She realized she was running through the corridor to get to Gail. Gail was standing between two men, and she was clad in full uniform and jacket. She looked beyond worried and Holly wanted to be there as soon as possible to give Gail a shoulder to lean on. She wanted nothing more than to pull her into an embrace and tell her everything would be okay. However, she stopped her jog just short of crashing into Gail because she did not wish to force any contact upon Gail—she knew very well that was not the way Gail communicated. She could see that tears filled Gail's eyes. To her surprise, Gail immediately pulled her into a long and tight embrace.
She quietly said, "I'm really glad you're here" before pulling herself out of the embrace.
Holly showed her a lopsided grin and adjusted the glasses on her face as Gail introduced Holly to Chris and Steve. She very quietly said "Hi" and smiled at both of the men and then over to Gail. They made their way over to a bank of chairs in the waiting room and sat in silence. Holly was staring down at her shoes she felt a soft and somewhat chilly hand grasp hers as Gail pulled her hand onto the blonde's knee. Gail looked at her out of the corner of her eye and bowed her head again waiting in anticipation for any news on Swarek's condition. Holly sat beside her, holding her hand tightly. She was Gail's stoic front at the moment—the only moment Gail was not completely falling apart after a few very bad days. When the doctor rounded the corner into the waiting area Frank jumped up to talk to him and the rest of the officers got to their feet, as well. Gail stood up reluctantly releasing Holly's warm hand and waited for the response. When it was decided that Andy would go back to see Sam Gail and Holly returned to their seats.
"Did you drive your car here?" Gail whispered.
"Yes" replied Holly softly.
"I need you to get me out of here" Gail responded pleadingly.
Holly nodded and reached into her pocket for her car keys. She stood up and pulled Gail up with her. They walked through the automatic double glass doors of the all-too-bright waiting room and into the darkness of the night. Gail breathed a sigh of relief to get out of the hospital. Not because she did not care about what happened to her fellow officers, but because she was so mentally and physically drained. Gail opened the door and sat down in the passenger seat. Her brain seemed to have shut off for a moment because she suddenly heard,
"…ail, Gail" which shook her back into consciousness.
"Hmm?" she murmured back.
"How do I get to your apartment? How do I get you home?"
Gail sat for a moment in silence, seemingly contemplating this question with far too much thought. Holly patiently waited for her response in the driver's seat, giving Gail all the time she needed.
"Just take me home." Gail finally responded.
"I don't know how to get there from here…which is why I was asking" Holly responded unwearyingly.
"No, I mean to your home. Please. I need you right now. I don't want to be alone." Gail responded with her head hung low staring at her hands which had begun fiddling with one another.
Holly nodded and turned the key in the ignition and headed toward her apartment building. She let a silence settle over the car—knowing Gail needed it. She checked over to the passenger side of her car several times on the way home to ensure that Gail was all right. When she pulled into her designated parking spot next to her apartment unit she cut the engine. She noticed Gail still was not responding. Holly gingerly placed her right hand on top of Gail's balled up hands. Gail noticed her once freezing hands were now being covered up by a warm one and looked up from her legs and into Holly's eyes. Holly ventured to speak,
"We're here, would you like to go inside now?" she asked tentatively.
Gail merely nodded and removed her hands from the warm bundle to open her door. She stepped out into the cold Toronto air and proceeded around to the front of the car where she melt Holly who had just used her clicker to lock her car. The beep startled Gail and Holly smiled at her apologetically. She led Gail to the door of her unit and deftly unlocked it leading them into the building. Gail stepped through the doorway and was immediately hit with the warmth of the apartment.
"May I take your coat?" She heard Holly's question and slowly shrugged out of her coat.
She felt as if she was removing a breastplate of armor. Her coat had been her safe zone throughout the day and she had never taken it off at the hospital either. Gail figured she did not need this safe zone any longer. She was safe with Holly and within the home that smelled of her.
"Can I get you anything? Water? Tea?" Holly asked nervously.
