The World According to Gail
A/N I love Gail. I think she was given the short straw. Luke is a douche, but he's our douche. This is just a tiny little drabble that was bouncing around in my head for awhile.
Gail was not a nice person. In fact, she would be the first to admit it. Hell, she was freaking proud of it. When your family and most of their friends are made up of cops, you aren't likely to be invited to the parties in high school or even to be lab partners. At an early age she decided that she wasn't going to give a crap about anyone besides herself. It was only when she deviated from her plan (yes, someone besides Andy has a plan) that everything fell apart.
Kicking at the bar stool, Gail toyed with her drink. Part of the reason she had asked Luke to a drink was that it was nice to have someone to hang out with that was just as messed up as she was. Plus he was eager to please, never a bad quality in a man.
"Uh…Gail?"
She smirked up at Luke and shoved the stool at him. "Sit. You're buying me several drinks and then you might get lucky."
Luke shifted from foot to foot, clearly uncomfortable as he glanced around the bar. He wasn't a popular person at the lately at the Penny. "I'm not really interested in…."
Gail sighed and grabbed his arm, forcing him to sit down. "Enough. All I want is to have a drink with someone outside of all the drama in 15. One beer without the Dudley Dooright twins swapping their BFF lockets while hailing their bromance as the best thing on the planet."
"I can do a beer." Luke chuckled softly. He looked over his shoulder to where Dov and Chris were trying to flick popcorn into their mouths. "Out of all the spiel they spout at the academy, there are some topics that should be mandatory."
"Like screwing your ex while engaged to someone else? Amazing how they left that out of the manual." Gail smirked.
Momentarily speechless, Luke distractedly paid for the beer placed in front of him.
"It's no secret, everyone knows." Gail held up a hand to stop him from speaking. "You guilted Andy into moving in with you when you knew she wasn't ready, didn't man up and confess the ring wasn't hers when she found it and then you proceeded to sleep with Jo- which by the way, was better than the pathetic school girl crush you had panting after her like a little a puppy with an excitability problem. But I don't care. Aren't you tired of feeling guilty?"
"Seriously?" Luke's snort made a couple of people turn around. "Are you? Didn't you cheat on Wonderboy over there with the kid?"
Raucous laughter erupted from the corner where Dov and Chris sat. Only someone paying close attention to her face would have seen the tiniest flicker of pain before it was gone. "Oh yes, poor mistreated Chris. How dare his girlfriend make an emotional connection with anyone besides himself."
"Huh," pushing his sleeves up to his elbows Luke leaned back to look Gail in the eye. "Emotional connection is what they're calling it these days?"
A smirk played at the corner of her mouth and Luke found himself thinking of the book Peter Pan and Mrs. Darling's hidden kiss. He flushed a little at the thought and dragged his eyes upwards, coming eye to eye with Gail.
"I don't like being pitied." Gail huffed. "And I don't like having people walk on eggshells around me."
Luke felt like he was stepping off a ledge with only a plastic bag as a parachute. "I don't pity you. Anyone who pities you is an idiot."
He watched her slowly toy with her drink, her foot tapping haphazardly to the music as she seemed contemplate the bar top.
Gail turned to Luke and nodded her head in the direction of the door. "Let's go."
Almost positive that he had screwed up somewhere in the conversation Luke finished off the last of his beer he tossed a couple of bills at the bartender. "Where to?"
Tossing a grin over her shoulder she walked out the door. "Don't you listen? You're going to get lucky tonight."
-End-
A/N Very random drabble I know. I have a couple of other ideas poking around so we shall see where it leads :)