Thank you for all of your reviews! This chapter is a lot earlier than last one and longer as well. Enjoy and don't be afraid to leave review or message me.


Gail leans her head against the headrest of Holly's office chair and lets out a quiet moan. God, this is the most incredible sensation she's ever experienced in her life. Amazingly, this is Holly's idea and Gail is secretly grateful for Holly's brilliant idea. She normally would never go for this. This is not like her, but she cannot find it in herself to care at the moment.

"God, Holly…" Gail groans before a hint of warm liquid spills out of her mouth.

"Tastes amazing, huh?"

Gail licks all over her lips, gathering juices and not wanting to waste any of it. "This is not possible. How can something so disgustingly healthy be this heavenly?"

Holly looks down, hiding a faint blush on her cheeks from Gail's eyes, and chuckles, "Moongachi Usali."

Gail glares at Holly with her "what the hell are you saying" face. That only spurs Holly to laugh more.

"It's a vegetarian dish made mainly with mung beans."

"No meat or cheese?"

"No. Just beans, spices, chiles, and coconut. I tried it for the first time when I lived in India and I just couldn't stop eating it ever since. It's one of my favorite dishes."

Gail's eyes widen in surprise, "India? You lived there?"

Holly nods, "Yeah for a year and half right after medical school. I was having a some kind of identity crisis at the time and just wanted to get away."

Gail knew the feeling all too well. She recalls her trip to Europe right before she entered the police academy. It was her summer of refuge from the curse and heavy expectations.

"I did the same thing before I entered the police academy," Gail blurts out before realizing she is opening herself to Holly already. What is it with this woman?

Holly is a little surprised by this reveal by Gail and knows she shouldn't take this lightly. She can tell Gail is like a wild cat; distrusting and can give a mean bite, but all warm and soft inside. She asks softly, "Yeah? Where did you go?"

Gail puts her plate down on the desk and starts swiveling her chair back and forth and looks anywhere other than Holly's face, which is giving her too much feeling bubbling up in her chest.

"I went to Europe. France. Italy. Spain. Even Ireland for two days during a layover. It was my last shot at having my freedom."

Why is Gail opening up like this? She barely knows Holly, having only met her last night and they even agreed to be on professional terms. Is this still professional? Gail decides to go with the excuse of building rapport with a co-worker. That's all this is.

Gail notices a framed photo of two girls on Holly's desk. One looks like a younger Holly, maybe thirteen, smiling and sticking her tongue out between her braced teeth. The other one looks older, possibly eighteen, has lighter brown hair than Holly, and one eye shut and another barely open; a terrible attempt at winking. Gail could tell they are sisters. Both wore glasses and have similar facial bone structure, except for the nose.

"I bet that geeky looking girl in the picture is you, Holly."

Holly leans forward to peek at the picture and smirks. "Which one?"

"The only one, Holly. Braces plus glasses equal a total nerd."

"And just glasses isn't?"

"Glasses can be hot. Like a sexy librarian."

"Try a lawyer."

"What?"

Holly dreads this part. She knows this conversation probably will lead to questions about her family. She hates talking about her family because there isn't much to talk about.

"My sister is a lawyer. She works at Ward and Stewart."

Gail notices a hint of sadness in Holly's face. Her smirk disappears and warmth disappears from her skin. That really bothers Gail and she wants to make things better.

"Well, your parents must be proud to have two kids with great careers. A hotshot lawyer and a genius necromancer."

Here it is, Holly thinks to herself. It is almost like coming out as a lesbian. She hates confessing about her dead parents. She wishes there's a better way to disclose the information without making things awkward.

"It's just two of us. Been that way for a long time."

Well, that's an epic failure on Gail's part. Gail never likes to deal with people's emotions and she's awful at sympathy. Might as well be honest.

"Sorry, I'm an asshole. I don't know what to say."

Holly understands and she really doesn't want any pity from anyone. Sure it still hurts, but she moved on years ago. The air between them was getting a little awkward, so Holly does what she does best. She gets up and cleans up her lunch.

"It's fine. It happened long time ago and I'm fine, honestly. Look at the time. I normally don't take a lunch break this long. I should get started. You can stay and eat or whatever. Enjoy your break."

Holly smiles at Gail and leaves the room quickly. Gail's mouth drops open but nothing comes out. Holly's gone before Gail could come up with something. What is she supposed to say? She only needs to be here for the body in the first place. That's her only goal. Definitely just that.

Gail decides to get up and throw away her lunch. All of a sudden she is not hungry. She peeks through the small window on the door and sees Holly going through the sanitation process before starting the autopsy. Pathologists like Holly need to be focused and not distracted during autopsies so they don't miss any details. Gail has worked with many during her tenure at the 27th Division, so she know it's better to sit and wait a while. She trusts herself to find the right timing to do her thing and get out of here.

On the other side of the door, Holly finishes sanitizing herself and walks upon the slab where the body is. Her glasses are already on a small desk along with her tablet. The sheet is removed from top of the body and Holly slowly scans every detail on the body. A hint of blue glow appears throughout the body and intense red flickers on left femoral area. Holly takes a closer look and whispers to herself, "Exsanguination."


Gail wanders around in a tight circle and absorbs all the details about Holly she could find. There is a bookshelf full of medical journals and textbooks all worn. She wonders how many times Holly has read each one of them. A bronze statue of a Hindu style woman playing a stringed instrument acts as a bookend. Gail has no clue what that is supposed to represent, but she has a feeling Holly keeps it as a reminder. The wall between the bookshelf and the desk has five degrees and certificates hung in an orderly fashion. Of course Holly is such a genius, Gail tells herself. And way out of her league. Not that she is even considering Holly as anything except a colleague.

