Chapter 4: Camping

It was summer and Gail and Holly were dating for 5 months now. Everybody knew about them even Gail's parents. They really like Holly. Elaine said that Holly would be a good influence on her daughter. Gail did not care that her mother was more impressed with Holly her diplomas and achievements than Holly herself. Her mother liked her and that was the most important thing. Gail still lived with Chris and Dov but was not home that often and when she was, Holly was mostly there as well. It wasn't like they all of a sudden became siamese twins or something, they just slept better when they were wrapped in each others arms.

A week ago Gail, Chris and Dov came home drunk after a night at the penny. When they came in Holly and Chloe were watching a movie, drinking tea under a blanket and talking. It wasn't late, only 9:30, but the trio went straight to the bar after shift and that was at 15:30. So hence the little drunkenness.

"Well hello there lovely ladies!" Dov said with a huge smile on his face. "How was your evening?" He asked the both of them before he kissed Chloe who sat up straight in order to kiss Dov.

"Good! And apparently yours as well." Chloe said.

"Oh yeah, it was fun!" Chris answered. "Gail and Dov played pool and Dov lost the bet so he had to stand on stage in his underwear.

"We have pictures! Wanna see?" Gail asked while she walked over to the couch, pulled up Holly her blanket and went to lay beside Holly resting her head on her shoulder with Holly her arm now wrapped around her. Gail her legs entangled with Holly's.

"Sure! Why not." Holly said before giving Gail her welcome home kiss.

Chris got some beers for all of them and after they all settled in, they talked about their evening at the penny. Gail showed the pictures on her phone, there were even pictures of her. Those pictures made Holly laugh out loud, especially the picture where she was in Chris's neck with a crown on her head a plant in one hand and a piece of paper in the other. She won the contest of eating the most chips in a minute. You see one day it would come in handy that Gail ate a lot off Cheese Puffs.

"Next time you guys should come!" Chris said.

"Yeah how about next weekend?" Dov asked with a lot of enthusiasm.

"No babe, that is not possible. Remember we are going camping with Andy." Chloe told him.

"Right... Hey but you guys can join us. Don't you and Chris have the weekend off as well?" Dov asked towards Gail.

"Count me in!" Chris said.

"Well, I don't know. I'm not really a camping person, remember! And besides Holly and I were planning on doing something together."

"The invitation counts for her as well, Gail." Dov fired back.

Gail looked at Holly. She really wanted to spent some quality time with her girlfriend but spending time with her friends, drinking beer, making jokes, making fun of Dov … really sounded nice. Except the camping part of course. Holly looked back and whispered. "I don't mind sharing you, I'm in if you say yes." This made Gail smile. Holly really wanted to come and hang out on her free weekend with her and her loser friends. This fact made her very happy. "Okay, we will be there." Gail said rather annoyed but secretly looking forward to it.

The five of them stayed up 'till 00:30, that's when Gail saw Holly yawning. "This is our cue, the doctor is yawning and it is way past our bedtime anyway. We have work tomorrow so we are going to bed" Gail said while giving Holly a kiss on the cheek to let her know that she was tired herself.

"I'm going as well" Chris told them. "I think I'm on patrol with Gail tomorrow and I'm better to deal with her grumpiness when I had a good night of sleep."

"Hey!" Gail yelled while punching Chris in the stomach right after she got up from the couch.

"Well good night, see you in the morning." Chloe said.

"Yeah, looking forward to your chipper happiness and high voice way to early in the morning" Gail said with a fake happy kind of voice while she was hugging Holly from behind with her hands wrapped around her waist and Holly her hands over Gail's.

"Good night. Thanks for the lovely evening." Holly said while pushing herself against Gail so they were now walking backwards towards the bedroom still within the embrace.

"I'm looking forward to the camping trip!" Dov yelled. But only had a loud slam of a door in response. Dov looked at Chloe, who just smiled. Then they heard giggles, yeah actual giggles that Gail was producing, and that made Dov his eyes grow bigger.
"We are so not getting any sleep tonight with those two in there." Dov said while pointing towards Gail her bedroom.

"Nope." was all Chloe could say preparing herself for a sleepless night.

