You're awoken by a profoundly annoying ringing. You look up at the clock, the red lights shining "3:45" into the darkness of your room. For another second you wonder why someone hasn't answered their phone yet. Then, you recognize the ringtone, it's the custom ringtone you set for Holly. You slap your hand on your bedside table but your phone isn't in it's usual place. You must've fallen asleep holding it while you played candy crush. Jumping up from the bed you scramble trying to find the phone. If Holly is calling at this time it must be something important. You fling your blanket to the side and hear something solid hit the floor. The ringing stops as you grab your phone from the ground. Just as you're about to call her back it rings again. As soon as you slide your finger across the screen and bring the phone up to your ear she starts talking.
"Gail? Oh thank God."
"Holly?" you whisper, in fear of waking up the others in the house. "What's wrong? What is it?"
"Can you come over? Like, NOW"
Before she's even done asking the question you're sliding your pants over your hips and shoving your foot in a shoe. "I'm leaving now. Holly, what's wrong?"
"It's probably nothing, and I'm probably being stupid but I think I hear something outside my door."
Her words cause you to speed up even more. Before you know it you're already speeding towards her apartment building.
"I'll stay on the phone until I get there. Holly where are you? Where in your apartment." you ask frantically, speeding through a red light. No one is on the road at this hour and besides, you're a cop.
"My room." she breathes and you speed up a little more.
"I'm right around the corner, what did you hear?"
"Um, at first it sounded like my handle turning and then like...scratching, almost."
You slam on the brakes as you enter the parking lot, not even bothering to park in a parking place.
"Holly. Stay on the phone. I'm here." you whisper as you quietly enter her building. You pull the phone away from your ear and hear what faintly sounds like metal scratching against metal. You start up the stairs and reach for your gun quickly remembering you're not in uniform. You figure you can take someone down if you need to, and grip the phone tighter. You're almost at the top of the stairs when you see it, a dark figure a few doors down, right around where you know Holly's door to be. You step a little too loudly on the top step and the figure turns towards you and runs. You only have time to yell "Hey" before he's pushed past you, knocking your phone out of your hand and almost sending you down the stairs. You regain your balance and chase after the guy. He's out the door before you reach the end of the stairs but you're close enough to see him turn right.
You jump the last couple of stairs and burst out the door. As you turn right you see him just a few yards ahead of you. You push yourself to reach him but he's much faster than you. He looks behind him and when he sees you he takes a sharp right in between two buildings. Once you get to where he turned, he's disappeared. You quickly walk through the pathway checking for hiding places but quickly deduce that he's long gone. Remembering that Holly is still in her apartment, probably scared shitless you jog back to her door, and knock. When she doesn't answer you knock again, but accompany it with a "Holly. It's Gail." As you back away from the door you realize whoever you chased away left his lock-pick in the lock.
The door swings open and you are immediately engulfed in Holly. Her face is buried in your neck and her hands are gripping at the back of your shirt. You wrap an arm around her waist and run your fingers through her hair.
"Hey, it's okay. I'm here babe."
She pulls away slightly but is still clinging to your Pink Floyd shirt you sleep in. "You're okay?" she asks, looking you up and down.
"I'm fine. I promise." You whisper, reaching behind you to grab her hand. "We should probably call the cops." you say leading her back into her apartment. After you call and they say they're sending someone over you look at Holly and raise an eyebrow. "You probably should've called the cops first."
You're staring at the ceiling in the darkness, one arm behind your head and the other wrapped securely around Holly. Even though Chris (who was the officer on scene) assured Holly that the guy most likely wouldn't come back you could tell that she was still scared. You didn't blame her, if someone tried to pick their way into your home you'd be a little apprehensive too. So you casually mention that it wouldn't be a problem if she came home with you. As soon as the words were out of your mouth she looked at you like she wanted to kiss you. Instead of making a move like you so badly wanted you just chuckled and offered to help her pack a bag
When you got back to your room she stayed by the door holding her bag. You were pulling some sheets out of the closet when you saw her standing there, out the corner of your eye. You made a comment about making herself at home and she replied with a scoff and a tiny "This is the first time i've been in your room you know."
