Present Day Heroes (Preface)

The darkness still hadn't broke and Gail was beyond tired of waiting for it to. It had been seven hours…seven of the longest hours of her life and in less than thirty minutes, her six-week project would finally be over. She liked the sound of that…OVER; not particularly the project itself, she hadn't minded being on an undercover sting with Traci, but she had missed her regular, old life. Well, that was a lie too; she wasn't sure what she missed, she only knew that she wanted this sting to be over…

"There," Traci said in a hushed whisper. "He's going into there."

Gail's ice blue eyes searched through the darkness and settles on Sweeny White, the largest mover of illegal guns in the area, and nodded at Traci. They had him on a wiretap admitting to expecting a shipment tonight, but this wasn't why Gail was involved. She was here to pick up Sweeny's second-in-command on the kidnapping of his four year old daughter and the possible slaying of his ex-wife. She and Traci knew that they could only bust this case together and now it seemed like it was finally happening.

"We move on my count," Traci said. She tugged on her bulletproof vest and eyed Gail closely. "Are you ready?" Gail nodded her compliance. "Okay…let's go!"

Holly watched the movement of eager surprise and congratulations snake through the division halls with baited trepidation. She was relieved that the efforts of Traci and Gail's team had netted Sweeny White and his second-in-command, but having to work with Gail again was going to do nothing great for her mindset. It was difficult enough dating someone who worked in the line of fire daily; it was easily worse to "used to date" someone who is in the line of fire daily. And while Gail had been gone, things had gotten tenuously better for Holly. Everyone in the division had stopped treating her as if she were only Gail Peck's ex-girlfriend, and more of an actual independent person. But now all of that was for naught, because Gail Peck was on her way back and from what Holly understood, she would be receiving a hero's welcome. Just what Holly needed; for Gail's presence to be ever clearer in her mind.

Holly stopped walking and took a deep breath. It was useless to try and stop thinking about Gail. She had tried the first six months they separated. Now, two months after those six months, Holly felt that her every waking moment was spent thinking about Gail Peck in some way, shape or form.

"Excuse me…excuse me…Holly…" the girl smiling in front of her said again. Well, she really wasn't a girl, she was closer to twenty-six and she had joined the division about seven weeks earlier.

"Sorry," Holly frowned shaking the fog from her brain. "Am I in your way?"

"No…" the woman blinked twice and then smiled.

"Oh…" Holly shifted from one foot to the other. "You're Gabrielle, right?"

"Yeah, everyone just call me Elle though…" she was still smiling.

"Oh, Elle. Sorry for standing in your way," Holly offered her a smile. "How are you liking it so far? The new Division and all?"

"It's good so far. A lot less hectic than my old division if you can believe that."

"That's is kinda hard to believe," Holly laughed. She had heard through the grapevine that Elle had moved from Quebec to work with this division.

"Well…" Elle said a bit nervously, "I was wondering if you would maybe want to go out and have a drink sometime. I don't know a lot of people here…" she began.

Holly was a little stunned. Elle was a beautiful woman, with soft tan skin, big green eyes and long brown curls that were being held in a tight ponytail. Although Holly had never really looked at her that way, she was instantly attracted to Elle. Still, she could feel the ghost of Gail in her heart and how would that be fair to Elle? Still, how bad would a drink really be? "Sure…" Holly agreed after a moment.

Gail hated to admit to herself that the only reason she had gone back to the division that day was because Holly would be there. The bust had gone off without a hitch, and she and Traci were being hailed as heroes of the community for getting illegal guns off of the streets. Still, Gail had to admit that it all felt a bit…empty. She would end up at her apartment all alone and that was truly miserable. And she had found out the hard way that misery only led her to drink.

"Detective Peck," her mother smiled as she approached her daughter. Inspector Elaine Peck couldn't have been happier about the bust her daughter had taken part in. She was proving herself to be a great detective, and even better, someone worthy of the Peck name. "I hear that congratulations are in order," she stated coyly.

Gail tried to smile, but her attention had been stolen by the girl in front of Holly smiling. The two seemed to be having TOO GOOD of a conversation, therefore it obviously wasn't work related. "Gail, are you listening?" Inspector Peck asked as she turned to see what had stolen her daughter's attention. She groaned when she saw Holly behind her. "Your attention should be over her," Elaine forcefully reminded her daughter. It wasn't that Elaine disliked Holly, but Holly had a way of calming Gail and making her content, which didn't bode well for her daughter climbing the career ladder. Since she and Holly had been apart, Gail had taken her role as Detective seriously and it had shown. This was the fourth of five major bust that Gail had headed up in her department and for her efforts, the Division had never looked better. Elaine knew one day soon that Gail would beat her record of becoming Inspector by age forty. She was only twenty-eight now and a decorated Detective.

"Inspector…" Gail began, but proper words to tell her mother to stay out of her personal life failed her. Instead, she took in a deep breath and tried to compose some comprehendible statement.

"Gail, what are you doing here?" She was saved by the sound of Traci's voice. "I told you I would do the paperwork on the bust," Traci reminded her friend.

"You were where I was headed next," Elaine smiled. "You are doing an excellent job, Traci…you are going to make the Peck name proud soon…" Elaine said referring to Traci's impending nuptials to her son Steve. "Well, let me get out of my two 'supercops' way," Elaine smiled genuinely at Gail. This was something Gail never expected to see…a genuine sense of approval from her mother.

"Is it just me, or does it feel like the sky is falling?" Traci questioned lightly as Elaine walked away. But Gail was paying no attention. Her gaze was fixated on the fact that Holly and that girl seemed to be exchanging numbers.

"Who is that?" Gail asked ignoring Traci's banter.

"The new cop, Gabrielle Woods. You got an entire briefing package on her. I think she is joining your unit."

"Joining my unit?" Gail said with no real interest about that situation, but all of her focus was on the fact that Gabrielle was talking to HER girlfriend….

"She's not yours anymore," Traci chimed into her chain of thought. "Holly is not your girlfriend, Gail. So you can't gawk at her and look like a hurt puppy dog when she talks to another woman with any interest." Traci had begged and pleaded with her to stop the charade before she and Holly were really hurt, but Gail had failed to listen. She had broken Holly's heart and by extension, her own.

Gail narrowed her eyes and searched for any reasonable rebuttal. "Saying puppy and dog together is redundant Traci!" she snapped at her future sister-in-law before walking in the opposite direction of the monstrosity unfolding before her.