Xxxx

All the rookies and Steve finished their shift at 13:00 and were ready for the camping trip. Steve, Traci, Leo and Chris were in one car while Dov, Chloe and Andy where in the other. Holly had to work 'till 15:00 so Gail and her took Holly's moss-green Jeep wrangler after she got home to change out of her work clothes. It was an hour and a half trip. The sun was shining, Gail had her aviator glasses and the radio was playing all the right songs. There were the good songs and there were the bad songs, where the two of them just sung along with; both knowing the words. First there was 'Thunderstruck' by AC/DC, Gail danced along the song, playing air guitar with her rock face that Holly just thought was adorable. Later on there was 'bootylicious' followed by 'Kiss' from Prince where Gail gave Holly a kiss each time the word presented it self. This made Holly really happy, getting kisses from Gail and seeing her so care-free.

After half an hour they had to make a pitstop because Gail forgot to pee at home. Plus she was already hungry. While Gail was in the bathroom, Holly would get the snacks and they would meet up at the car. When Holly walked back towards the car, she saw Gail standing against the drivers door all looking casual with her hands in her pockets and glasses on. Holly just could not help it, she just had to smile.

"What took you so long, Lunchbox. I'm waiting here for like 5 minutes now."

"That long huh." Holly mocked Gail.

"Yeah well, I missed you." Gail replied. She pulled at the loops of Holly her jeans so she was able to kiss her. The kiss was really soft, slow and sweet, with open mouths but no tongue. Just like the kiss they shared in the bathtub. Gail pulled away looked at the snacks in Holly her arms, smiled, gave Holly one last peck and walked over to the passenger side of the car while she yelled; "SNACKS". This made Holly laugh out loud, Gail was really hungry by the sound of things.

Xxxx

50 minutes later they arrived and were welcomed by the others. The place looked lovely. They were in the woods near a small river that ran trough the mountains. The campsite was on a hill where you could see the river on one side and a beautiful view of mountains and trees (near a cliff) on the other side. Leo ran over towards Gail as soon as he saw her.

"GAIL, Gail! Come and see! It is really beautiful." Leo took Gail her hand and pulled her towards the edge of the cliff so she could see the view.

"Wow, buddy this is really nice. Did you choose this spot?"

"Yeah, me, Chris and Dov. When we arrived we did some exploring."

"Anything embarrassing that happened?"

"Yeah, Chris and Dov really made fools out off themselves." Leo started telling.

While Leo and Gail were talking, laughing and joking, mostly about those two idiots, the others helped Holly unpack. When their tent was all set and the food and drinks they brought along were on the picknick-table and into a coolbox, Holly looked over at Gail and Leo.

"They are cute together, aren't they?" Traci said.

Holly smiled. "Yes, totally adorable. Gail is really good with kids."

"Well that's because she can talk 'kid'."

"She really feels at ease around Leo. They are a good team."

"So are you guys." Traci stated. "She really likes you, you know." Holly her smile grew even bigger. "She always acts tough or like she just does not care. But she cares. She really cares about you … Sometimes she even talks about you, which is rare for Gail. Talking about herself and things she cares about, things that are personal. She never talked about Nick or Chris. Like never. Plus she is less grumpy so, thank you."

"Oh no, thank Gail. I'm just lucky that I met her. The pleasure is all mine!"

"Ow, okay; Now you have me stuck with a gross and naked picture in my mind that I really not needed." Holly laughed out loud with what Traci said. She just meant that she was lucky and that they made each other happy. Their relationship did not only have an effect on Gail but Holly her days were now more cheerful than before as well. "Come on, dinner is ready. Let's go get our munchkins."

Xxxx

Dinner was great! They were eating while there was a beautiful sunset. Chris and Steve did not burn the food while they were in charge. Leo wanted to sit between Gail and Holly. At first Gail was sulking about it because she wanted to sit next to Holly so she was able to hold her hand under the table. But Holly promised her that if she was a 'good girl' Holly would let her hold her hand in the tent while she winked and gave Gail a sexy, grinning look; After dinner Andy and Dov made a campfire and the rest cleaned up the campsite.

While everybody was around the campfire talking nonsense and making jokes, Leo and Holly were near the cliff looking at stars. Holly told lot's of science crap about those stars but Leo loved it. Gail was glad that Leo and the rest really liked Holly.

"Come on kiddo!" Traci called out to Leo, "It's time for bed."

"Oh come on. This is interesting mom, it is science so good for my education."

