Author's Note: I liked the idea of failed blind dates with Gail. Her mother wants her to get out of her rut, but things clearly don't go the way Elaine was thinking. Who would have seen Holly coming?

"We're going out," announced Dov, through the door to Gail's room. Gail didn't reply and just stretched out on her bed, letting her head dangle off. Someone knocked on the door, probably Dov.

"I heard you," she replied. Gail looked at the phone on her nightstand, trying to decide what to do. Traci was right on many levels. But every single date she'd been on had been an absolute disaster. So instead of going out again, she'd canceled with the new guy and texted someone who'd been on her mind for days. Like, every single day since Frank and Noelle's wedding.

Why the hell did Holly have to kiss her? She could have cheerfully gone on with denial that there was any sort of attraction there without it! But now the lesbian had brought up the damn elephant in the room, and Gail had to think about it. It didn't feel like a chaste, sisterly, kiss. But then again, Gail didn't have sisters, she had Steve, and he was more inclined to noogie her than kiss her. They were also more than a few years apart.

Holly was older too, though not too much. Not that it bothered Gail at all. And the lesbian thing didn't bother her either. What bothered her was how she felt about the whole thing. That she was stuck thinking that the best person she'd found, in years. Someone who was a little anti-social, like she was, misanthropic, and who put up with her at her snarkiest. Hell, Holly even rescued her from horrible dates gone bad.

And so, instead of going on a date, she'd called Holly and asked what she was doing. But it involved sports and Gail didn't do sports, so she'd never-minded. Now she was regretting the choice.

She was in serious danger of slipping up to one of the Peck Rules: Always know who you are.

There was the sound of shuffling outside her door. "I mean, I'm going out with Chloe and Chris is going in on a call. So … you know, out out." Dov sounded concerned. Ugh.

"And I heard you!" God they were so annoying. Gail pulled a pillow over and covered her face to muffle a growl.

The door opened. "Please be wearing clothes," Dov said, pleadingly.

"Hey! The deal was you don't come in!" She whipped the pillow at him.

Catching the pillow, Dov protested, "I'm not in!" He tossed it back. "I just… Y'know you could come with me and Chloe."

Gail gagged. "I'd rather drink drain cleaner."

Dov laughed, "Seriously, you gonna be okay?"

That was a deeper question than it had to be and Gail sighed. She couldn't really remember the last time she'd felt 'okay' all told. She'd pretty much hid from having to deal with her own drama and trauma by hooking up with Nick again when he came back from undercover, and he'd been a nice distraction. But. He was an ass too and was now having marathon sex with Andy, who didn't even have the balls to tell her about it. People sucked.

When Gail didn't reply for a while, Dov came in and sat down on the floor by her head. "I said don't come in," she sighed.

"I know."

Gail huffed and looked at the wall. After a while, she noted, "You have a date."

"Yeah, you did too."

Oh right. She'd told him that before. "I canceled. One more date with the idiots my mom's picked, and I may vomit." She was perilously close to listening to 90s angsty girl music. She had a Tracey Chapman CD somewhere in her crap. Depressing lesbian music. Awesome.

With a deep breath, Dov spoke. "I'm gonna say this, and you can hit me okay?" Gail eyed Dov. "Okay, you're my friend."

When Dov said no more, Gail rolled over and smacked the side of his head. "That's it?"

Dov didn't flinch, "Well, yeah. I worry about you. Okay? I mean, no offense, the last two dates your mom set up did not make for happy Gail. Or as happy as you ever get."

As Dov babbled, Gail gave him her most annoyed stink eye. "Dov. Shut. Up."

"Shutting up."

Gail sighed and sat up. "Thank you, and if you tell anyone I said that, I'm going to turn your balls into a change purse."

"That's…. Vivid." But Dov didn't look offended. It was, admittedly, nice to have someone with whom she had absolutely no sexual tension, and simple friendship. Why did it have to be Dov?

