"Here," Chloe was stretched out across the inside of the car as she rummaged through the glove compartment, finally locating a napkin. She dabbed at Gail's face until the napkin was snatched unceremoniously from her hand.

"I can do it," Gail grumbled. She flipped down the visor and popped open the mirror after Chloe retreated back to her side of the car. Gail closed her eyes and rested her head back into the headrest. Well, on the bright side she seemed to have been snapped out of her daze, but the knot of nerves was still holding her stomach hostage. She tugged eagerly at the velcro holding her vest up. She yanked the kevlar off and tugged the sweaty shirts away from her skin. They bounced back and clung to her sticky skin in an extremely unpleasant way.

"Here," Gail opened her eyes to see Chloe holding a plastic water bottle out to her. She accepted the proffered drink and swished it around her mouth before spitting it out the still opened door. Gail repeated the gurgling and spitting before taking a couple sips and swallowing. "Do you think you'll be sick again?" Chloe asked hesitantly. She offered Gail a piece of gum she had fished out of her bag when Gail answered with with simple but firm "no."

Gail unwrapped the piece of wintermint and offered an airy, "thanks."

Chloe let herself relish what might have been the very first time Gail Peck had thanked her for something without sarcasm. "Are you okay?" Chloe hadn't ever seen Gail get sick before, the blonde always had a strong stomach, even the most gruesome crime scenes and the smelliest drunks never made her vomit.

"I'm fine!" Gail took another sip of the water and reached around for her seatbelt before pointing at the road, "what are you waiting for?"

Chloe nodded and turned her attention to driving them to the hospital. They were only about five minutes away from Mount Sinai and Chloe, being the hopeless romantic she was, turned on their lights. Gail leaned back into the seat and continued to nurse the bottle of water. What a wimp she was. If she had already thrown up she was really going to be in for it.

"Fuck," Gail slapped her face with her palm.

"What's up?" Chloe tried to play it as cool as possible. It was clear to her that Gail was nervous and anxious and reacting strongly wouldn't help anyone.

"The bag," Gail kept her eyes closed and her hand planted firmly over her face.

"What bag?" Chloe steered the car left onto Dundas Street.

"Holly's bag. You know, with her clothes and forms and all that stuff," Gail lowered her hand but dropped her head into her cradled palms, "supplies," she reiterated.

"Where is it?" Chloe hadn't expected Gail to be freaking out like this, but she was almost glad to see another side of her friend, although Chloe knew this wasn't the best time for Gail to turn into a blubbering fool.

"At home," Gail half groaned and half hissed. "No," she corrected herself, "it's in my car. At the station." Gail rubbed at her temples trying to prevent an impending headache.

"That's fine," Chloe offered casually, "that's like ten minutes from the hospital, I'll just grab it for you."

"Kay," Gail supposed that would work. She started patting at her pockets so that she could give Chloe the keys to her car as they rolled to a stop in front hospital's main entrance. "Shit, my keys are in my locker," Gail's panic immediately started to rise.

Chloe swallowed the urge to tell Gail that she could have told her that. "That's okay," Chloe tried to keep her voice even, "just give me your combo."

Gail clamped her eyes shut and tried to remember the combination to her lock. She'd had this lock for over two years and didn't even really pay attention to the numbers anymore, it was pretty much muscle memory. It was like being drunk and trying to give your sober friend the combo to your phone so they could call a cab. "Thirteen," that was the easiest one to remember since after going to the first number she could go totally on autopilot, "thirteen, nine." Gail opened her eyes after remembering the last two numbers of her combo.

"Thirteen, thirteen, nine," Chloe repeated, committing it to memory. "Wait," her eyes went wide and a smile appeared on her face, "thirteen, thirteen, nine? As in, nine thirteen thirteen, as in September thirteenth, two thousand and thirteen?" Chloe's heart seemed to be melting all over her ribs.

