Title | Breathe In, Breathe Out
Fandom/Pairing | Rookie Blue, Luke/Gail
Word Count | 786
Rating | PG-13
Summary | A Fantasy Luke Sighting (hey_homicide lj) that takes place the next day after the "camping trip" on the roof.
Author's Note | I'm still in the grips of my Prison Break feels but I wanted to write something for the Fantasy Luke Sighting. (LUKE IS ALMOST BACK!)
"Gail."
"What?" She says with a mouth full, eyes bright blue in the daylight. It had been her turn to choose the location and she chose this tiny Mexican takeout place with outdoor seating. Luke tilts his chin towards her plate of super greasy fried food.
"Aren't you just coming off a cleanse?" He can remember the last time she went on one of her "juice" cleanses, can still taste it, the disgusting combination of flavors that in no way was natural, and is thankful she decided to spare him this time around.
"Yeah, so?" She shrugs, completely uninterested in his point and more interested in her food.
"Nevermind." He replies, the corner of his mouth lifting into a smirk. Wiping her mouth with a napkin, Gail reaches over for his three dollar beer, downing half of it in two gulps. He doesn't remember her being this hungry after the last cleanse, and suddenly starts to wonder if her unexpected invitation to lunch had some other purpose.
"Can I ask you a question?" Her voice comes out garbled as she shovels more food into her mouth, which he can now see is stress eating.
"Since when do you ever need permission?" He chuckles around his fork, trying to hide the unexpected rush of disappointment that comes with the knowledge he was right. There was something she wanted besides his company. He tries not to let it bother him too much, after all they were barely even friends. Just two people who sometimes ate lunch together.
"When you were cheating on Andy, how did you throw her off your scent?" Luke chokes on his food, her question coming somewhere out of left field.
"Excuse me?" He coughs out, watching as Gail takes another bite of her burrito completely nonplussed.
"When you were doing it 'Jo style', how did you keep it hidden from Andy?" This time she looks at him, eyes wide with curiosity, face completely untroubled as if she merely asked him for the weather forecast.
"I am not answering that." He says after a beat of uncomfortable silence, mostly on his end.
"I'm only asking cause," and this is when her eyes lower, her face changes, morphing into something he's only ever seen once before. "Cause I'm pretty sure Nick's cheating on me." His embarrassment immediately sparks into indignation. He doesn't like to admit it, especially to himself, but he has a soft spot for the blonde officer and the thought of someone hurting her sits badly in his stomach.
"What makes you think that?" His voice is sympathetic, but not overtly so. Gail always tended to shy away from such obvious displays of pity. So he treads carefully around this minefield. Prying too much will cause her to clam up, and strangely enough, he doesn't want that to happen.
"Woman's intuition."
Luke bites his lip to keep from smiling. He can still feel the punch she gave him the last time she thought he was making fun of her.
"Gail, I don't think woman's intuition will hold up in any court. You're gonna need something more substantial." Now her mask falls and he can see true emotion on her face.
"It's just something someone said to me." The uncertainty he glimpses bothers him. It doesn't sit well with someone of her personality and confidence.
"So it wasn't something you saw?" He asks, not realizing during the course of their conversation that he's unconsciously leaned closer to her, so much so that he can see the individual lashes on her eyelids. It's the closest they've been since that night months ago when they ran into each other at a bar out of town, her boyfriend still undercover. A moment of weakness they never talk about, although the memory of feather light kisses is never far when he's in her presence. And by the look in her eyes, the quick lowering of her eyes to his lips, he immediately knows that it's not far from her thoughts either.
Like a gate crashing down, her eyes suddenly close themselves off to him and she sits back. That's when he knows he's lost her.
Sighing tiredly, Gail pushes her plate away as if she's lost her appetite. "I'm just overreacting. She was just probably trying to get back at me for calling her a stalker." With a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes, Gail excuses herself and walks back into the restaurant, mumbling something about getting more beer over her shoulder.
Watching her disappear into the dark restaurant, his anger towards Collins turns inwards. He can't help but feel like this had been a test of some kind, and he has failed miserably.