
"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're here. How do you feel?"
"Like a bullet played pinball with my organs." She said dryly, earning a chuckle from Holly.
"I'm so glad that you're okay. You gave us quite a scare there, baby." Holly said as she brushed some hair out of Gail's face.
"I didn't mean to."
"I know you didn't, sweetie. It's not your fault; you were just proving that you always have your partner's back. I'm proud of you." She said as Gail gave a slight smile.
"But if you ever do that again, I'll kill you. Understood?" Holly said sincerely, not wanting to go through that whole ordeal all over again.
"Yes sir, Dr. Stewart, sir." Gail joked as she closed her eyes.
"There's the Gail I know and love." Holly said, leaning over to deposit a kiss on Gail's cheek.
"You missed, Hol." Gail said, eyes still closed.
Holly smirked before quickly leaned back over and gave her a short kiss on the lips.
"That'll do for now. Oh, and I love you too." Gail said slowly, "Quick question?"
"Yeah, babe?"
"I don't still have to meet your parents, do I?"
"I don't get why you're so against meeting them, Gail. I met yours." Holly pointed out.
"I'm aware, but you're good with people, and parents. Can you just introduce them to me on our wedding day? Then they won't have a chance to get you to change your mind about me." Gail suggested, surprising even herself by bringing up marriage.
"Let me think about it...no. But we can hold off for a few months at least."
"Glad to hear it."
"So, our wedding day, huh?" Holly brought up with a huge smile.
"Don't get too excited until there's some crystalline carbon structure on your ring finger, nerd. Or whatever the science-y name for a diamond is." Gail said with a smirk as Holly's face almost shattered with the size of her smile.
Thanks so much for reading and reviewing! Hope you liked it!