And then her thoughts drifted back to what Traci had said earlier and Gail sighed reaching for her phone. She thumbed a contact who was becoming far too familiar for someone she'd only known a couple weeks, but to say that she could get her mind off of Holly would be lying. Gail tapped in the sentence and hesitated over the send button for a moment. It was agony. She pressed send.

Is it too late to change my mind?

Dov watched her, but said nothing. In a way, he was like Oliver. A rock she could lean on sometimes, though it was easier to let her guard down with Oliver. With Dov, she could just be as mean as she wanted, and he was okay with it.

Nope. Need the address?

Smiling, Gail replied she didn't and got up, "Go away, Dov, I'm going to hang out with a real friend."

"I'm hurt." He clambered to his feet and hesitated as if he wanted to hug her. Gail quickly shot him an angry glare and he bolted.

Holly tamped down her delight at the text, and fed another coin into the machine. When Gail had texted to ask what she was doing, Holly had hope. They'd hung out a couple times since 'the kiss' and never once talked about it, though they both clearly remembered it. What did any of that mean? Stupid Holly.

But today, after Gail said she didn't play sports, and maybe they'd hang out some other time, Holly felt crushed. Like when she was ten and bought her boyfriend flowers. That had ended wonderfully, and Holly wondered why her parents hadn't suggested dating girls earlier on. They'd certainly been entirely positive about her sexuality, when she did come out. Maybe they hadn't known, and just thought Holly was eccentric.

But then Holly got that other text. Not even an hour later. Something changed her mind and Gail wanted to come hang out with her, even though she didn't like sports. Gail wanted to hang out with her. This was progress! Of course, Gail wasn't kidding when she said she didn't sport, and resulted in what was possibly the most embarrassing softball related incident Holly had ever seen, including the time she'd played beer-league rules and the catcher puked stopping a slide.

At least Gail was willing to laugh at herself, and they went out to dinner instead. Gail insisted Holly pay, after making her play sports. "I can't believe you're that bad! You're a cop!"

"You don't swing a nightstick like that," whined Gail. "Give me a break."

"Oh so you're super awesome at nightsticks and guns and handcuffs?"

Gail stuck her tongue out at Holly. "If you tell me any of those things are a turn on, I'm going home."

"Hah, like this is even a date."

"Oh? You're in a fleece and flannel hat and we played softball. It's totally a date."

The quip caught Holly off guard. Did Gail think this was a date? Admittedly Gail had been going on a lot of horrible, failed, blind dates. "It's cold out. And why are you so fixated on a date?"

Abruptly Gail threw her hands up, shaking them out as if they were going to fly away. Holly had seen the nervous motion before. "Do you like Vietnamese food? This smells good." She turned to the restaurant and gestured.

"Uh yes, yes I love Vietnamese," replied Holly, though she couldn't remember the last time she'd ever eaten it.

Gail nodded and quickly acquired a table. "My mother," she explained, "has set me up on a date every night for the next week."

"That escalated quickly," Holly noted.

Nodding, Gaul sighed and slumped a little bit. "After the last one, I couldn't deal with it anymore and called you."

Interesting. This was worse than just needing the rescue from boring Neil. This was giving up. The waiter showed up before they could go further. Holly ordered a Thai tea and something in a bun, while Gail got a coke and Pho. They split the pork egg rolls. "So am I going to keep being your emergency bail out?"

Looking skittish for a moment, Gail shrugged. "My roommates were out and I really didn't want to be home alone."

"Where mom might call you and demand to know where you were?" That sounded familiar.

But Gail looked a little odd, like she was lying about something. "Sure. That. My mother and I don't get along." That was evident, as Gail called her 'mother' and not 'mom.' She puffed out a breath. "Plus one forever?"

This meal was going to be all kinds of awkward. "Have all the blind dates that bad? Neil was cute, in a male sort of way, but dull."

