A/N: Yeah, I didn't like how suddenly Holly returned, then I had an idea and I went with it... There'll be second chapter from Holly's POV in the next couple of weeks.
(Also, side note, WTF happened with the UK election today!? I woke up expecting a hung parliament and instead there was a majority Tory vote AND three party leaders quit dsfjksdf)
John Doe had started ruining her day the second she found him or more specifically the second she tripped over his dead body. Gail knows she can't really blame him (not yet), because he probably didn't deserve being stabbed to death in an abandoned apartment, but if he could have been stabbed anywhere but in the building she was clearing for demolition then she wouldn't be standing in the medical office with him. In Holly's medical office. With Holly. The same Holly she had been ignoring for weeks.
"I've missed you." The look Holly gives her is scathing, but she remains silent and really she knows she deserves it. She also deserves the lack of warning Holly gives her when she cracks through the ribs of John Doe's body.
"Should I even be in here for this?" Again Holly just stares at her over her goggles, holding out the cutters for Gail to take and drop back onto the table.
"Pass me the saw." It's only the fourth sentence the brunette has muttered to her and she's sure that the answer is no, she's not meant to be in here, and that the brunette is just using it to scare her off coming down to the lab ever again.
"I mean it Holly, I've missed you, and I know I messed up-"
"Gail, you ignored my calls for weeks, you wouldn't even talk about what happened, I'm not interested with being in a relationship with a child." She flinches at the sound of the saw slamming on the table next to John Doe, and Holly walks away towards her desk, snapping off her gloves and plastic apron on the way.
"I'm seeing someone else." Her stomach sinks and she's glad that Holly is still facing away from her so she has the chance to blink back the tears. It was something she thought might eventually happen, that Holly would move on without her, but it hurts that it could have happened so quickly when Holly is still the only thing she can think about.
"Oh right."
"Look Gail it's only recent, but she's..."
Gail freezes when she hears it, the muffled 'pop pop pop' that sounds a lot like a gun firing. She can see Holly still moving her hands in her peripheral vision as she continues talking, but she's looking away her ears straining to pick out the popping sound again.
"Are you even listening to me?" She glances back to the agitated brunette.
"No." Holly looks angry, but it's not her face she concentrating on, it's the person walking past Holly's window that catches her attention. The person holding a gun. The person who's just spotted her and has started raising said gun.
"Holly get down!"
She doesn't really think, and maybe she should, because whilst dying a hero does make a good story, it's rarely a good story for the person who dies. It works though, because she's throwing herself into Holly and tackling her to the floor just in time for the glass into Holly's office to explode with gun fire. The glass falls over her as she protects Holly from the falling shards with her own body and she gasps in a desperate breath, because Holly must have elbowed her in the ribs on the way down and it's a struggle to pull in any oxygen.
The gunfire is still sounding from outside, but relief washes over her when she realises it starts to instantly move away from them, but she won't take a chance, not with Holly at risk.
"Come on get up." Gail's standing, surprised at how winded her voice sounds, but the brunette doesn't move, she just stares up at her with frightened eyes. There isn't time for this, the shooters could be back at any second so she takes matters into her own hands, grabbing onto the back of Holly's jacket and pulling her into the medical supply room at the side of her office, slamming the door behind them.
It's a strong door, and it's horrible, but she remembers joking with Holly once that if they were ever laid siege to it would be perfect to hide behind. The lock on the inside flicks across and she immediately turns to kneel in front of the brunette taking her face in her hands to search it for injury.
"Are you ok?" Her eyes continue scanning, looking down at Holly's white coat, her clothes, looking for any sign of damage.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Her brown eyes are still wide with fear, the skin on her face pale, and Gail relaxes, because she's in shock, but she's not hurt. "What the hells going on?" She lets out a sigh and finally drops her hands from her face, because she knows it's a comfort she's not entitled to anymore.
"No idea, I don't think it was anything to do with our John Doe though." The pain in her ribs is throbbing, and she sits down next to the brunette, cautious to leave some space between them. She tries to do it gently, but a groan of pain still spills past her lips.
"Are you ok?" Holly's not looking at her, her eyes still drilling into the locked door where the muffled sounds of gunfire are coming from. That's when it catches her attention, the little hole in the side of her jacket, she follows it through with her finger to the solid material of her flak jacket right on top of where the pain in her ribs radiates from.
"No, I've been shot." She fingers the little hole in the flak jacket and feels the smooth metal of the back of the bullet.
"What?" Holly's eyes are on her then, pulling back the side of her jacket. "Oh God Gail."
The jerking movement causes another groan to pass her lips and she pulls the material back out of Holly's hand. "It's fine."
"Gail it's not fine." Her hands reach for the jacket again, but she pushes herself up onto her feet again to avoid them.
"The bullets in the jacket, the worst I've got is a couple of broken ribs." The pain is still throbbing and she stretches out her side to try and relieve some of the pressure.
Holly's instantly on her feet, pulling on both sides of her jacket this time. "Take it off I need to look at it." And in any other situation she would have rolled with, she would have told Holly she missed how forwards she used to be when asking to take off her clothes, but the silence outside catches her attention.
