Incessant knocking at 8 am was unacceptable. It's even more so on Gail's day off. When she was out until three drinking, though, it's a fucking hate crime.

"Stop it!" she yelled at whoever was there as she stomped through her apartment angrily.

"Hello?"

It was a familiar voice, but Gail couldn't pinpoint whom it belonged to. When she got to the door, she peered through the peephole. "Shit," she muttered. "Fucking McNally."

She didn't know why Holly Stewart was there, but it seemed like it was probably McNally's fault.

"Hello?" floated through again. "I can hear you."

"Yeah," Gail said as she flung open the door. "I can hear you, too."

"Officer Peck?"

"In the flesh," Gail said and presented herself grandly. "Why the hell are you knocking on my door so early in the morning?"

"It's eight," Holly said. She checked her watch just to make sure. "Not really that early."

"Early enough," Gail complained. "So…are you here to see Andy?"

"Officer McNally?" Holly asked. "Yes."

Gail crossed her arms over her chest. "She had an early shift."

"Oh," Holly seemed disappointed. "I guess I got the day wrong."

"You probably didn't," Gail told her. "She's kind of a flake sometimes."

"I didn't know you two were an item," Holly said with a hint of perceived sadness.

"Fuck. No," Gail said without any room for misinterpretation. "McNally and I are roommates, that's it. We're not even friends."

"Oh…" Holly shifted on her feet.

"Are you and McNally...?" Gail was very interested in why Holly was standing at her door.

"No, no, no," Holly shook her head more than she needed to deny it. "Not at all, no."

"Then why are you here? Usually a girl who wants to see Andy this early is on the other side of the door."

"Huh?"

"And typically her bra is hanging off my cabinet," Gail recounted. "That's happened more times than you'd think."

"My bra is securely on my body," Holly said. "I promise."

Gail accidentally glanced down. She immediately mentally kicked herself for checking Holly out and returned her gaze upward, but Holly definitely noticed. So eventually, Gail just gave her an awkward thumbs up. "Let's keep it that way."

"Officer McNally said she wanted to donate some things to my peewee hockey team," Holly said as innocently as the day was long.

"Your peewee hockey team?"

"Yeah," Holly said. "I coach a 6 to 8 year old girls' peewee hockey team for the city's youth program. I told Officer McNally about having some funding issues and she said she had some things she wanted to donate to the cause."

"Are you some kind of saint or something?" Gail asked, leaning against the doorframe. "Because I'm annoyed that you're saving the world one plant and kid at a time."

Holly completely ignored everything Gail said, "So she's not here?"

"No," Gail repeated. "And, Holly, I hate to tell you this, but McNally doesn't have anything to donate. She certainly doesn't have any hockey equipment sitting around the place. And she's broke…because we're cops. So…she probably just wanted to get into your pants or something."

Holly stared blankly, "Well, you're certainly a joy to be around in the morning."

"You're not the first person to say that."

"I can't imagine that I am," Holly said as she turned to leave.

Gail couldn't help herself from shouting down the corridor, "I'm a blast in the afternoon, too."

!

Since she was up, and since it was basically McNally's fault, she decided to go down to the station and give that bitch an earful. When she got there, McNally was gone on a donut run, so she waited.

She waited and stewed.

She stewed so hard that she completely missed Frank coming up behind her, "Peck!"

She was startled and jumped out of Andy's seat, "Yeah? Chief. Yes, sir?"

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "It's your day off, go."

"I'm not working," she said. "I'm waiting on McNally."

"Don't you live with McNally?"

"Yeah," she said with caution.

"Then socialize at home."

"Okay," Gail huffed. She was about to do just that when she noticed the file in Frank's hand. "Hey, any progress on that?"

Frank held up the folder in question, "He hit another woman's house last night."

"Shit."

"Yeah," he agreed. "This guy is stealing several hundred dollars worth of property and given the sensitive nature of the items, I don't have to tell you we're a little more than concerned about an escalation."

"Lingerie," Gail tried a joke. It didn't go over well. Not with Frank, at least.

McNally thought it was hilarious.

She had returned with a box of donuts for the whole division. She did that silent laugh thing until Frank turned around. "Donut, sir?" she offered one to the Chief without an ounce of mirth.

He took it, but turned to Gail and pointed to her with it. "Go home."

"Yes, sir. On my way," she promised.

They both watched him disappear into his office before Andy asked, "What are doing here? You were so drunk last night, I figured you sleep all day."

"I would have," Gail said. "But your friend, Holly, was knocking on our door at eight."

"Holly?" Andy seemed confused as she reached into the donut box. "Holly who?"

Gail grabbed the chocolate delight Andy had chosen and took a giant bite. "You suck," she said with her mouth full.

"Why do I suck?" McNally asked. "She's the one knocking on our door."

"You told her you'd donate to her peewee hockey team!"

"Oh…oh!" McNally bit into her donut. "I forgot. Whoops."

