"Hey." Holly smiled, brushing a few whisps of hair behind Gail's ear and losing herself in ice blue eyes.
"Hey." She whispered quietly.
"I love you, you know that?"
"I think I might love you too." Gail wrapped her arms around Holly's neck and pulled herself up to kiss her softly.
"It'll be a month tomorrow." The brunette reminded, pressing their foreheads together .
"It feels like a lot longer than that." She admitted, deciding to let herself be completely honest with somebody for once in her life.
"Are we going to celebrate our monthaversary like a couple of teenagers?" Holly smirked.
"You're just that dorky, aren't you?" She joked, running her fingers through Holly's dark hair.
"I might be. It's a surprise. Just try to get off work on time, okay?"
"Fine." Gail feigned irritation, unable to actually get mad at her girlfriend.
Gail hopped around the room as she pulled on her pants, and tried to be quiet. She glanced up at the sound of her phone ringing on the night stand, nearly falling as she navigated the maze of discarded clothes from the night before to grab the phone before it woke Holly, who had the day off.
"Hello?" She slammed the phone against her ear.
"Gail, we found a body." Chris' voice came through on the other end.
"Yeah, you're a cop. That's going to happen." She quipped.
"No... I meant... We ran the address..." He fell silent.
"And?"
"The name of the resident is Holly Stewart." His voice deadpanned.
"My Holly?" She sat down at the end of the bed, trying to process the information.
"There's more, Gail. There are no signs of forced entry and there was an autopsy performed on the victim... Before she died. I need to know if Holly was with you last night and where she is now."
"She's still here, Chris. It wasn't her. She's still asleep. What am I going to do?" She looked at the still sleeping woman in her bed.
"You're going to wake her up and I'll come get you. They'll ask you questions and you'll answer them and we will clear her."
"I can't. I'm not ready for everyone to know, Chris." She swallowed hard, trying to force the lump in her throat back down.
"You're going to have to be. Look, I gotta go. Detective Swarek is here. I shouldn't even be talking to you right now." He whispered harshly.
"Okay... Okay. Come up when you get here." She hung up the phone and moved to crouch in front of her girlfriend. "Holly... Babe, you've gotta wake up. Something's happened."
"Hmm... Happy monthaversary." Her eyes fluttered open as she reached for her glasses.
"Holly, you've gotta get up... They found a body." She took Holly's hand inside hers, squeezing it softly.
"There's another pathologist covering for me. I'm off today." The brunette reminded as she sat up in bed.
"No, Holly... They found a body in your house." She explained.
"What?"
"Chris said that someone performed an autopsy on the victim... While she was still alive. We have to go down to the station." Gail shifted to sit next to Holly, who now looked very confused.
"An autopsy? ...You have to trust me, Gail. I swear, I didn't do this." Holly reassured.
"I know, I know. I do trust you. You were here with me when it happened. We'll figure this out, babe. Chris is on his way to get us. You've gotta put on some clothes."
"Is it true that you spent the night with Holly Stewart?" Sam asked accusingly, finally giving up on pacing and sitting down in the chair across from Gail.
"Yes." She nodded.
"And why was she staying with you?" His dark eyebrow raised intimidatingly.
"Why do you care? She was at my place, okay?" Gail glared at his irrelevant questions.
The door creaked open just as he opened his mouth to reprimand her.
"Detective Swarek, we've got a problem. Holly is saying she didn't spend the night at Gail's appartment. She says she came by for coffee this morning after spending the night at the apartment of a girl she picked up in a bar. She says she doesn't remember her name or address." Chris poked his head in the door.
"Peck, are you trying to cover for her?"
"Sam, I'm a cop. I wouldn't do that." She tilted her head incredulously.
"Well, I know when someone is hiding something. And you are." He stood, nodding for Chris to leave with him.
"Holly isn't talking. What the hell is going on, Gail?" Andy asked, handing her a Styrofoam cup of tea.
"Are the cameras on?" She glanced at the one way glass window.
"No. They were turned off after Sam left."
"I've been seeing Holly. We're a couple, I guess. I need to talk to her, Andy. She didn't do this." She leaned back and stared into the cup.
"I'll see what I can do. I'll be back."
"You've got five minutes. The cameras are on." Andy nodded as she left the interrogation room.
"What are you doing?" Gail asked quietly, letting her ankle run the length of Holly's leg under the table.
"I'm telling them the truth. That I wasn't at home last night." She shrugged, her voice giving her lie away.
"You're an idiot. God, you're an idiot. You're more important than keeping this a secret. You're not going to jail just because I'm a coward." She shook her head at the brunette.
"You don't have to do this."
"I do because I love you and you're just stupid enough to lie to protect me." Gail snapped.
"I didn't think you were ready to tell anyone yet." She admitted.
"I could care less who knows about us if it means you're not going to jail. Now retract your damn statement and tell them where you really were."
"Peck, you feel up to working?" Sam asked, holding the door open for her to leave the interrogation room.
"Am I allowed to?" She asked smugly.
"Well now that we know what you were hiding is personal and not a cover up, you've been cleared for duty. Holly's house is still a crime scene, though. Can she stay with you for the night?"
"She probably would've anyway." Gail shrugged.
"Alright. Go get into uniform and drop her off."
"Holly, do you know anyone who'd want to hurt you or frame you for this?" Gail asked as she opened the cruiser door.
"I've testified in hundreds of murder cases. There are probably more people who would love to see me in prison than those who don't." She shrugged.
"Okay, well, I'll get a requisition for files from the court and cross check those against released, paroled, or escaped prisoners. Whoever's out is a suspect. If any of them have medical experience, we've got our guy." Her hand came up to rest on Holly's shoulder comfortingly.
"And if you don't find him? What? Do I just go back to living in my house like nothing happened?" She pursed her lips, fighting the urge to cry.
"We could find a new place... together." Gail could feel the butterflies in her stomach trying to escape.
"Are you sure?" Holly raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. I want to be with you and anything else can wait. That is, if you want it too."
"Let's do it, then. Let's move in together." She wrapped her arms around the blonde's waist, pulling her in tight.
"I promise we're going to figure this out. I'm going to find whoever did this." Gail's hands came up to rest on either side of Holly's as she made reassuring eye contact with her and pulled her in for a kiss.
"I love you. When this is all over, let's write our own history." Her eyes stayed closed as Gail pulled back and pressed their foreheads together.
"A new history sounds pretty good to me. I love you, too."