A/N – So this chapter is a bit involved. It seemed to me like this would be the unfortunate progression the Ford case would take. I am afraid our heroes are still in a pretty dark place. I thank you, as always, for the feedback and apologize in advance for my complete and total lack of police jargon and process.

Walking into the station, it took less than two minutes to realize the day was going to be hellish. Chris was waiting at the entrance of the lockers with updates on Chloe and Sam. Both were stable but not out of the woods. Oliver was being released that day, but wouldn't return to work for another week. Gail let out a small sigh of relief – at least that wasn't bad news. It's what else Chris had to say that made her know she was in for a grueling shift.

At some point very early that morning, Gabe Ford confessed to the abduction and 'accidental death' of the little boy three years ago. To try and save himself, he also gave up the names of three men - local businessmen like him appearing to be upstanding citizens – that shared a child pornography ring together. Luke had already requested from Frank a team that included Traci, Chris, and Gail to take them all down that as quickly as possible before any could run or hide evidence.

As Gail changed into her uniform, she allowed her mind to wonder to Holly and this thing of a relationship she had found herself falling into. In part she knew she was just trying to keep herself from being sick knowing the type of people she was going to come into contact with that day. In any case, Holly was a nice distraction to the more horrific aspects of her job. Actually Holly was just as nice distraction period.

As much as she tried to focus on the way Holly challenged and mystified her, her thoughts kept circling back to walking down more hallways trying not to show her inner-terror and going through more doors not knowing what was waiting on the other side. She found herself silently praying over and over that there wouldn't be children found during the raids. She could feel the coffee she had for breakfast trying to make a re-appearance and it took everything she had to push down the bitter pill that was going to be the next few hours. She reminded herself that one day of her own horror could stop countless days of horror for some innocent child out there alone hiding in the dark. It's why she did this job. She wondered how many times she was going to have to tell herself that today to make it through to the other side unscathed.

If her day was going to be this bad, Gail knew Holly's was going to be about the same. It may not involve physical danger, but all the evidence would land in the lab and need processed. Whereas Gail could turn away after a moment; Holly had to keep looking, studying the atrocities buried in the evidence. That poor little boy's body was going to have to be unearthed as well. Gail hung her head in sorrow thinking about it and she begged whatever higher power that would listen to not choose Holly as the forensic pathologist on the case. She knew it would be her though. For as young as she was, Holly was already getting to be at the top of her field and they always requested her for the most difficult cases. Gail imagined Holly walking into her office right about now having a similar conversation with boss as she had with Chris. The whole thing was turning her stomach.

"Hey, Luke wants us to meet him at my desk in five. Frank is letting us skip parade." Traci said to Gail as she quickly walked over to her locker throwing her bag in before grabbing her gun. She placed the gun on the bench before taking a seat herself to fix her shoes.

Gail noticed the tired, yet resolute look on her friend's face. It was a look Gail had seen before cross Traci when there were children involved in a case. It was times like this Gail wished she was better with words, but instead she just nodded her head in acknowledgement and sat down to lace her own boots.

She liked Traci. Even before Jerry's death she had liked her. Traci didn't come off as openly strong or confident as Gail or some of the other female cops; she had a more quiet determination and self-assurance that Gail felt was far less of an act or show. She would never admit it aloud, but she respected Traci a great deal and was really happy when she got the detective job. Traci was easily her closest female friend. Well Holly was, but Holly was in her own very-unique, yet-to-be fully-vocalized category these days.

Traci finished up and stood turning toward Gail. "Did you get any sleep last night?"

Gail stood as well and began walking toward the door, accounting for her ammunition, and getting ready to head out. "I crashed for a few hours. It seemed like minutes though. You?"

"Barely; we stayed at the hospital a little while longer after you left and then grabbed some pancakes at that diner around the corner from the hospital." Gail didn't need Traci to explain who the "we" was. They walked out of the locker room, towards the detective room with Chris catching up somewhere in between.

"My brother has an addiction to late-night pancake runs. He is such a weirdo. He used to wake me up in the dead-of-night when he was home on college break just to drag me to some new diner he heard about. Wait until he starts wanted to bring Leo along. The morning-after upset stomach from eating chocolate chip and banana pancakes with whipped cream and ice cream at two a.m is not a fun ride."

Traci couldn't help but smile thinking about the three of them sneaking away in the middle of the night for a secret pancake run. She could tell by the way Gail recalled the story, that she held it as a close and warm memory herself. Still, "Yeah, we're not quite there yet," was all she decided to say on the subject. Today was not a day to chat about relationships and pancake parties. If it were, she would have had a few things to add about seeing Gail holding the hand of that forensics woman pretty closely at the hospital; another day perhaps.