"Well, what are you going to do about it?"

"I dunno," Andy shrugged. She took another bite of her donut and settled in her chair. "I have paperwork to finish."

Just as Gail had suspected, McNally had nothing to donate. Which had led her to making a phone call and visiting a sporting goods store downtown. Afterwards, she made a trip to the university and found herself in front of a door that was labeled with Holly Stewart.

She knocked and secretly hoped it was as annoying as Holly's knock this morning.

"Come in," she heard.

Gail opened the door just enough to lean her head in. She found Holly pouring over what looked to be graphs on her desk.

"Yeah?" she asked without ever looking up.

"You look busy."

The voice made Holly's head snap up. "Officer Peck."

"Hi," Gail said. She pointed to Holly's desk. "You look busy, I can come back."

"No!" Holly didn't mean to shout. "No, it's fine. How can I help you?"

"Uh…" Gail wasn't used to this. "I was hoping to help you actually."

"Oh?" Holly set her pen down. "How's that?"

"McNally is a total fuckbag," Gail said. "She either totally forgot about your team or has mental issues, probably both."

"That's okay," Holly shrugged.

"No, it's not," Gail was more pissed than Holly was for some reason. "It's not cool. She shouldn't have done that."

"Well, what can I do?"

"It's not what you could do," Gail said. "It's what I could do."

Holly's eyes narrowed in confusion, "Huh?"

"I got you new equipment," Gail said quickly. "But I don't know where to take it."

"What?"

"You needed funding," Gail explained. "So I found out what you needed and I funded it."

"What?" Holly asked again, not sure she understood what exactly Gail had done.

Gail still just stood in the doorway like no big deal. "I tricked out your tiny hockey team."

"How? Why?"

"Because it was the right thing to do," Gail said. "And I so rarely do the right thing…"

"Somehow, I don't believe that," Holly said.

Gail wasn't sure what that was in reference to, so she skipped it. "I need to know where the stuff goes. Hockey equipment is big and my car is small."

Holly stared at her for a moment. "You didn't have to do that."

Gail looked all the office because Holly was burning a hole through her. "It's a good cause. And I had some money lying around."

"Money lying around," Holly repeated that because she certainly didn't. "You said you were cop broke this morning."

"Are you going to get all up in my business?" Gail's eyes snapped to Holly's.

"No," Holly said. She picked up her pen and wrote down an address. She then sauntered around her desk and offered it to Gail. "Meet me there tonight at six. Can you do that?"

"Sure." Gail tried to take it, but Holly kept a hold on it.

"It's practice. You can meet the kids you're helping."

Gail tried not to smile, "I'd like that." She tried to take the paper again, but Holly still held on. "Are you going to let me have it?"

"How did you find me?"

"I'm a cop."

Holly accepted that answer. "You're a strange person."

"I've been called worse," Gail said. She pulled on the paper one last time. "Are you going to give me this or are we going to do a tug of war type scenario?"

Holly relented before reminding her, "Six."

"Sure thing, Coach."

!

Gail arrived at the skating rink at promptly 5:45 with hockey gear in tow. Holly and a few of the kids helped her lug it all in. The kids, of course, asked a million questions about her and what she did. Holly, for the most part, was silent. She watched Gail. Gail knew the look, too. It was suspicion.

Practice was fun. It was mostly a bunch of girls skating around and falling down. One of them was obviously meant to be a figure skater as she attempted multiple triple axles while the other kids shot on goal.

It wasn't long before Holly had blown her whistle and sent them on skate laps around the rink.

Gail, who had borrowed some extra skates and had taken part in some of the practice, was now sitting on the wall watching Holly. She shimmeyed down and skated to center ice.

"This was fun."

"It is fun," Holly said as she watched the little ones skate slowly around. "I appreciate what you did today."

"It's no problem," Gail said. "It was just trust fund money."

Holly laughed until she looked back at Gail and realized the woman was serious. "What?"

"Yeah…" Gail looked a little disgusted by it. "My family is sort of…well, infamous, I guess."

Holly tried to place her.

"In the States," Gail clarified. "The Pecks? Political Pecks?"

Something about it rang a bell, but Holly just continued to look at her.

"My mom is Elaine Peck. The U.S. Attorney General."

Holly blew her whistle while still staring at the woman in front of her. She skated away and gathered all the kids for a huddle as Gail watched from afar until the little ones all filed away to the locker room.

"Short practice," Gail commented as she skated back to the bench.

"I let them out early," Holly said as she skated up to the wall. "They've got an assignment, though. Big game on tonight."

Gail laughed, "Are you going to quiz them on it?"

"Maybe," Holly thought about it. "Nah, only if we don't win."

"I wouldn't bet on it."

"We'll pull it off," Holly said, always confident in her team.

Gail chuckled, "You think so?"

"Yep."

"The Leafs defense is too damn slow to stop us."

