Author's Note: I thought of this after spending an evening in the safe place in my house during a tornado warning. I know there are tornadoes in Toronto, but for the purpose of this story, just pretend that isn't the case :)

Gail was sitting on the couch, watching a ghost hunting show, when her cell phone rang. She looked down and smiled at picture of Holly in her lab coat on the screen.

"Hey, Lunchbox. Question, what's the likelihood of ghosts existing?" Gail threw another cheese puff in her mouth while she waited for her girlfriend to answer.

"Well, hello to you too. And honey, we've discussed this. Ghosts aren't real. Are you watching one of those ghost hunting shows again?" There was mirth behind Holly's words despite her seemingly stern tone.

Gail pretended to be offended. "What? No. I wouldn't do that because you expressly forbid it and I respect you, Holly."

"Mmhmm. You're a terrible liar, Gail." Holly said.

"I am not a terrible liar. I make liars confess for a living; I think I know how to lie…not that I am lying, I mean." Shit. Holly had gotten her to confess before she could even realize it.

Holly chuckled under her breath. "Give it up, detective. I know you're watching it."

"Ok, but, in my defense, there was nothing else on and you're not here and actually you're in a different country so technically I think the bounds of your rules don't absolutely cross over international borders. And also I'm an adult." Gail rambled.

Holly laughed out loud now. "Someone feeling guilty? You know I only told you that you couldn't watch those shows anymore because they freak you out. It's for your own good."

Gail scoffed. "They do not freak me out, Holly. I am a badass cop. I am not afraid of ghosts."

"Ok, so tonight you aren't going to lie awake thinking every single sound is a ghost that has come to haunt you?" Holly mused.

"You shouldn't be so cavalier about ghosts, Holly. They torture people. But anyway, I don't think they are haunting me. And it's not the ghosts that keep me awake when you're gone." Gail winced because she had said it before she could stop herself.

Holly melted a little from Gail's admission. "Aww. Do you use the fear of ghosts as a cover for not being able to sleep when I'm gone?"

"No." Gail responded with a pout. "I sleep just fine when you're gone. No one to steal the covers and put their icy feet on me."

"Mmhmm. Well, I'm not embarrassed to admit that I don't sleep well when you aren't with me. The bed feels too big and cold without you." Holly whined.

"Alright, Stewart, that's enough sappy sentiments." Gail secretly loved Holly's tendency to gush, but she'd never admit it. "So what's happening in Oklahoma? See any teepees yet?"

Holly shook her head. "You are so politically incorrect. I am ashamed to be associated with you."

"You love me and you love associating with me several times a week.." Gail replied.

Holly sighed. "God help me, I do. So much. Anyway, they actually cancelled all the conference events for tonight because of the weather."

"The weather? It's April, which is way too late for blizzards and besides, I'm pretty sure Oklahoma's idea of a blizzard is vastly different than Toronto's. I'm sure two snowflakes would send the cowboys into their barns for days." Gail said.

"Ok, first, there are hardly any cowboys here. Second, I agree about the blizzard because another conference attendee told me they got two inches of snow and cancelled school for two days. And third, the weather is a tornado."

Gail sat up suddenly. "Wait, did you say tornado?"

"Yeah, there is a tornado warning right now." Holly said matter-of-factly.

"Like swirling clouds that leave paths of destruction and destroy buildings and suck trucks and cows into them?" Gail's voice was getting higher and louder.

"Well that's not completely accurate, but essentially yes." Holly said, still unfazed.

The blonde responded in a panic. "Why didn't you lead with that? You let me ramble about ghosts! Are you in the basement?!"

"No, the tornado is like twenty miles from here. It's fine. The hotel staff are standing outside watching the clouds and collecting hail."

"Twenty miles! Holly, that's not far! You have to go to the basement! Right now!" Gail was nearly shouting.

"Honey, calm down. The hotel isn't even in the path of the tornado. It's moving north of us. Seriously, no one here is worried." She was trying her best to calm her girlfriend down.

"Holly, have you ever seen Twister? Tornadoes change course! That's what they do. And then they destroy everything and buildings collapse and tractors get thrown through windows! Don't listen to the Americans. They're idiots! Everyone knows that! Go to the basement right now!" Gail was standing now and yelling into the phone.