Gail shoved her door open, "you can't pick your own combo, Chloe. I bought it like that." Truth be told Gail had hunted through the locks on the rack trying to find a combination that would be easy for her to remember.

Gail's slammed the passenger door shut before Chloe called after her, "Gail, wait a sec!" Chloe jumped out of her seat and ran around the front of the car, but luckily Gail had waited and turned around to face her. "Give me your gun and belt," Chloe held her hand open, "I'll sign them back in for you."

Gail reached around, unholstering her gun, unloaded it and maked sure the safety was on before she returned it to the holster before unfastening her duty belt. Gail rested the belt on her forearm as she unclipped the radio from her shirt and attached it to the belt before powering it off. She placed the buckle in Chloe's hand and muttered a "thanks," keeping her eyes on Chloe's hand.

"Gail," Chloe brought her hands up to Gail's shoulders and shook the taller woman a little. She knew Gail wasn't her number one fan but they were friends right? And it seemed like Gail needed a little splash of cold water right now. "You have got to get it together." Gail blinked back but didn't do much else so Chloe continued, "Holly has total dibs on being the crazy one right now so you have got to lock. It. UP."

Gail nodded, having entered some sort of trance, possibly caused by Chloe's bobbing pigtails.

"So take a lap if you need," Chloe was pretty proud of herself, and glad that Gail hadn't poked her in the nose before taking off, "but you have got to get it under control before you find Holly. Also, maybe cut down on the swearing?"

Gail gulped and nodded before a thought flashed into her head making a blanket of dread fall over her entire body. "Chloe, could you," Gail rolled her eyes at herself and tapped her foot on the granite curbstone, "could you make sure Frank and Steve don't tell my mother?"

Chloe just nodded.

"It's just," Gail continued on with her explanation, which is something she normally wouldn't do, but for some reason her mouth kept flapping, "it's better if she comes after," Gail shoved her hands into her pockets, dropping her eyes down to her toes, "I don't think anyone would survive if she was muddling about for hours, squawking up and down the halls."

Chloe chuckled, "really, Gail. I get it," she shook her head slowly from side to side; Gail didn't need to explain.

Gail's chest puffed out as she filled her lungs with as much air as they would hold. Her "thanks," was both disguised and accentuated by the long exhale it escaped with.

"My pleasure," Chloe's smile was large and genuine as she took a couple steps backward towards the squad, "and Gail," Chloe waited for Gail to look back up before she continued, "you'll do great," Chloe offered a big thumbs up before Gail could scoff and turn on her heels towards the automatic glass doors.

Chloe chuckled when Gail called over her back, "I need that bag." With any luck Chloe might be able to swap cars when she swung by the station.

Gail trudged through the layers of automatic doors purposefully and headed straight toward the bathroom on the ground floor. Thanks to her job she wasn't a stranger to this building. Just last week she and one of the rookies had to escort a couple drunk frat boys to get their stomachs pumped. They were still under arrest after all. Luckily, Gail was pretty familiar with the building and rarely had to ask for directions unless she was trying to locate a particular person. Gail hated asking for directions, especially if it was something like 'can you tell me where the bathroom is?' or 'what's the quickest way to the exit?' Gail would rather hunt around in the dark by herself than ask where something that should be equipped with a sign is.

She pushed the bathroom door open and made a beeline for the sink, pounding on the faucet with her elbow. "Bastard," Gail cursed when she realized the water was on a motion sensor. She put her left hand under the faucet, raising it up and down willing the water to start while she left her right hand under the soap dispenser. She washed her hands vigorously, and once all the soap was rinsed away she splashed handful after handful of water onto her face. She slapped at her cheeks with the cold water before ripping a paper towel away from the dispenser. Gail patted at her face before drying her hands with the brown towel. She read the sign on the dispenser for the first time, 'Please help us reduce paper waste and maintain hygiene standards by using our air dryer whenever possible'.

"Oh well," Gail tossed the paper into the bin and yanked the door open.