A metallic clang resounds from outside the office and shakes Gail out of her inner thoughts. She walks out to see Holly taking off her gloves and the body gone from the table. Holly must've put the body away already.

Gail asks,"All done?"

Holly abruptly looks at Gail and gasps, "God, you startled me."

Gail quips, "Mission accomplished. What did you find from the autopsy?"

Holly grabs her glasses and puts it on. "Well some evidence is still being processed, so I don't have all the information. However, I can tell you that the bone fractures definitely imply an impact by a vehicle. Most likely something a little bit big like a SUV or small truck. The cause of death is exsanguination. According to the small size of the tear in the femoral artery, he was alive for approximately an hour from time of impact."

Gail grimaces, "So that means he could've survived if the suspect had called for an ambulance."

Holly sighs, "It's not guaranteed but he could've had a chance. Definitely paralyzed, but still a chance."

Gail hates this type of death. Not only is the victim an innocent, but it took him a while to die. She really doesn't want to do what she has to. But, it will be all worth it once she sees who did it. Tonight is not going to be a good night.

Holly could see the tone of struggle on Gail's face. She notices Gail lightly biting her bottom lip with just her top teeth and she is looking at something behind Holly. She knows Gail is pretending to look at her while avoiding actual eye contact. Gail needs Holly to keep it professional and keep emotions out of the conversation and Holly knows it.

"I collected a lot of samples from the body. I found what looks like car paint and maybe pieces of metal. It's possible to find out car model depending on the result. I'll let you know as soon as possible if anything comes out."

Now, Gail needs to come up with an excuse to remain in the morgue alone. She looks around for something… anything to use. Holly follows her eyesight and cautiously asks, "Is everything alright?"

Gail freezes and stutters faintly, "Umm, I—"

A cell phone rings in a pocket on Gail's jacket. She takes it out and sees Traci's name flashing.

"I need to get this, Holly. Why don't you go ahead and get started on those samples you got there. I'll get out of here when I'm done with this call."

"Okay, I'll give you a call when I get results."

Gail nods and waves before answering her phone. "What you got, Traci?"

"Straight to the business, huh?"

"Yep, I just spoke with Dr. Stewart about her autopsy result. Cause of death is bleeding out through the femoral artery. Dr. Stewart estimates that he probably was alive for up to an hour after he got hit."

"Jesus. We got a footage from a security camera from the beauty salon. Good news is we got the incident recorded. Bad news is the suspect's face is too blurry to be identified. We know it's a male so that's a start. The vehicle in question is a Porsche Cayenne and the plates aren't legible either."

"Porsche huh? Must be a rich boy."

"Most likely.

Gail ponders, " That's odd. I get the hunch that they knew each other. Why else would he cover the victim with his coat? Drag him all the way behind the dumpster?"

"We just need to do old fashioned detective work and talk to people who knew the victim and go from there."

Gail isn't going to wait around. She's going to find out tonight.

"Alright, let's meet up at the station tomorrow morning and we will compare our work."

"Sounds good, Gail."

"You know… you aren't bad." Gail reluctantly admits.

"Yeah, I like you too. We will make a great team. Good night," Traci laughs before hanging up.

Gail smiles and puts her cell phone back in the pocket. She is glad she got a partner that seems to work well together. Her last several partners were dumb and boring, and that is Gail being nice. She takes a deep breath and walk over to the exit doors and peeks through the windows. Not a hint of a soul in the hallway as far as Gail can see. All is clear, she tells herself and walks back to the refrigerated storage units. Gail likes to call those body lockers. She finds Edward Stevens' tag number on a door in the middle and two doors to her left. She heads over and opens the door to drag out the body on the tray. She peeks over her shoulder just to check one more time and the coast still seems to be clear. The body of Edward Stevens is still covered with a white sheet.

Her heart begins to beat increasingly faster.

Gail grasps her chest and shut her eyes tight. No matter how many time she has done this, she still gets swallowed by the anxiety. Knowing what is certainly to come doesn't make it easier. It just makes it worse.

"This is the gift you're bestowed. It is your honor to carry the burden. You're a Peck. Just suck it up and you'll get used to it. We all have our own pain we carry."

A mirage of Elaine Peck appears in Gail's mind, scolding these words at her. The message has been drilled deep into Gail's memory. She takes a deep breath before opening her eyes and pushes her inner turmoil aside.

Gail's hand slowly reaches for a corner of the sheet and drags it over the body to the abdomen. Edward Stevens' face remains stoic and eyes shut as if he is asleep. Good, just rest and justice will be served soon. Slowly, Gail places her right hand palm on the arm in front of her. The tips of her fingers tingle at the moment of contact and she knows it's done. There's no turning back. Never was in the first place.

The body was hurriedly put back where it belonged and Gail gathers her stuff from Holly's office and heads out of the lab. She pauses in the hallway as her stomach growls. Geez, time for dinner. Cheese puffs will be a big part of her dinner tonight since Holly tricked her into eating that healthy crap. Delicious but still she needs fake cheese in her tummy.

Gail chuckles to herself as she heads for the exit. However, she fails to notice a shadowy figure hiding around the corner in the opposite direction of where Gail is heading. After Gail walks through an exit door, Holly appears out from her hiding spot. Holly already caught what Gail had been doing with the body in the room.

She asks herself, "What was Gail doing? Is she…?"