Chris leaned against the desk waiting for Luke to show up. He casually listened to Gail and Traci making idle conversation about pancakes, distracting them from what they were going to do today. His own thoughts bounced between Christian; Dov and Chloe; and the two women in front of him. Both Traci and Gail shared his nervous energy, but they also seemed to have something he didn't – lifelines. In the few minutes they were waiting, Steve had already popped his head in to make sure they were careful and give a not-so-subtle wink to Traci. Gail had barely even registered her brother's appearance because she was texting someone back and forth. She didn't come out and say who it was, but Chris was pretty sure it was Holly.

He couldn't help but observe his former girlfriend and very good friend from afar last night at the hospital. He noticed earlier how close Holly stood next to Gail at the station when they were talking, but just took it as two people who were good friends. Even when he saw Holly back away, he didn't give it a second thought. He knew Gail well enough to know that it only took a few sentences from her to get someone to step back or head for the nearest exit. It's what she did when she didn't want her space invaded and for some reason Holly coming into the station was definitely invading Gail's very high-walled space.

Things were different at the hospital though. Gail was too exhausted to hold up her guard and Chris couldn't help but take in how quickly she morphed into the more serene Gail he occasionally got to see sitting on their couch enjoying a book (an activity she would never admit she often did when people weren't around) the second she spotted Holly. What he and Gail had was great in its own way, but he knew he never had that effect on her. In the end, he got exactly the relationship he was meant to have with his blonde roommate – she became the sister he never had and he couldn't help himself from being a little excited and bemused by what this new relationship was going to do to turn the edgier parts of Gail's personality on its head.

All three stood up straight as Luke hurriedly walked into the room. He wasted no time getting to business. "Thomas Jaroby, Simon Walker and Paul Kosinski – surveillance has them all at home. The warrants are processed and we're ready to go. Nash, you are leading evidence collection. I need a central point-of-contact to work with all units and the lab. Once the homes are cleared and the men are arrested, start at Kosinski's. Ford identified him as the ringleader. You make sure nothing in that house gets missed. We are going to do this right the first time."

Luke inhaled sharply collecting his thoughts before continuing, "Peck and Diaz, you both are leading the Kosinski arrest. Martinez and Silver are backing you. Call for more if you need it. Take five to get your plan together, talk to me and make sure they have it before you go in. I've got two more teams doing the same with Jaroby and Walker. "

Gail and Chris glanced in each other's direction quickly, both thinking the same thing. They didn't lead high-profile takedowns; they were rookies and rookies were typically back-up. It wasn't the time or the place to question their shift in roles, but they both recognized the significance of the responsibility, especially on this particular case.

Ten minutes later, Gail, Chris, Traci and Luke were all rapidly heading to their respective cars reviewing details of each arrest and making sure everyone was in place – this was going to be done fast and it was going to be done right. Gail grabbed the keys to their cruiser on the way out and jumped in the driver's seat. Without debate, Chris got in the passenger-side as he continued to go over the plan over the phone repeatedly with Martinez and Silver.

A few minutes later he hung up and turned toward Gail. "This is it, Gail. This is us taking on more. I thought I would be really excited for this day, but I'm actually kinda sick to my stomach."

"Chris, we are about to go arrest some perv whack job. If you weren't sick to your stomach, I would send you back to that shrink Frank made us all go see."

Chris fidgeted in his seat fixing his vest. "It's gonna work. We've arrested people before. This isn't new. It's just not usually us leading the charge, but we're good at this, you know."

Gail nodded her head trying to reassure her partner as she made the turn into Kosinski's neighborhood – it was the same idyllic neighborhood she grew up in which unnerved her slightly. She may not have had the greatest childhood in the world, but she recognized it was nothing even close to the terror that was likely taking place five streets east.

She pulled the cruiser out-of-site from the house and reached for her radio. "Dispatch, 15-07 on scene….15-42, what's your twenty?"

The two officers listened as Martinez and Silver confirmed they were on scene and ready to take position. Gail quickly glanced in Chris' direction affirming his "go." She put her foot on the gas once more and drove it the additional yards into Kosinski's drive. Martinez was right behind and all four quickly got out of the vehicles heading for the house. Diaz motioned for Martinez and Silver to take the back as Gail and he hurriedly took the front entrance.

With guns drawn, Gail allowed for two unanswered knocks each followed by a shout that they were the police and to open the door immediately. With no response, Gail radioed the other unit to stand firm as she made one final attempt before taking the door down. Before her knuckles could hit the door they hear a shot fired and a window breaking from the top floor of the house. Without a second thought, the door was broken and both ran up the stairs with Diaz calling it in, giving the "go" to the second unit to clear the rest of the house and getting additional back-up in position.

Gail could feel her heart practically beating out of her chest. She allowed her years of training to take over as she rounded the corner at the top of the stairs ahead of Chris. Three open doors and one closed at the end of the hall, she had no doubt as to which one Kosinski was in. Of all days, why couldn't she have gotten the one that surrendered quietly? Shethen reminded herself that there could be a child in that room and forced herself to be on even higher alert.