"Gail, calm down…wait hold on…" Holly set her cell phone down so she could answer the hotel phone by her bed. Gail could hear her talking but couldn't make out what she was saying. About thirty seconds later, Holly picked her cell phone back up. "Ok so the hotel staff are evacuating everyone to the basement because the tornado sirens are going off. But don't worry, the tornado isn't near us."

"Holly, for fuck's sake, stop trying to convince me of what the tornado is going to do and just move your ass to the basement!" Gail could hear the sirens in the background of the call; the sound sent chills down her spine.

"I'm going now. But I have to get in the elevator so the call might cut out." Holly warned.

Feeling an overwhelming need to tell Holly how she felt, Gail started speaking rapidly. "Holly, I lied. I don't sleep well when you aren't here. I miss you when you're gone. The bed feels all wrong and it's too quiet without your breathing because you're my big spoon and I don't even care that you put your cold feet on me because I like being the person that gets to warm them up. I like it when you steal the covers because it means I have to get closer to you to keep warm. I love you so much and please don't get sucked into a tornado."

After a few seconds of silence, Gail said, "Holly? Are you still there?" When there was no response, Gail pulled the phone away from her ear only to see that the call had ended and she was once again looking at the picture of Holly sitting in front of a microscope, smiling widely at the camera. "Dammit!" Gail yelled. She ran a hand through her hair and then grabbed the remote to turn the TV to the Weather Channel. When all she saw was a man standing in front of a map of Canada, she cursed again and threw the remote on the floor.

For a few seconds, Gail just stood frozen in horror. Her girlfriend was in the path of a tornado. A fucking tornado! If a tornado was the reason she never got to marry the love of her life, she would never forgive the universe. Shit. She wanted to marry her girlfriend.

Gail sat down and put her face in her hands, the realization sinking into her stomach like a lead weight. It wasn't as if she had ever thought she didn't want to marry Holly. She had just never really thought about it. Their life was already pretty perfect. They had moved in together over a year ago and they still liked each other. Holly hadn't gotten tired of her. But Gail hated weddings and she had been left at the altar already. Marriage just wasn't something she thought about. But dammit, she wanted to be married to Holly. She wanted their lives to be forever mingled and for the world to know that Holly was no longer on the market because Gail had somehow duped the beautiful doctor into loving her. She wanted to see Holly in a beautiful dress and try to hide the tears in her eyes as she walked down the aisle. She wanted to tell the story of how nervous she was to propose to their kids. Shit. She wanted to have kids with her girlfriend.

It wasn't as if Gail had ever thought she didn't want kids with Holly. She just hadn't ever thought about it. She didn't mind kids. Actually she sort of liked them. They hadn't been in the world long enough to understand how cruel it could be. And Holly was great with kids. She loved taking Leo to the museum and the zoo and imparting all her nerdy knowledge to him. Holly would be a great mom. And Gail wanted to see Holly holding a baby with her dark hair and olive skin. She wanted to run the palm of her hand over the swell of Holly's stomach when she was pregnant with their child. She wanted to hover around Holly, worrying about anything and everything that might harm her or their baby.

Gail's phone rang, interrupting her thoughts. She spun her head around wildly until she spotted the phone. She grabbed for it and nearly dropped it on the floor before getting it under control and hitting the answer button.

"HOLLY?!"

"Hey babe, sorry, the call cut out in the elevator and then when I got to the basement…" Holly started.

"Where's the tornado?" Gail interrupted.

"It's ok, the tornado dissipated, there's no…"

Gail blurted out, "I want to marry you!"

Holly froze. She wasn't sure she had heard correctly. "Um, what?"

"I want to marry you and have babies with you. I mean I want you to have the babies because I'm a cop and I want to see you pregnant because you'd be so beautiful. I want to hold your hair when you have morning sickness and rub circles on your baby bump and squeeze your hand when you go into labor. And I want to watch you walk down the aisle in a dress that makes everyone in the room jealous and then I want to dance with you in front of all our friends and family. I want to put a ring on your finger so everyone knows you're mine, I mean not mine like a possession because you are your own person, but so people know that you have a person and I want to be that person. So do you want to be my person and have little people with me?"

Holly's mouth was slightly open. Her mind had not yet caught up with everything Gail had just said. "Um…did you just…are you proposing?"

"Yes. No! I mean that wasn't a proposal, but I want to propose to you. In a much more romantic way and hopefully in person so I can see the smile on your face. So I guess…Holly, do you want me to propose to you?" Gail could barely breathe. What if Holly said no?