She decide on taking the stairs up to the third floor rather than the elevator. She'd rather be walking than twiddling her thumbs while the elevator carried her upstairs slowly. Gail took the stairs two at a time. It was more productive, and more strenuous on her muscles this way. By the time she reached the third floor she was more than out of breath and even sweatier than she was when she first got to the hospital. She braced her right hand against the wall and grabbed at the handle with her left. She hung her head for a minute while she tried to control her breathing. Finally, Gail raised her head, cleared her throat, and swung the door towards her.

She took two steps forward and brushed her hands at the back of her pants while she looked up and down the hallway. Gail rarely had to visit this floor while on duty but they had taken a tour months ago when deciding where to have the baby. Gail was usually very good at directions but taking the stairs had thrown her off. Finally she recognized the juncture of hallways up ahead and breathed a sigh of relief; admitting should be just around the corner. Gail tried her best to execute a stride that oozed confidence but she felt exposed being out in public in uniform but without her vest, belt, radio, and gun. Gail's senses were on high alert and she was pretty sure she could hear muffled groans and screams coming from down the corridor. She tried to push the noises from her mind, and the smells. Gail hated the sterile odor that lingered around hospitals, although she was getting pretty good at ignoring it. She scanned the waiting room when she turned the corner but couldn't spot Holly.

Gail made her way to the reception desk and drummed her fingers along the shinny surface. Her hands could barely reach down to it seeing as it was much lower than Gail's waist, probably to accommodate the large amount of patients that came through this ward in wheelchairs. A nurse looked up from her computer screen and smiled. Well, Gail assumed she was at least a nurse because she had a yellow stethoscope slung around her neck and teddy bears bounced around her smock. That's right, she was wearing a long sleeved smock over her pink scrub top. Gail concluded this lady must be insane. "Good afternoon, Officer," her brow furrowed for a second as she took in Gail's uniform. Down in the emergency room greeting a cop would be business as usual, but up in the maternity ward it was more than out of place. "Can I help you?" The nurse's smile returned but she sounded a little worried by what might come out of Gail's mouth.

"Uh, yeah, I hope so," Gail turned and darted her eyes back to the waiting room before returning them to the nurse, "my boss called me, well he called my partner, he said-" Gail shook her head forcing herself to get to the point, "I'm looking for my wife, Stewart, Holly Stewart, she should be here." Gail spun on her heels to glance back towards the waiting area but still no sign of Holly.

She heard the nurse say, "sure thing, just a sec," but missed her smile as she started typing away on her keyboard. "Officer Peck?"

Gail spun back around to the face the nurse. How did this woman know her name?!

The nurse could sense Gail's uneasiness and pointed down to the name tag velcroed to the right side of Gail's dress shirt. "It's on your uniform," she clarified with a smile.

Gail pretended to have been aware all along and waited for the nurse to continue.

"Anyways, your wife, Stewart; S-T-E-W-A-R-T?" She spelled it out and waited for Gail to confirm.

Gail nodded along wordlessly. How many different ways were there to spell 'Stewart'?

"Could you just confirm your address for me?" The nurses eyes were still down at the screen.

"Twenty Five Balsam Road," Gail spat it out as quickly as possible was thankful she had actually given the nurse their address rather than her parents', or the address to the station or her lunch order. Gail forced herself to stop tapping on the counter, it was even starting to annoy her.

"Well I do have her as a patient of Doctor Glen's," the nurse looked up from the screen, "but she hasn't checked in yet, here or downstairs."

Well, Gail supposed that wasn't the worst news the nurse could have unloaded but she was flooded with confusion, and not for the first time that day. Another nurse appeared from around the corner and logged in at the computer console next to the nurse Gail was talking to.

"That can't be right," Gail rested the tips of her fingers on the desk, locked them up straight and bounced them up and down quickly.


A/N: Thanks so much for the feedback from the last chapter, you readers really are the best!
There's another couple parts to this story coming but I might spend a couple years naming the baby...