"Nice try. But we have a big day tomorrow, lot of things we are going to do so; chop, chop."

Leo stood up from the log he and Holly were sitting on. He pouted and turned to walk away.

"Don't you say anything to Holly?"

"Night Holly." he said a bit disappointed "I had a great time talking about stars, maybe tomorrow we can continue talking about them."

"I would love that. Good night Leo." Holly smiled. Traci and Leo walked over to the campfire to let Leo say good night to everybody. He gave Steve a high five, waved to the rest of the group but went over to Gail for a hug. All Holly could think of was 'Oooooh, cute'. She better not tell that to Gail or Leo, 'cause apparently they are to cool for cute. As Traci had her arm around Leo walking towards their tent, Holly could hear him explain some things about stars.

Holly went over to stand next to Gail. There were only three seats left around the campfire, two in between Steve and Chris where Traci and Leo sat and one in between Andy and Dov. She could go and sit next to Andy but she wanted to be close to Gail. So she put her arm around Gail and leaned against her. Gail wrapped her arm around Holly but because she was sitting and Holly was standing her arm was just under Holly's butt. While Gail was rubbing Holly's thigh when she was holding her she asked; "Are you having fun babe?"

"Yes! Thanks for bringing me. It is really beautiful out here."

"You are really beautiful!" Gail stated.

"Wow, Gail are you drunk? Someone is all nice and mushy!" Dov joked. "And what is that?" He pointed towards her leg and made her look. But nothing was there. "Is the ice queen melting?"

"Haha, very funny 'Rescue Ranger'" Gail said insinuation about what happened earlier in the woods when Chris, Leo and Dov went exploring. This made Dov go all red and look over towards Chris who looked away trying to be all casual.

Holly just ignored them and squeezed Gail's shoulder followed by rubbing and tickling her hand trough Gail her short hair just above the neck. Gail looked up at Holly and just smiled. She really thought that Holly was beautiful. And the light of the campfire really flattered her. Even though they had their arms around each other, Gail wanted more. She pulled Holly's thighs where she was holding her so she was (even more) closer and used her other arm to help Holly onto her lap. Holly wrapped one arm around Gail her shoulder and with the other arm she took her own hand. Gail kissed Holly's neck, caressed her nose over the place where she just kissed her and pulled back a little to look in Holly her eyes. She smiled and leaned in for a little kiss and Holly hummed.

After a couple of minutes Traci joined them again and had marshmallows but made everybody promise not to tell Leo. She told him it was way too late to eat them right before he went to go look at the stars with Holly. Holly was still on Gail her lap. Now Gail had her arms around Holly her hips and onto her lap, occasionally she was playing with Holly her plaid shirt that hang loose over a top. Holly made marshmallows for the two of them. While eating marshmallows the group planned their next days. They came up with activities like mountain biking, rafting, walking, swimming and picnicking. Gail and Holly did listen a bit to the conversation about planning the weekend, Holly even came up with the idea of mountain biking, but the two of them had only eyes for each other. Laughing, talking, saying sweet words in each others ears, kissing, eating marshmallows it was totally adorable and the rest of the group really did not mind. They just saw a happy Gail, plus this made their planning easier. Otherwise Gail would have complained about the activities and gave ideas that where not possible in the woods like going to the movies or gave ideas that would have been totally dangerous like playing paintball with Leo near cliffs and rocks. It was better that she was kissing Holly they thought.

Xxxx

The next morning Chris got out off his tent around 8:00. The gang planned breakfast at 9:00 so they could leave straight afterwards. Dov and Chloe had breakfast duty. Leo, Traci and Steve were brushing their teeth and Andy was under the shower (like the ones on the beach). Chris started walking towards Dov and Chloe but the collapsed tent of Gail and Holly caught his eye. "So what happened there?" he asked.

"No, idea. When we woke up it already was like that." Dov answered.

"And where are they? Did you check the tent?" Chris started worrying a bit.

"Not in the tent anymore, they probably went to their car. We will wake them up soon, knowing Gail she will stay in bed 'till noon." Chloe said.

"I'll go check" Chris walked a little down the hill where the cars were parked but no sign of the couple. He checked the other cars and looked around. When he got back up, the rest was standing around the table while Dov and Chloe were cooking sausages and pancakes on the BBQ-plate. The group started worrying and called their cellphones. Both times a melody came out off the collapsed tent. Breakfast was ready and their day was about to start, everybody was a bit concerned so they teamed up to look around the campsite.

