When she had left early this morning, bleary eyed and somewhat shaken, Gail was still there, a quiet sleeping lump under the spare blanket on the couch in her suite. She hoped, dreaded, feared, longed for her to still be there when she returned. She had somehow managed to get out of the tour of the city morgue (oh the irony) this afternoon, and only had only her breakfast meeting and lecture ahead of her until the award ceremony this evening. She rubbed her eyes and went for another cup of coffee. Gail, so broken, and still so beautiful was like a drug to her. It would be so easy to forget all that had transpired between them and simply take her in, again. She hoped she didn't look as ragged as she felt.

A voice behind her woke her from her thoughts. The young man who was her liaison to this conference spoke in a slightly nervous soft voice.

"Excuse me Dr. Stewart, I don't mean to disturb you, but the Chief of Police would very much like to meet you…"

Holly closed her eyes, took a moment to steel herself, got up and extended her hand to the woman standing behind her.

"Hello Elaine, you are looking well." She said

"Well, well, well.." Elaine said, ignoring her hand "Look who has returned to the scene of the crime."

"Always a pleasure to see you too." Holly said, eyes narrowing

"Well… I um, I see you already know each other…" the young man babbled, backing away quickly.

They ignored him, eyes locked in an age-old battle of wills. Elaine Peck had not changed much over the years. Although her hair was now pure white, age had seemingly done nothing to her ramrod straight posture, crisp uniform, and cutting demeanor. Gail used to joke that it was because she fed on the blood of young officers. Elaine Peck might have the entire Toronto Police force under her thumb, but Holly was not backing down, not for an instant.

"What do you want, Elaine?" Holly said in a flat tone.

"Oh, nothing" Elaine purred with dangerous smile "I just wanted to see what brought the famous Dr. Stewart back to our fair city. You know, the one who was too important to care whether my daughter lived or died last year."

"That's not fair Elaine, and you know it." Holly stated as calmly as she could "I had no idea anything had happened to Gail, until I went to the Penny last night."

"Come off it Holly," Elaine's eyes narrowed to blue shards of ice " I know that you are still in contact with my son and those losers from the 15."

They glared at each other in stony silence.

"That's enough Mother!"

They turned to find Gail, breathing hard, leaning heavily on her cane, glaring daggers at the two of them.

"You will not speak to Holly that way." Gail's left eye twitched, causing her scar to throb.

"But darling.." Elaine began

"Don't but darling me. This is none of your business." Gail limped closer to hook Holly by the arm. "Come on Holly, let's get out of here."

She lurched off in the direction of the lobby, dragging Holly with her, leaving her mother standing in the middle of the banquet hall, mouth slightly agape, staring after them. As they entered the elevator on the way back up to Holly's room, Holly began to laugh. Once she started, she couldn't stop.

"Oh my God! Gail!" she gasped, tears running down her face. " I have always wanted to see your mother struck dumb, like that."

Gail was laughing too. She couldn't help it. It hurt and felt so good all at the same time. "I know… I know.." she sputtered

They laughed harder, practically falling over one another. And then they were kissing, like a wildfire, out of control all lips and hands and hips pressing up against the elevator walls, barely aware when it stopped and the doors opened into a thankfully empty hallway. Gail had forgotten that her body had the capacity for this much pleasure. It overwhelmed her. They tumbled out into the hall, still clinging to each other, Gail's good hand grasping Holly's blazer, Holly gripping Gail by the arm.

"Oh my God" Gail whispered leaning her forehead against Holly's.

"Yeah, I know." Said Holly in an equally hushed tone.

"Listen, " She continued, "I can't do this right now." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I need to pull it together, go downstairs and talk about genetic sampling and new innovations in collecting DNA evidence."

"I was going to come" said Gail

"What?" Holly replied confused

"I was going to attend your lecture." Gail stated simply

"You hate all that forensic Bla bla bla.." Holly blinked

"I wanted to see you." Gail admitted

"We could have lunch." Holly smiled " I understand they have a fantastic room service menu."

"I would like that." Gail smiled back. It wasn't much, but it was something.