"The gunfire's stopped."
The jacket falls back into place and Holly's arms limply fall away from her as Gail walks to the door, pushing her ear to it. She knows it's something that Holly isn't going to agree with, but she needs to go outside. Gently she pulls her gun out of it's holster, looking back at Holly as she reaches for the lock. "What? Gail what the hell are you doing?"
She drops her eye contact, "I need you to lock the door behind me, I'll send someone to get you."
"Gail, no, you can't go out there." Holly's back next to her again, her hands covering Gail's on the lock and if this had been just a few minutes earlier she would have revelled at the contact.
"Holly, I have to ok, I don't know if there's any other officers in the building, people might need help."
"Then let me come with you, I can help if they're injured." There's a pleading look in Holly's eyes, and she knows Holly still cares, she knows that even though things have clearly ended between them for good now the feelings she had before were still real.
"No, this is what I do Holly, if it's safe I'll send someone for you. Until it's safe. Stay. Here." She pulls back the lock and Holly's hand finally pulls away from hers. "No matter what you hear, lock the door behind me ok?"
It surprises her to see tears in Holly's eyes, but she nods her response weakly.
The silence outside the door is eerie, and she eyes the room carefully before pushing through, glad when she hears Holly sliding lock back across the door behind her. She winces at the crunch of glass underneath her feet.
There's no one in the corridor outside and she's barely stepped out into it before she hears the heavy running coming down the corridor at the end off the hallway and she quickly throws herself back round the corner of Holly's office, pressing her body desperately against the wall out of sight. There's two of them, both with semi automatic weapons and she steps out behind them, waiting the few seconds it takes for the lead runner to get around the corner before firing on the trailing man hitting him square in the back sending his weapon skidding across the floor out of his grip.
She's off her feet and falling backwards before her mind can even comprehend that the other shooter is back around the corner and she can hear shouting and more gunfire. It's hazy and she thinks maybe she passes out for a while, because the next thing she's aware of is how blurred her vision has become and that someone is gently shaking her.
"Peck!" Oliver's face gradually comes into focus above hers. "Are you ok darling, where were you hit?"
"Chest, again, ow I think I broke some more ribs."
"There's no blood, but you're now evidence." She lets out a breathless laugh and he helps her shuffle onto the stretcher that's been placed next to her.
"Holly." She quickly grabs his arm before they can start wheeling her away. "She's in the closet."
"I assume you mean physically." He smiles down at her and squeezes her hand back before shouting over to one of the officers. "Hey, there's a Holly Stewart in there, mind getting her out."
The stretchers moving down the hall with Oliver following along side her before she can see the door open and if Holly tries to find her afterwards nobody tells her and she refuses to ask. The x-rays confirm five broken ribs, two from the first hit and three from the second, but Holly doesn't come to see her that night or the following day before she's discharged. She's relieved the next morning to hear no one else ended up in hospital and despite all the shooting no one else actually managed to get shot. She's sure Holly hears the news that she's been signed off for two weeks and every time she hears the door bell she quickly shuffles to it hoping she'll be on the other side, but she never is.
She finds out much later, after writing her witness statement, that the shooters were paid by a local drug runner to retrieve some evidence from the lab before they could be tested. The only problem was that they had sent them to the wrong lab and that both the shooters had survived and snitched on their employer immediately.
It still hurts though, every time she thinks back to that day, because she knows she shouldn't have put so much hope into Holly checking on her, that she shouldn't have put so much hope into what happened that day somehow changing anything between them. It hurts worse knowing it was her fault.
"Gail." It's been weeks since the shooting at the labs, weeks since she last spoke to Holly, so suddenly hearing her name being called by her completely throws her.
"Hi." She can't formulate any more words, because the last time she saw Holly she was telling her she had a new girlfriend, and then they were being shot at, and since then she's been completely absent from her life again.
"Hi, I've got a problem with a case, it's one you worked a few months ago. You filed a report that's full of inconsistencies. Can we talk somewhere privately?" Her heart pangs, because of course she wants to speak to her about a case, and she silently berates herself for thinking it could be anything other than work related. "How about in here?"
She takes the file off Holly and follows her into the room ready to try and pretend the whole situation isn't bringing her close to tears, but instead confusion washes over her, because the case file in her hands isn't hers, the front page clearly stating Detective Marcano and not Gail Peck. The next turn in events confuses her even more, because when Holly turns to face her the look in her eyes is desperate almost lustful and the case file in her hands is suddenly being thrown across the room.
They kiss, for the first time in months, and as a moan slips past her lips and into Holly's mouth she wonders if she should thank the John Doe who ruined her day all those weeks ago.
A/N: Chapter 2 will probably be out after the next chapter if You Are (Still) Insane. ALSO! I spoke to toast girls sister this week, she knows I'm going to America, she knows I do photography, she wants to see my photos when I get back, I panicked and spent over £350 on a new wide angle lens to impress her, this was a long sentence, brought to you with the use of commas. OPERATION WOO TOAST GIRL WITH PRETTY PHOTOS OF SUNSETS AND THE GRAND CANYON IS A GO!