Andy and Traci teamed up and took the side of the cliff. When they walked towards the edge they saw the pair sleeping, forehead against forehead wrapped under a pile of blankets, pillows against the log, like a headboard, where Holly and Leo sat last night;

"That's adorable, let me take pictures before they wake up." Andy said.

"Yeah well, I am really curious why they are sleeping here. What happened?"

Andy took a couple off pictures with her phone and then walked over towards Holly. She crouched down and lightly patted Holly. "Holly wake up." she whispered. "Breakfast is ready."

Holly woke up and looked at Andy. She was still a bit fuzzy. "Mmmm, yeah we will be there in a sec."

"You wake up Gail, I am not going to do that. She will give me mean looks all day and I'm guessing when you wake her she won't mind. Which I have to mention is so not fair!" with that Andy followed Traci who had already left to tell the others they found both women.

"Gail, baby, wake up." Holly whispered while rubbing her nose gently against Gail's nose. Gail started stirring and wrinkling her nose. "Breakfast is ready and the group is waiting for us."

"Let them wait!" Gail said with a crunchy and tired voice, eyes still closed.

"I think I smell pancakes."

"I like pancakes!"

"I know!"

Both of them were quiet for a minute or so. Holly still had her nose against Gail's. After the minute Holly gave little kisses which made Gail hum. "Come here you!" Gail said and pulled Holly in her arms while turning on her back. Gail had one arm wrapped around Holly, who had her head on Gail her chest. The both of them just looked at the view all cuddled up. "Can we stay here forever? I like it here, it's cozy and warm, nice view and you! I like it here."

"I like it too baby." Holly said and turned her head so she was able to plant a small kiss in Gail's neck.

After a couple of minutes Leo came over. "Hey you guys. My mom told me to come and get you. I wanted to bring pancakes but she told me not to. You would stay there all day apparently."

"So you did not secretly bring us like one pancake? We can share."

"Gail, you never share." Holly stated and Gail ignored her with a "Pfff".

"No sorry. I don't want any trouble. Besides she said that if I get you both out of your little nest we will go after ice-cream in the afternoon."

"And what if we don't get out?" Gail asked.

"Well then I don't get my ice-cream. So, pleeeaaaseee?" He tried to use his cutest puppy eyes.

Holly wanted to get up but Gail grabbed her so she couldn't. "Sorry munchkin, no pancakes, no ice-cream. That's only fair."

"Well they won't give me any pancakes for you guys." Gail gave Leo a look and he knew they were not going to move. So desperate times, call for desperate measures. Leo walked back and Gail thought she had won, Leo would get his ice-cream anyway. But quickly Leo turned around and started running, then he jumped high in the sky and towards the women. "Tickleeeeessss!" Leo yelled. When he landed on Gail and Holly they both made screaming - and 'autch' noises. He started pulling the blankets and with each hand tickling Gail and Holly. Both women had to laugh. Holly jumped out off their nest. "I surrender, I surrender" She yelled. "Take the blonde!" Leo laughed at that and jumped on Gail. Gail was laughing really loud. "Holly help! Stop, Leo, STOOOP!" She tried to get Leo off of her but he was really strong and tickling her. "LUNCHBOX!". Holly saw that Gail really had no power over Leo because of the tickles so she helped. She started tickling Leo so he had to pull his arms away, with that Gail grabbed both his hands in one of her hands and got up. When she was up she pulled Leo over her shoulder. She breathed in and out slowly to get herself together. "What took you so long nerd?" Holly just grinned. "I thought it was funny." she teased.

Gail, with Leo over her shoulder, and Holly walked towards the group. Holly went to sit next to Chloe while Gail let Leo go lose.

"I will get you back for that." Gail said to Traci who just laughed.

"Uhuh! But what happened?" She asked changing the subject.

"Well your son jumped on our bed and then started to tickle us. That is what happened!" Gail answered.

"No what happened to the tent, dumbo!" Dov said.

"Wouldn't you like to know Tarzan?" Gail replied again suggesting the exploring trip from the day before."Not funny!" Was all Dov could say.

"No seriously, what happened?" Steve asked.

"Yeah, well Lunchbox over here just had to bring a tent that was like way to small and from the middle ages."