Gail pursed out her lips and shifted her eyes upward. After approximately ten seconds she responded,
"I could use a shower, actually, if that's okay" Gail offered.
"Sure, yes, of course. Follow me."
Gail followed Holly to the bathroom and turned on the water for her. She disappeared into her bedroom and grabbed Gail some soft and comfortable jammies. She snatched two towels for Gail out of the linen closet and returned to the bathroom. She knocked lightly and peeked around the door to find Gail only wearing her black undershirt and a pair of black panties. Holly instantly bit her lip and averted her eyes. Gail smirked for the first time that evening at Holly's embarrassment.
"It's okay, Hol. Thank you for the towels and pajamas." Gail chuckled lightly as Holly smiled her lopsided half-grin at her.
"I'll be out on the, on the um, on the couch." Holly managed to stutter out a reply as she hastily closed the door.
Holly meandered through her apartment, opened her fridge, poured herself a glass of water and ambled to her couch. She took a swallow of the water and placed it on a coaster on the table in front of her. She found she was quite nervous at having Gail in her apartment. She recognized that in some small way something in their relationship had shifted with that kiss in the interrogation room and the hug at the hospital. She was not exactly sure where they stood, however. This ambiguity was a fact that her logical brain refused to accept. She knew when she placed the short kiss on Gail's lips in the coat room of Frank and Noelle's wedding that there was a spark between her and Gail that she had not fully realized up until that point. It was one of the reasons she left the wedding to go dancing. She was all at once surprised and delighted by her rash action and Gail's lips moving back against hers, however briefly. Then there was the night at the Penny. She looked up from the booth where she was sitting with her date and into the blazing blue eyes staring daggers back at her. At this point she decided she and her date should go elsewhere. The fact of the matter was she only accepted this setup because her feelings for Gail were so muddled. She realized in the interrogation room that perhaps she was not feeling these emotions utterly alone. Then she was rebuked when she checked on Gail at the station, which left her swimming in vacillation once again. Yet here Gail was, in the shower, in her apartment because she told Holly she needed her. The recollection of the utterance in the car caused Holly's heart to skip a beat and her breath to hitch. She lifted her legs off the floor and pulled them into her chest.
She heard the bathroom door open and Gail strode out in Holly's clothes with wet hair dripping on her shirt. It was all Holly could do not to stare at the beautiful woman striding towards her. She was breathtakingly gorgeous in such a simple outfit with wet hair. Holly unconsciously bit her lip and looked down at her knees. She felt a sudden dip in the couch next to her and turned to her right to see Gail sitting beside her.
"Was your, was your shower okay?" Holly inquired, as she smelled her shampoo and body wash on Gail.
"Mmm" and a soft smile was the only reply she received.
The two women sat in silence on the couch for a few minutes. Abruptly, Gail leaned over Holly and reached for her water glass on the table. Seeing Gail stretched over her like that made Holly's mind go blank and her body go rigid. She sighed at the loss of contact when Gail returned to her spot on the couch, clutching Holly's water glass. Gail promptly finished off the glass of water and looked over to Holly.
"Sorry, I hope you don't mind" she said quietly.
"Oh, n-no. Of course not." Why did she always turn into a stuttering mess around Gail recently?
"Holly…" Gail started, faintly. "Thank you, for being here for me."
"Always" Holly responded without a second thought.
"I'm exhausted" mentioned Gail offhandedly trying to shake a yawn away.
"Oh, right, of course you are. Um, well the couch is here and my bedroom is down the hall." Holly managed to say.
Gail stood up languidly, placed the glass back on the coaster and proceeded to stroll down the hall. Holly sat silently watching her drift away. Not knowing where she was going to sleep she sat there in quiet deliberation. She did not wish to assume Gail wanted to share a bed with her—even if that bed was her own. She was just pulling the throw blanket on the back of the couch over herself when she heard words softly called from the bedroom
"Holly, you coming to bed?"
She cursorily replaced the throw back on the couch, walked down her hallway, entered her bedroom and closed her door. Smiling to herself when she saw the beautiful girl that she cared so much about snuggled up under her down comforter.