That set Gail off on a tirade about the last date. A fellow Toronto native, he'd gone to England for a couple years and come back with a pompous accent. Holly dissolved into giggles as Gail recapped and imitated the guy. The giggles became guffaws when Gail started doing the mannerisms.

The food came as a rescue, and they dug in and it was great. When Holly's surprise was evident, Gail pointed at her and laughed. "You didn't know! You totally don't eat this."

Holly felt embarrassed, "You caught me off guard." She knew she sounded petulant, but at least Gail found it amusing and fun.

"That's okay, I still came out ahead. Good food and hanging with the coolest chick ever." She lifted her coke in salute, which Holly matched. The tea was really good.

"Flattery will not finagle you my buns."

"Your buns do look awesome, Dr. Stewart," Gail said with a slight leer.

Then it clicked, "Gail Peck, are you giving me shit?" Gail just grinned and Holly found herself laughing again. The only awkward part of the meal had been her all along. The tension was gone, and Holly found herself enjoying hanging out with her friend again.

A part of her was disappointed the kiss didn't come up again, but a surprisingly greater part was pleased they were still friends. Gail had shown the most 'whatever' reaction to Holly being gay and she still seemed to value her as a friend after all that. It wasn't perfect, Holly still had a massive crush on the woman, but she could live with it.

As soon as Gail opened the door, Dov scared the shit out of her. "Who was the hot chick hugging you?"

"Jesus!" She snarled at her roommate, "What the hell is wrong with you?" He knew she hated people jumping out at her. She hit his arm as hard she she could, causing Dov to jump back. "What are you talking about?"

Not sensing his own impending mortality, Dov barged on, rubbing his shoulder. "The brunette? I saw you guys outside the Indian place."

Gail tried not to blush. There was nothing to blush about right? Just friends. "That's my friend, Holly."

"Gail, I know you. I live with you. You're not a hugger. She was totally hugging you."

It took effort not to slam her coat on the hook. "You're an idiot."

"Come on, who is she? I swear I know her."

"I told you! She's my friend. She sat behind you at Frank and Noelle's wedding."

The itty bitty hamster wheel in Dov's head spun. "The coat check girl you were giggling with all night?"

Perhaps Gail would kill Holly. "Yes, the coat check girl." Awesome, Dov had noticed her being a goof with Holly all night. She'd kill Dov, that would work better.

Dov looked like everything clicked, "Oh! This is the friend you went out with the other night? I thought you were kidding!"

It was hard to say what was more annoying. Was it that Dov had been so worried about her being home alone that he'd nearly sacrificed a date, or was it that he was willing to let her just leave the house on a lie? "No, I actually have a real friend, all on my own, so you and Officer Posterboy can stop hovering."

"Sorry, I'm just... You know what, I'm going to shut up."

"The boy can learn!"

Dov rolled his eyes. "So you made friends with the coat check girl?" Pivoting to rail on him, Gail paused when she saw he was smirking. "That's the new forensics geek, right?"

"Nerd," Gail corrected. "Yes. Dr. Stewart to you."

"That's cool, you need a friend."

"Dov, I will hurt you."

"She hugged you. You'd punch me if I hugged you."

"Yeah, well she smells better." The snap remark made Gail's stomach flip. Crap. No good.

That did not seem to make Dov concerned and he flopped on to the couch. "It's cool, you having friends outside of work. Except she's not really outside work, is she?"

"Goodnight Dov." Gail rolled her eyes and went into her room.

Friends totally kiss each other, right, Peck? she asked herself.

Gail's regular therapist had pushed her a little on the topic, asking if it was a bad thing (similar to how the department shrink had poked at it). While Gail really didn't care about people being gay or straight, she thought she knew herself. It was a damn Peck rule, for crying out loud! And being better than everyone? Well that wasn't working out so great. Neither was not letting anyone get in her way.

Today's session had been helpful about Nick at least. She didn't want him. Not only that, she hadn't wanted him. He was just convenient, as had been Chris. Cute guy, wants to make her happy, can't deal with her behavior when push came to shove.