They quickly glanced in the other rooms, noting their emptiness, before standing in front of the closed door. With no more than a second delay, Chris opened the door as Gail stepped in - gun first - both assessing the situation quickly and ready to draw fire. Both their weapons and eyes immediately faced the man sitting at the large mahogany desk. He was shaking like a leaf, tears running down his face, and held a gun to his temple. The window behind him was broken and the wind was causing a hissing sound through the shattered glass. He clearly had tried to take his own life a few moments prior and either missed spectacularly or cowered out at the last second shooting behind him instead.

Gail aimed her gun directly on the man's chest. She couldn't help but wish the man had just done it and ended this whole thing. Instead they were going to have to talk him down. He had too much information and should have to spend the rest of his life in prison. She wasn't going to let him take the easy way out and she would be damned before she played a role in any "suicide by cop" plan he may have had.

"Paul Kosinski?" Chris inquired as he took a step forward becoming parallel with Gail. The man tearfully nodded his head in confirmation and he pushed the gun deeper into his temple.

Gail slowly took one hand off her weapon, never distracting from her target and reached for her radio. Kosinski's eye caught the movement and he started to stammer. "What are you doing? Stop it. Everything just needs to stop."

Gail locked eyes with the man and placed her left hand, palm out, towards him showing she was not trying to harm him. "Mr. Kosinski, I need to call this in. There was a shot fired. If I don't use the radio, a lot of cops are going to be running up these stairs very very soon and things are going to get very ugly very fast. You don't want that, do you Mr. Kosinski?"

"I…I didn't mean for it to go off. I heard the door open and…leave me alone, just leave me alone. I didn't do anything wrong. This is all a mistake. Gabe hates me. He's trying to frame me. I didn't do anything wrong."

Gail quietly radioed in the situation before turning back to the blubbering man before her. She didn't believe she was in danger of intentionally being shot at, but she had no such belief that both her and Chris could be caught in erratic shooting when this man fell right off the cliff he was already barely standing on. She caught the corner of Chris' eye and, with one slight nod, motioned that she was going to take the lead. Chris confirmed by taking a slight step away from her forcing the man to concentrate his attention on Gail's voice.

"Mr. Kosinski, we are just here to bring you to the station so you can talk to the detectives. You want the opportunity to tell your side of the story, don't you? If you shoot that gun, no one will ever know that Gabe framed you. They will never know of your innocence."

"You're a liar. You're just saying that to get me to leave. I'm not leaving." Kosinski waved his gun forward as he was ranting. Both Chris and Gail immediately stiffened their backs and gripped their guns tighter.

"Mr. Kosinski, drop your weapon now. I will shoot you. That is not how you want this to end, I promise. If you die in this room, the world will believe you are guilty of all the horrible things Gabe Ford accused you. Look at you, Paul. That's not you. You own a factory. You give to the community. That's Paul Kosinski. Are you going to let Ford win?"

"I want immunity."

Gail took a second to weigh her response. This lunatic was all over the place and she didn't consider herself the most equipped at handling this. Somehow though she was knee deep in it and no one was being shot at yet so there was that. "Mr. Kosinski, drop your weapon and step out from behind the desk and we will take you to the station where you can talk to the lawyers about immunity. Officer Diaz and I are only here to drive you to the station. Come on, Mr. Kosinski, no one has to die today."

"You'll let me talk to them about immunity?"

"Of course we will. You can tell them your story. Tell them you were set-up. They'll listen. They know Ford is the real bad guy." At this point, Gail was ready to throw in everything she could possibly offer to get them out of this situation.

Much to her surprise, Kosinski began to lower his weapon onto the desk. As a show of good-faith she slightly lowered hers as well. Chris kept his firmly in place, but Kosinski wasn't looking in his direction. Both Gail and Chris didn't move a muscle waiting for the next move. Kosinski starting crying even harder as the gun firmly landed on the desk and he pushed the chair away enough from the desk for Chris to move forward and grab the weapon.

Gail also headed toward the man grabbing his arm with her one hand to contain him as she radioed in that the situation was under control. Seconds later, Silver and Martinez were in the room and Gail handed off the physical arrest to Diaz as she assessed the room. There was a closet door near the desk that caught her attention. She waited until Diaz, Martinez and Silver started walking out of the room with the Kosinskit before taking a step towards the door. As she reached for the handle, Traci walked in.

"You alright?" Traci inquired as she walked in, taking notice of the blonde standing there looking at the door not hearing the question. Traci arrived on scene within minutes of Gail's radio to dispatch. She was one of the cops standing in the hallway hearing the situation go down, praying one or two more of her friends weren't going to end up in the hospital that day. Gail didn't outwardly appear too shaken up as she was too busy contemplating what was behind that door. Traci was now standing next to her wondering the same thing.