"Gail, I…"

Before Holly could really even start, Gail cut in, feeling vulnerable. "I mean it's ok, if you don't. We don't have to get married. I mean things are pretty perfect right now, we don't have to…"

"Honey, you didn't even let me finish. I was going to say I absolutely want you to propose." Holly was smiling now.

Gail hesitated, but felt the beginnings of a smile. "Really? You want to marry me?"

"Sweetheart, you are grumpy and sarcastic and impulsive, you toss and turn in your sleep and you steal all my clean socks, but I am hopelessly in love with you. No one could ever love you more than I do. And I don't want anyone to ever think they have a chance of taking you away from me because you are mine."

Gail wasn't sure she had ever had a bigger smile on her face. "God, Stewart. No need to get all sappy on me."

"Oh please, you just told me you want to rub circles on my baby bump." Holly laughed.

Gail blushed. "The tornado sucked all the air out of Toronto so it's not really even my fault. I can't be held responsible."

"Mmhmm. Gail, just tell me what happened after that call cut out." Not that Holly thought Gail was insincere, but she needed to know that Gail wasn't regretting what she had said.

Gail sighed. "Well, the phone call cut out and I was panicking and then all of a sudden I thought that if a fucking tornado was the reason I didn't get to marry the love of my life, I would never forgive the universe. And it just hit me that I wanted to marry you. I haven't ever thought about getting married because our life is so great and I hate weddings, but all of a sudden I just knew that I wanted it."

"And to knock me up, apparently." Holly smirked.

"Uh, yeah, I mean, I don't know if you want to have kids or if you would want to be pregnant, I mean I guess I could be the one who gets pregnant, but I get shot at sometimes and I think you'd probably have heart palpitations every day just worrying about me and…"

"Honey, take a breath." Holly was chuckling.

Gail took a deep breath. "Holly, do you want to have babies with me?"

Holly laughed. "Sweetie, I absolutely want to have babies with you."

Gail felt like the lightness in her heart might lift her right up to the ceiling. She couldn't remember ever being happier than she was in this exact moment.

"But just to be clear, I will be the one who gets pregnant. Because as much as I would love to see you pregnant, my nerves wouldn't survive it. I would be perpetually terrified of you getting shot or stabbed or deciding to snow surf on a trashcan lid by holding onto the back of Chris's truck." Holly teased.

"That was one time!" Gail said.

"Mmhmm." Holly wasn't buying it.

"Ok, twice. But it doesn't matter because I can't wait to see you pregnant. You're gonna look so adorable with a little belly. And it's not like I won't be worried. I will be freaking out. And if anyone even comes close to upsetting you or hurting you, I will shove my nightstick…"

"Ok, I'm not even pregnant, honey. No need to get descriptive." Holly laughed. She loved Gail's protective streak.

"Right. Sorry." Gail blushed again.

"Well, I for one, am quite glad that Oklahoma has tornadoes." Holly said with a half smile on her face.

"Lunchbox, I have never been so happy to be so damn petrified. I love you so much." Gail said softly.

Holly felt a warmth spread through her chest. "Cause I'm your big spoon?"

"I thought you said the call cut out!" Gail said grumpily.

Holly giggled. "Yeah, but I never said when."

"I hate you." Gail huffed.

"No you don't, you love me." Holly said.

"God help me, I do. I wish you were here cause I'd really love to kiss my pre-fiancé." Gail grinned.

"I'd really love to do a whole lot more than kiss my pre-fiancé." Holly flirted.

"Ugh. Why are you not getting back until Saturday?" Gail really hated not being able to act on her feelings.

"Because the universe hates you enough to make you wait for sex, but not enough to suck me into a tornado." Holly joked.

"Do NOT tempt the universe, Holly. I have a long history of bad luck." Gail warned.

"I think you have a long history of people who didn't understand how wonderful you are." Holly said seriously.

Gail smiled but responded with snark. "Alright, Stewart. We've reached our sap quota for the evening. I need to hit the hay anyway; got an early shift tomorrow."

"Alright, my love. Get in that big weird bed and I will talk to you tomorrow." Holly chuckled.

Gail started walking upstairs, but stopped when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. "Holly?" Gail said timidly.

"Yes, baby?" Something in her girlfriend's voice had changed.

Gail whispered. "Are you sure ghosts aren't real?"

Another Author's Note: People really do ask if there are teepees and cowboys in Oklahoma and Oklahomans really do stand on their porches to look for tornados until they hear their cross streets on the TV.