Gail knew she was hard to deal with. She had a lot of ex-Peck-tations to live up to, and she was always compared to Steve, or her cousins. Gail the Fail was what her cousin called her, until she hit him. She had to be tough, she had to be hard, and the only way to protect herself was to be cold.

So how come Holly made her feel so warm inside? She could trust Holly. They already talked about a lot, especially after the kiss and the stupid "Things Straight Girls Say" stupidity. Now they were friends in a way she'd never had before. And Holly didn't just tolerate her attitude, she smiled at it in that quirky, side smile way. She laughed honestly at Gail's dark and twisty jokes.

This was just what a best friend was, she had told the therapist. But she knew, she knew this was something else. She felt right with Holly, and being away from her was frustrating. Now what to do about it? Would Holly even be interested in someone changing teams? Maybe she'd worry that Gail as going to use her as an experiment? But weren't all relationships experiments?

Gail fell on her bed and pushed her face into her pillow to scream.

Why was this so hard!?

Why was it so hard to not swoop over and kiss Gail?

Holly had stood to the side, being blocked by Gail, as the man continued his tirade about the death behind Holly. Gail stood her ground, hand away from her gun, and let he rant, but then he'd taken a step closer and Gail raised her hand to stop him. "You need to step back, sir," she said grimly.

The tussle surprised Holly, mostly because she didn't expect tiny Gail, who had zero sports abilities, to be able to spin the man around that fast and cuff him with no effort. It was insanely hot, which reminded Holly about how she'd had a horrible crush on a woman in the navy once. Women in uniforms. If Gail had short hair, Holly would have cried.

Officer Cruz, Gail's partner that day, had been less than pleased at the situation, chastising Gail for the action, and the urge to kiss Gail started when the blonde quipped that the man was about to violate medical jurisprudence. Cruz's mouth dropped open as Gail went on to recite exactly what the man had been about to do to the evidence and why it was a problem, especially if he was the killer.

That freaked the man out, and as Gail hauled him to her cruiser, she winked at Holly.

Melting. Holly was melting inside.

When Gail came back rather quickly, she was smirking like a little devil. "You look very pleased, Officer Peck."

"Cruz called it in, guy was already a suspect. Nash thinks I'm psychic."

"No such thing."

"You have no sense of humor, Doc."

Always in the field, Gail called her 'Doc' or 'Dr. Stewart.' The use of 'Holly' was surprisingly rare, unless they were alone or far away from police things. "I've been told I have a fantastic sense of humor."

"Probably by the same people who think you're a good dancer." Gail screwed her face up in amusement. "Cruz and I are gonna stick around until Diaz gets here with whoever lost the bet this morning," she said, semi-cryptically. "Anything cool I can take back with me? Bonus points?"

"You already caught a suspect trying to tamper with the scene," noted Holly, amused at how adorable Gail was. "He was run over by something big and heavy. A van or a trailer."

Gail leaned over, "Tire treads are wide... Not a trailer, maybe a truck. Why heavy?"

"The way his stomach burst."

"Cool. Gross, but cool."

Too soon for Holly's taste, the replacement officers arrived and Gail took her suspect off to the station. When Holly was ready to go, she texted Gail, suggesting they could have dinner.

She was very, very, disappointed when Gail had to work.

When her phone beeped, Gail got excited, thinking maybe Holly had changed her mind about going to the hockey game, and would be free to hang out instead. It was a little disturbing, how much she cared about Holly right now, and wanted to spend time with her. The kiss thing aside, which frankly Gail hadn't really managed to put aside at all, Holly was an altogether awesome person.

You canceled another date.

That was her mother, and Gail groaned.

"What's wrong?" Chris looked up from his video game.

"Nothing," she lied and tapped a reply.

I'm not going on them any more, so just cancel them.

That probably wasn't going to help anything, but it was worth a try.

"Doesn't look like nothing," Chris remarked. "You look angry."