Holly looked as if she'd been slapped in the face, "Red Wings fan?"

"Let's go Wings," Gail said with a huge smile.

"Just when I started to think you weren't evil."

"Hey c'mon. I grew up in the affluent suburbs of Detroit," Gail said. "And yes, they do exist."

"Born and raised in South Detroit?" Holly sung the line.

Gail just stared at her before deadpanning, "I took the midnight train going anywhere."

"Wait!" Holly skated around the wall and plopped down on the bench. "I don't get it. If you're American, then how are you a Canadian cop?"

"I was actually born in Canada, I have dual citizenship," Gail said as if that was no big deal.

Holly eyed her disbelievingly. "Sure, okay."

"I'm serious."

"Okay."

Gail still didn't get the sense that Holly believed her, so she went into the full explanation.

"I'm not lying. My parents were on an ice-fishing trip on Lake St. Clair-"

Holly, who was bent over unlacing her skates, shot back up, "Your mom was ice-fishing when she was nine months pregnant?"

"I was born a few weeks early."

"Your mom was ice-fishing when she was eight months pregnant?"

"She's a cold woman," Gail answered.

"Hm."

"Practically a reptile," Gail said. She watched Holly shrug out of the heavy sweater she'd been wearing on the ice. It left a thin t-shirt underneath. "…Anyway, my mother was running for a congressional seat at the time-"

Holly chuckled while folding her sweater, "And pregnant? And ice fishing?"

"It's clear that you don't know her," Gail said at the interruption. "If you meet her, you'll totally understand this story."

"If I meet your mother?" Holly laughed. "I'm almost positive there will never be an occasion in which I'm meeting the U.S. Attorney General."

"You never know," Gail said, because really no one ever knows. "Back to my story, so Elaine was running for Congress and there was this really important ice fishing tournament on the lake."

"Okay."

"All the big players are going to be around, so she figures she'll swoop in and take part. Even though she's not an ice fisherman, or…well, anything other than a politician."

"That's…"

"Stupid, yes," Gail said. "I agree. So, here's my mother, preggo, pulling my dad along on this ice fishing expedition. She gets so into the competition that she ignores the fact that she's obviously gone into labor. By the time she tells anybody, I'm already well on the way. So, he has to make an emergency call for help and due to some weather and an ill-timed fuel stop, a Canadian helicopter arrives and evacuates them to Windsor. I was actually born while hovering over the helipad in Canadian airspace."

"That's one of the most ridiculous stories I've ever heard."

Gail was just a little offended, "What? Not enough plants in it for you, Holly?"

"Honestly, no."

"It's the story of my birth," Gail lightly slapped the other woman's thigh. "C'mon, it's a great story. An international incident, too."

"You're full of it."

"Maybe," Gail said. She was suddenly struck by the fact that she had told that story at all. She was also a little embarrassed. "Sorry, I'm not usually a sharer. Didn't mean to keep you."

"You can keep me," Holly replied. "So the Political Pecks?"

"The modern Kennedys," Gail said with a roll of her eyes. "Or so the press has deemed us on several occasions. I'm not so sure that's applicable."

"So, it's more than just your mother?"

"My brother, Steve, is the junior senator from Michigan," Gail said. "My grandfather was the youngest member of the Michigan Supreme Court and still resides on it today. My dad was the assistant chief of staff for the last Republican president. Now he mostly plays golf. Oh, yeah, and apparently he's impotent. My mother got drunk off her rocker last Christmas and told the whole family."

"TMI," Holly held up her hands in surrender. She smiled, though. "But you're not into politics?"

"Nope," Gail said. "Don't like 'em."

"Ah, and you're in Toronto why?"

Gail took a breath. There were so many reasons, but she settled on the least complicated, but still truthful one. "It pisses my mom off."

"Issues."

"I've got them."

"Okay," Holly didn't press her.

Gail really liked that about her. Holly was a no pressure, breezy kind of person. Not at all what she expected when they met over the panty moss. Gail liked this woman. She was easy to talk to. She was easy to be around.

"So…this might be crazy…and we just met. You don't really know me that well..." Gail was trying her best to preface what she was about to ask with any kind of qualification to soften the blow of imminent rejection. "But, I've got to go to this wedding this weekend. And it's probably going to be painful."

Holly was concerned, "An ex of yours?"

"Oh, hell no," Gail shook her head. "A couple of friends of mine. And I use friends in the loosest sense. But, it'll only be painful because they're so annoyingly in love and happy."

"Gross," Holly said with wide eyes.

"I know," Gail agreed even if Holly was being facetious. "I plan to get drunk on free alcohol and make bitchy comments."

"Good plan."

"Do you want to go?" Gail asked shyly. "Did I mention free drinks?"

"And bitchy commentary," Holly said. "Yep, you mentioned both."

"I can promise you'll be entertained."

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yeah," Holly nodded. "Sounds fun."

"Really?"

"Yeah, Gail, I'll go."