"Kosinski's eyes darted in this direction a few times during his ranting. Whatever is behind here, he was protecting it."

Both women steadied themselves knowing whatever was behind there needed to be let out in the open. There was no amount of academy training that could prepare you for something like this. Gail un-holstered her gun as Traci wrapped her fingers around the knob. She slowly turned it, surprised it wasn't locked. Kosinski clearly knew they were coming for him, but must have been taken by surprise by how quickly they got there. As the door opened, Gail pointed her weapon into the darkness dropping it when she saw no immediate danger.

What she did see though almost destroyed her. A library of countless files, magazines, videos; all purposely and meticulously organized. The names on the labels alone were enough to make both women turn in disgust.

Traci whispered blankly, "We'll process all of this. He will be put in the deepest darkest hole we can find in prison."

Gail swallowed hard trying to keep her composure. If she stood here even a second longer, she was going to become violently ill. She slowly backed out of the office with Traci following close behind. "I need to get him to the station. He wants to talk to someone about immunity," Gail spat out as she walked down the stairs and out the front door.

"I don't believe that conversation is going to go very well for him." Traci commented as she began to turn toward the forensic unit making sure they had all of Luke's orders. She stopped before fully reaching them and turned once more to Gail. "Hey, you did a really good thing today."

Gail just half-smiled in the direction of her friend acknowledging the compliment before heading to her cruiser.

The day progressed very much like it began. Once Kosinski knew immunity wasn't going to be an option and they had the contents of the closet, he cracked completely. Walker came in quietly confessing immediately and Jaroby did what Kosinski couldn't and shot himself before the cops where on scene. Kosinski and Walker's confessions led to three more arrests that day alone. Gail and Chris were part of two of them.

By six o'clock, Gail thought she was going to fall over. She was sitting on the bench in front of her locker staring into space. She was going to break. She didn't know when or how spectacular of a show it would be, but it was going to happen.

Her phone startled her when it vibrated with a text – her mother congratulating her on the Peck name being front and center in such a large and high profile bust. No inquiry on if she was ok. It was all very typical Elaine Peck. She felt the phone vibrate again and almost didn't look down - one text a day from her mother was her limit. It vibrated then again and she relented. The texts were from Holly: she was first apologizing profusely for having to stay in the lab very late (she did get the case of the little boy) but could maybe sneak out soon to grab a quick bite to eat and the second was to make sure she was alright.

They had been texting back and forth all day trying to support each other as best they could. Gail told Holly she had arrested the pedophile, but she didn't go into detail about what happened during the arrest. She wanted to talk about it in person. It almost worried Gail how much she needed to see Holly. She never had wanted the physical presence of someone the way she wanted…needed to be around the other woman. She tried chalking it up to a side-effect of the extreme stress the last few days had brought, but she knew deep-down it was something else. She was falling for this woman. It wasn't something she could process quite yet and certainly didn't know how to vocalize it, but it was there.

Gail jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head and found Traci taking a seat next to her. Both women shared a knowing look before Traci began, "Go home, Gail. Go home and sleep, or drink, or something to get away from this place for a while. You deserve it."

"So do you. Are you going to the hospital?" Gail inquired as she rubbed her hands over her face in exhaustion.

"Not tonight… in the morning. Sam is doing better…Andy's still with him. Chloe's pressure has gone down slightly and the doctor's are more optimistic."

"Good. Good. I should go make sure Dov is okay." Gail stood and reached for her coat in the locker.

Traci stood and stared thoughtfully at her friend placing a hand back on her shoulder. "Gail. Stop. Chris went to get Dov. They're fine. Take care of yourself."

Gail turned her lip slightly into the beginnings of a smile. "You should take care of yourself too. Go find my weirdo brother. Go home; get your son and then go have the biggest and most sugary pancake breakfast you can find. I promise you, you will not regret it until the morning."

"You know, that actually sounds like a pretty good idea. How about I make a deal with you…"

Gail never agreed to anything without full knowledge of what was involved. "Spill it, Nash."

Traci laughed. "How about I grab Steve and Leo and you run down to the lab and grab the mysterious brunette you keep hidden down there and we all go for pancakes."

Gail's first reaction was to recoil. Traci was implying Holly and Gail were a couple like her and Steve. She didn't know how to react to people thinking that. But this wasn't a random person, it was Traci - her friend that she trusted and respected; her friend that she shared another horrible day with; her friend that was causing her brother to wink in the middle of the police station.

Gail huffed in dramatic concession as she pulled her phone out of her pocket to text Holly. "It will have to be somewhere really close. She has to be back to get through all the work you detectives gave her. And her name is Holly, by the way, not 'mysterious brunette'."

As they walked out the door into the cold evening air, Gail bumped her shoulder against Traci's in thanks. Another day was ending.