"Watching you absolutely fail at Mario Kart will do that for a girl."

"You can do better?" He held out a controller.

Gail snatched it, and sat down beside him, "It's my Wii, you moron."

Smirking, Chris restarted the game as a two player session. "I never see you play."

That was true. Gail only played in the middle of the night, when she couldn't sleep. It had started when she lived at her parents, long before Perik. There had always been nights when Gail didn't sleep, fears of the unknown. One Christmas she'd asked for a Nintendo. Then a Playstation. Now she had three gaming systems, a milk crate of games, and something to do at night when the dreams that were based on reality got to her.

As she proceeded to trounce Chris on every track, her phone buzzed a few more times. Chris asked, twice, if she was going to check the messages, but she noted they'd call if it was really important. Of course the phone rang next.

"I know that ringtone," blinked Chris, surprised and hitting pause. "You better take that."

"Watch me not," she snapped, and pressed the decline button on her mother. "I don't want to talk to her." She unpaused the game.

"Gail," Chris said warningly, hitting pause again. He had met her mother, once, for dinner. She'd called him Craig all night and didn't like him. "Why are you ignoring your mother?"

"You've met her," snapped Gail. "Do you want to play or what?"

They played another round before Chris' phone rang, "It's Denise." He went to his room.

Biting her tongue on the advice to ignore the lying bitch, Gail played a few tracks on her own. It became evident that Chris wasn't coming back, and Gail shut down the Wii and flipped to a first person shooter, with headphones on. It was easy to get lost in the mindless carnage of make believe.

Her phone kept buzzing however, and Gail finally reached over to look at it. Fifteen from her mother, which she promptly deleted. Two from Holly. Gail felt her skin heat up in a blush.

You're missing a great game!

The second text was a selfie of Holly and two friends in hockey jerseys, hoisting beers. Gail laughed and startled when Chris spoke.

"That's not your mom."

"How would you know?" She scowled and tapped a reply, calling Holly a nerd.

"You look happy." He smiled at her, tiredly. "You never looked that happy with me. Or Nick." Chris sat down on the couch. "So what's his name?"

"There's no..." Gail trailed off and felt herself startle. Oh crap. "It's not even that, god. We're just friends."

"If you say so."

The phone rang again. Her mother. Ugh. Gail answered. "I'm surprised you didn't send a uniform for a visit."

"Your father talked me out of it." The tone in her mother's voice made this a serious comment, not a joke. "I've canceled your dates."

What? Gail blinked and then grinned, "Good."

"I trust you understood their point."

"Yes, I do. And you should be happy to know I've been going out with a friend lately."

"Oh?"

"We went to a movie, and dinner, and batting cages."

Her mother was silent for a moment. Chris looked surprised as well. "Gail dear, you're terrible at sports."

"Thank you so much."

"I see. Is this serious?"

"Not at the moment, but I'm trying new things, which was your point."

"Hmm, well. I suppose." Her mother hesitated. "You're still seeing a therapist, I understand."

Ugh. That wasn't good. "Yes."

"Just make sure Sgt. Best doesn't know. Promotions are due up soon, and now that you've recovered from your suspension..." The rest went unsaid and Gail winced.

"Of course. I wouldn't want to shame the Peck name."

"That would be nice. Remember dinner is next week."

"How could I forget." They hung up with the customary lack of adorations and Gail flopped onto the floor. "Chris, what would it take for you to taze me next Thursday? Or spray me with pepper spray?"

"Leave your bras in the shower again?"

"You can't put them in the dryer, they get all bent and break too fast."

"TMI!" But he laughed. "She's not that bad, is she?"

"I promise you, I would rather be shot. Or abducted again."

The dark humor fell flat and Gail sighed. Just one more person she couldn't tell.

To Nan, who left an anon review: If you stick around, Steve will actually demonstrate my answer somewhere around part 4. He uses a knife. If you leave a review with questions, I try to always answer and I may even give you spoilers.