This is... this. I got the inspiration from Exitium (GO READ IF YOU HAVEN'T. IT IS SO FREAKING GOOD). Dedicated to all the girls who pretty much yelled at me on Twitter to finish this. ;) I love you guys! Now go read.
She smiled faintly in the mirror. Her brown hair was swept out of her face elegantly and silver earrings sparkled in the light. A simple black dress hugged her body to her hips before cascading to mid-calf. Completing her outfit were a pair of little black heels and an intricately woven black sweater.
She was attending a funeral today, a funeral with two bodies. The carefully applied eye makeup was assuredly waterproof. Maybe the realization hadn't struck her yet, but it was going to. When she arrives at the viewing and looks at the limp figures… It was impossible to even imagine. There was just no way they were dead.
Still, she managed to grab her purse and meet her best friend in her living room. "Hey, Traci. How are you holding up?" she asked.
Traci just shrugged helplessly. "How do you do it, Andy? Stay so… together? I haven't slept in days. Whenever I close my eyes, I see them dying, all the blood… It should have been me. Leo doesn't need his mommy as much anymore. Jerry or Dex could have taken care of him. But… they had their whole lives ahead of them."
Andy smiled halfheartedly. "I know. I just keep thinking – what if our roles were reversed? Sam and I were originally assigned your place… What if it had been him, Traci?" She shook her head, curls bouncing against her shoulders.
Five days ago, a tip came in about a case they were working. The suspect, Aaron Abbott, had supposedly kidnapped a young girl from her school and hadn't been seen since. It was the blackout all over again. Only this time it wasn't Andy and Oliver going in – it was her best friends. She and Sam had been told they were going to investigate but he managed to convince them that surveillance was necessary. Thus changing everyone's assignments.
Traci's voice had come over the radio, screaming that shots had been fired. Best ordered Sam and Andy out of the van and on the scene, but by then it was too late. He wouldn't let her see the bodies, but instead had her search the house for the weapon. She found it discarded in a bathroom trash can. But even when they had finished everything up, he said something about going back to the barn, to start on paperwork. Apparently just being at the crime scene where a police officer was murdered is enough to end up ten inches under.
She figured it was just his way of protecting her, of keeping her off the front lines. Later, she found out that Luke had told him to make sure she didn't see the bodies. That was the really irritating part. She had stayed at Traci's that night, pouring out memories and wine.
"We should go. It wouldn't be right to be late, since we were their…" she trailed off. Traci nodded, batting her eyes to keep back the tears. They walked silently to the beat-up car out front, silently drove to the funeral home.
The families of the two deceased were already there, along with most of 15 Division. Only three or four people where expected to show – they had both written in their wills that they didn't want a huge, elaborate funeral. Sam smiled weakly to the two girls before wrapping his arms around Andy. In the comfort of his embrace, she let a pent-up sob out.
She and Luke had quietly broken up two days after the murders and Sam had been that go-to guy she desperately needed. It wasn't really fair but they had gotten used to unfairness in their relationship a long time ago. He was content to make sure she was happy, even if it killed him. That's what all the books say true love is – the willingness to make someone happy. No matter the personal cost. "You guys should sign the guestbook. Then we'll walk to see them together. Oliver and I just got here, so we haven't left the main hall yet," he mumbled against her hair. Neither wanted to break the embrace – both needed the other's comfort to get through this. As friends, partners, whatever they were: they had come to depend on each other.
So the little group made their way to the guestbook, read through the names, and signed their own. Then, they went into the viewing room. It was deathly quiet in the room with only whispered words spoken. Two more friends from 15 joined them by the caskets, eyes brimming with tears.
The two bodies lay in two separate caskets with about three feet between them. Andy went first to the woman's side. She didn't look much different in death than in life, since she was already so pale. The biggest differences were the absence of a scowl and her lips weren't reddened by lipstick. "Gail… I'm so sorry. It shouldn't have been you…" she whispered, fingers touching the glossy wooden side.
Andy had admired the platinum blonde, no matter how aggravating she was sometimes. Despite her white-shirt upbringing, she managed to make her own decisions and stand up to the assumption she would just be great. She would be great but not because her parents got everything for her. Andy wished she could be that strong, that defiant. Gail was also fiercely loyal, doing whatever it took to keep her friends safe. She was prepared to be killed to save a life months ago, right about after the evaluations. It was just wired in her brain to be that kind of wonderful, that kind of person. She would have made one of the best mothers to ever have walked the earth.
Tears made their way down her face and she wiped them away absentmindedly. She pressed her fingers to her lips and then held them out in a silent goodbye. Words had never been their strong point. What was physically said is always more important.
She turned away from Gail to the face that was a little more painful to see dead. The body had previously been tanner than Gail in life, but was now the color of snow. Dark hair was carefully combed just as it had always been. "Chris..." she mumbled, the tears flowing more freely now. Sam wrapped an arm around her waist, and together they silently said their goodbyes.
Chris was the rock of the rookie team. When Andy was headstrong and Traci was emotional and Dov was trying to prove himself and Gail was defiant, Chris was the glue that kept them from falling apart and falling off the edge. He was like the rain after a drought – quiet but so important and noticed. He never really got his shining moment, but instead spent all of his time righting his wrongs. If Luke and Sam hadn't been in the division, Andy probably would have fell for him just as Gail did. He had been a good cop and never should have gone out like this. They say it happens all the time, but Chris would have always been the baby, no matter how many rookies came after him. The four of them had been his mothers and now he was no longer with them. At least one of his mothers went along on the heaven-ward journey.
Andy moved away from Sam to join Traci and Dov. They wordlessly accepted her into a group hug. Some might say that five had gone to three, but it hadn't. It wasn't like Gail and Chris had never been there because they had been. It wasn't like they hadn't gone above and beyond the call of duty because they had. If anything, they were more than cops than they had been before. They were guardian angels, sent to protect Traci from the gunman, to take the bullets so she could live to take care of Leo.
One could ask what happened during the rest of the viewing, but they couldn't tell you; it passed in such a blur. At the funeral, everyone made really beautiful speeches, but the most spectacular one was Dov's:
"Chris was my best friend and my roommate. I couldn't tell you how many times we stayed up until three A.M. playing video games, even when we had class the next day. Definitely more than ten. Anyway, we found out we were both heading to Fifteen Division along with three of our girl best friends and couldn't have been more excited. I had always noticed a little something between Gail and Chris but never said anything. Maybe I should have – they would have had more time together. They fought like cats and dogs but at the end of the day, they were there for each other. And that's what's important."
The next day at the station, it was revealed that Traci and Gail went to the house as they were assigned to find Chris and Dov also assigned there. They broke down the door and searched the house, Gail with Chris and Dov with Traci. While the latter pair was searching the basement, the former took the upstairs. The suspect was in one of the upstairs bedrooms and shot the officers with the special cop-killing bullets. By the time the call was made and the paramedics arrived, it was too late. They died in each other's arms and when they went through Chris's pockets, an engagement ring was found.
Gail was buried wearing it.
In fact, they were buried side by side and inscribed on the caskets were the words: Chris and Gail Diaz. No one told whoever wrote it that they weren't married. But they may as well have been.
The saying that love never dies couldn't be truer than in the case of the partners, lovers, and friends that were Chris Diaz and Gail Peck.