Prompt - Charles Darwin Day
Valentines Day was just two days away, and Gail's palms were sweating as she entered the room. Not even the chill of the morgue could stop the heat that was creeping up her chest, and coloring her ears as she looked at the most wonderful person she had ever met, and until last year, was sure she would never see again. Holly walked back into her crime scene one day and into her life one day, when when Dr. Harold Duponte, or Dr. Hal (Short for Dr. Halitosis) as she liked to call him retired suddenly, thank God! Dr. Hal smelled like stale B.O., and rancid coffee and sardine breath. If she had to work one more case with him standing way too close, and breathing on her, she had been considering which autopsy tool she could grab and use to put herself out of her misery as quickly as possible. Not only did Holly smell far better, but Gail wouldn't mind if she stood much closer too.
"Come on Gail!" Traci had pushed her, "It's Valentine's day, and if you don't tell her how you feel she will find someone who will."
They had decided to just be friends, after a few awkward moments.
"Ok, ok!" She had agreed against her better judgement, "But what if she says no?"
"Gail, if things get any hotter when she looks at you, she is going to set your desk on fire." Traci said, waving her hand dismissively in Gail's direction as she walked away laughing.
Gail sighed. Being with Holly was so easy. There were nights playing Trivia at the Penny, and watching old horror movies on Holly's couch, and going to the batting cages, or to the arcade, or to the diner, that ended up with one or the other of them sleeping over, but they were still just friends. And Traci was maddeningly right. She was feeling so much more than friendly.
Gail paused for a moment in the doorway of Holly's lab, watching her friend bent intently over something on her desk. God, she was beautiful!
"What are you doing?" She asked, as she watched Holly adjust her glasses and scowl with deep concentration.
"Hey you!" Holly looked up with a smile, "What are you doing here?"
"I was wondering what you were doing for.." Gail's breath caught ing her throat, she licked her lips, "you know" She fidgeted as her heart raced, "the holiday?"
"It is my favorite holiday!" Holly exclaimed, with a smile that lit up the room.
"It is?" Gail replied, suddenly wondering if the pod people had captured her friend.
"Yes! I'm even wearing this to celebrate!" Holly said, as she stood up and opened her lab coat to reveal a weird little fish with legs and arms on a button on the lapel of her shirt, "Isn't it cool?" She gushed
"Umm, ok…" She scowled, wondering what that nerdy little tool holding fish had to do with Valentine's day.
"Did you know that he would be one hundred and ninety nine today?" Holly practically bubbled.
"Oh, really?" she said, trying to sound nonchalant, "I did not know that."
"Uh huh!" Holly just laughed happily as she took a step closer, touching Gail's arm, and sending her heart rate through the roof.
"You are such a nerd!" She exclaimed, as the realization of what Holly was talking about dawned on her. Gail rolled her eyes, trying not to stare at Holly's lips, and she knew what she had to do.
"What are you doing Gail?" Holly's voice floated across the lab just as Gail placed the last crime scene photo on the examination table.
"Well Holly," She spun around hooking her thumbs through her belt loops, "I thought we could celebrate Darwin's birthday by giving out an award to the top losers who most spectacularly removed themselves from the gene pool in the year you have been back"
Swaggering right up into Holly's personal space she watched Holly's eyes dilate and darken before she held up a little plastic fish with legs and wiggled it in Holly's face.
Holly laughed, "You are insane."
"So you like to tell me." She replied, clearing her throat as a flash back of Holly kissing her for the first time played in slow motion behind her eyes.
"So…" She turned quickly back to her display, "Remember this?" She held up a photograph of a Subaru Forrester being fished from the ice covered lake.
"Uh huh. Last January, right after I got back here." Holly stated, neglecting to mention the shock she remembered having at running into Gail for the first time at the perimeter. Remembering how Gail's eyes could still take her breath away, "Gina Costello and David Andersen." Holly smirked, "Their deaths were ruled accidental after they forgot to put their manual shift car in gear and the break on when they parked at the end of the pier. Apparently the movement they created while attempting to procreate in the back seat of that car, was enough to send the vehicle rolling over the edge and into the icy water below."
"Thank goodness they succeeded in taking themselves out of the gene pool before they managed to spawn! Losers!" Gail rolled her eyes, ""Intelligence is based on how efficient a species became at doing the things they need to survive. What do you think?" She wiggled the plastic fish at Holly again.
"I don't know," Holly smirked, "What else have you got?"
Gail held up a photograph of a mangled, naked, white male body, clearly at the Toronto Zoo, and said, "An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men."
"Jonathan Black, Twenty two year old student and UTO, who decided to go swimming with Cubby the Polar Bear after drinking what looked like a case of beer and some vodka, we can only guess by the number of beer cans and the empty vodka bottle we found next to his neatly folded clothes." Holly rattled off at her, neglecting to tell her that watching Gail gently deal with Cubby's distraught caretakers nearly broke her heart all over again.
Gail nodded, "But you saved Cubby's life!" She said, her chest filling with warmth that could only be described as pride and affection.
"Well," Holly blushed, It would have been much harder if Johnathan's blood alcohol levels weren't hovering around a five point oh, and he hadn't hit his head and drowned before Cubby ever touched him.
"Loser!" Gail said and moved closer to Holly.
"And," Holly said, while moving so she was right next to Gail, and their shoulders were touching, "This next one was just last month."
"That's right." Gail replied, fighting to keep her voice steady as goosebumps ran up her body at Holly's light touch on her arm.
"Christopher Hummel, Age thirty one, and employee at the Nirvana Oxygen Bar" Holly shook her head, "You know, this may be the one." She turned to smile wickedly at Gail. "You would think that after working at an oxygen bar for three years he would have known better than to attempt to light up a joint in an oxygen tent."
Gail laughed, "Yeah, well, ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."
Holly reached out and held Gail's hand that was holding the little plastic fish. "Do you keep quoting Darwin at me?" She asked in a hushed tone.
"Maybe." Gail replied, realizing how close Holly's face was to hers, and how dark and bottomless Holly's eyes had become.
And then Holly closed the gap between them, and Gail swore she saw stars.
As they pulled apart she whispered, "I was going to ask you on a date for Valentines Day because I can't keep just being your friend."
"Mmmm…" Holly hummed back at her, and replied, "It is not the strongest of the species that survives,
not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change."
Before leaning in to kiss her again, full and deep.