She insisted that you let her sleep on the floor because she wasn't going to kick you out of the bed. After a minute of going back and forth she compromised by suggesting that you share the bed. So now here you are, with Holly curled into your side and your arm half asleep because you don't want to risk waking her by moving it. You lay there a few more minutes, nothing really running through your head except the fact that once again, Holly is in your arms. She gives a little groan and her arm tightens around your waist for a second. You look at her face, waiting for the tell-tale sign that she's waking up. She scrunches her nose and you let out a sigh, moving your arm just a little in order to wake it up. As soon as you get comfortable again she abruptly sits up. She starts to swing her legs over the side of the bed but you roll over and stop her.
"Gail, I am going to be late for work." she yawns attempting to swat your hand away.
You look at the clock and scrunch your eyebrows. "Do you always wake up at 6? There wasn't even a timer set."
"It's called an internal clock. Gail, I'm serious. Let go."
"You're not going to work." You say rolling on top of her, successfully pinning her to the bed.
She throws her head back on the pillow and huffs, and you think you hear a tiny "gail" from behind the mass of hair that has fallen on her face. You gently brush the hair away from her face and grin. "For someone who has only gotten an hour of sleep you are extremely adorable."
"Gail. I am being serious." she's trying to keep a straight face but you can see the smile she wants to let out at your comment.
"Holly. I'm serious." you mock her. "You've slept for an hour, maybe less. Someone tried to break into your apartment last night. You are not going to work. I've already texted your boss, she agrees that it's best if you take a day off. You've been working yourself too hard anyway."
She doesn't say anything, she just stares at you. You place a lingering kiss on her forehead and roll off of her and onto your back. Your eyes are closed again but you feel the bed move and you know she's sat up.
"Gail."
"hmm"
You feel her hand on your neck, her fingertips moving towards your cheek. When you open your eyes Holly stops watching her fingers and meets your gaze. Her thumb trails softly over your bottom lip and down to your chin.
"You're amazing you know that?" she says keeping eye contact.
You want to turn away from her attention and compliments but you can't bring yourself to do it. Instead you bring your hand up to rest on her bicep and she continues to explore your face with her feather-light touch.
"I'm far from it Holly."
She just shakes her head and moves so shes straddling your legs. She moves her hand to your shoulder and leans down so her head is resting on your chest.
"You're an amazing person Gail. I hate that you don't see it. I see it in you every day, sometimes you make it hard, and sometimes you make it almost impossible." She lifts up just enough so she can meet your eyes once again and you lay your arm across her back. "No matter how hard you make it though, I always see it, it's always shining through. You glow Gail" she smiles and rests her hand on your cheek.
"Holly-" you start but you don't get any farther because her lips are on yours. She tilts her head and her hair falls around you like a curtain, keeping the kiss a secret from the darkness. You tighten your hand around her bicep as she gives a slight tug to your bottom lip. She has completely engulfed your senses and you have no objections. It's been ages since you've been kissed like this. It's slow, yet powerful. It reaches to your very core and wakes up something inside you. You've missed this, not just her lips but her. You miss the way she feels in your arms, you miss the way her muscles react when you run your hand up her back, the way she giggles after you kiss just behind her ear. You're taken out of your thoughts when she pulls away from you and lingers with her lips and inch from yours.
As she moves her hand to your hair you close your eyes and breath out a simple, "I miss you."
She moves away from your mouth and presses a kiss to your neck, then your cheek and rests her head to your chest again. "I miss you too." she whispers into your shirt. It's followed by a quiet "Thanks. Thanks for being there."
"Always."
She wraps her arms around you and you whisper into the darkness a hundred more times that you miss her and you think, that you wouldn't change a thing about this moment.