"Oh no Gail, you said you were taking care of the tent and like fifteen minutes before we had to leave told me that YOU forgot all about it." Holly said amused.

"Yeah well, I had a long list with things to do. And I don't remember you packing for this trip." Gail bantered.

"I was the one who was working!" Holly replied still with a smile on her face knowing that Gail was looking for excuses.

"LOOK, we don't care about that. Tell us what happened?" Chris interrupted.

Gail and Holly looked at each other while trying to hold their smile. They were having sex but the tent was way to small, being it for 1 person, so it collapsed. Both not wanting to share any details, especially with Leo being there, tried to come up with something, hoping the other one would start.

"Oh!" Was all Traci could say. The rest, all knowing, pulled all kind of different faces; Dov and Chloe had a face like 'not again, always at home keeping us awake and now here', Chris eyes just grew bigger, Andy just shook her head 'no' with a smile on her face, Traci pretty much had the same face as Andy and Steve he wanted to high five Gail and ask more details but he couldn't because Leo was there, who pulled a dumbstruck face. He had no idea what they were talking about.

"Uhm..." Holly started. "Well... You know Gail she always stirs... a lot and the tent being to small... the poles fell towards the inside and made the tent collapse."

"Yeah, that's what happened" Gail quickly added. "The tent is like really small."

"And it was like really dark" Holly said.

"Our phones were lost in the mess and once we got out we saw that one of the poles was broken. So putting it together was not an option." Then Gail her mood changed toward being annoyed. "PLUS, someone had our car keys hidden in HIS TENT and we could not find it in between his mess!" looking at Chris.

Holly ignored Gail her grumpiness. "So we took all of the blankets and our mattress and made a bed near the cliff to look at the stars. I guess we fell a sleep somewhere during gazing."

"Can we do that as well tonight mom?" Leo interrupted. "Please? That will be so cool! Like all of us. We could make like one giant bed!"

"Well Leo, we shall discuss it." Steve said, "It is a bit dangerous though, because of the bears here." Steve knew that was one of the reasons why Gail did not like camping and he took the opportunity to tease her. That is what siblings do, he thought. Gail just froze at his reply, eyes big grabbing the bench on one side and Holly's hand on the other totally afraid for where they might sleep tonight.

"Relax Gail" Dov said who saw her reaction. "We will figure something out, make a bed in the car or something."

The group ate breakfast while looking for sleeping options. After breakfast everybody brushed their teeth and got ready to start the day.

Xxxx

The weekend was super fun! The first day they went for a walk and had a picknick. In the afternoon they went rock climbing. Steve helped Leo and it was really cute. They had a great time together on this trip. Dov and Chris were horrible at rock climbing, Dov even let Chris drop like 10 meters but Andy, Gail and Holly were there in time to pull the cords so he did not fall on the ground. After the rock climbing they went rafting. First they had two rafts and were like really careful because Leo was on one of the rafts. The boys and Gail were a bit bored because it was going to slow. While rafting there were a couple of teenagers who were laughing because they went so slow. While Traci, Holly and Chloe stayed with Leo the rest raced the teenagers; Loser had to buy a case of beer. The cops won!
Later that night they drank the beer, barbecued, let Leo eat marshmallows and that promised ice-cream, danced on the music that was playing from a little radio on batteries that Dov brought along; Holly told Leo some more about stars but this time everybody tagged along around the log. Chris slept in his car while Gail and Holly got his tent. The last day Holly went mountain biking in the morning with everybody except for Gail and Steve. They stayed on the campsite to pack things up. When everybody came back they had done nothing but started drinking beer and eating snacks while listening to the little radio, talking about nonsense, the trip and their relationships and looking at the beautiful view sitting on the log. Late afternoon when everything was packed, Gail and Steve did not help, everybody went swimming in the river and sunbathing. Gail hated the sunbathing part, which Holly liked from time to time. So while Holly sat with the women in the sun; Gail was with Leo in the water, doing tricks, playing games, race, … Gail even took a rope and wrapped it around a big branch over the water so they could swing it and jump in the water.
At 16:00 they left to go home. When they arrived back in the city Gail and Holly ordered Chinese, ate on the couch while watching a movie, took a bath together and went to bed. Gail did not regret the camping trip one bit, she was really glad Dov asked and they said 'yes'.