So, I promised you a quicker update this time - and here it is! I hope you enjoy this one.

Thank you so much for reading and for your feedback! (And again: Reviews - good and bad - are always greatly appreciated!) :)

She turned the key in the lock, feeling the exhaustion in every single one of her bones. She would have loved to see Holly tonight, but at the same time she couldn't remember the last time she was this happy to just be home. Of course, that feeling quickly vanished when she entered the apartment and was faced with Chloe, hovering in the hallway as if she had been waiting for her.

"Hey Gail." She greeted her in a whisper, her thumb pointing towards the living room.

"Chloe, hey." Gail sighed before her gaze traveled towards the direction Chloe's thumb was pointing to. There she was, a tiny lump curled up on their sofa in a position that seemed almost as uncomfortable as sleeping in the hospital chairs, a blanket pulled up to her chin, her chest rising and falling with her deep, regular breaths, her glasses resting on the table. She turned back to Chloe, giving her a worried and questioning look.

"Dov and I found her sitting in front of the house, she said she was waiting for you. We told her she should wait in here. She fell asleep after, like, three minutes." She giggled in that little girl way that Gail was sure Dov found, like, super adorable. Of course she did. This was Chloe.

"Yeah, she must have been exhausted." She looked back towards Holly with worry and sympathy.

"So, her son woke up?" Gail just nodded, her eyes not leaving Holly. Andy must have told her. Or maybe Holly did. After all, she wasn't all socially awkward like Gail, especially with new people.

"That's great news. I'm really happy." She smiled widely, sincerely, as if she was honestly relieved. As if Holly was a close friend. Of course she did.

"Yeah. Me too." She nodded again, turning back to Chloe, giving her a tight-lipped smile. It was her job to be happy. It was her job to be relieved.

"Well. I'll... be gone then. I think you both need some rest." She stroked her arm for a brief moment and eyed Gail with concern before turning to take off towards Dov's room. That's when Gail realized. She cared about Holly because she knew that Gail did, and she cared about Gail because – well, God knows why. Maybe it was because her boyfriend cared about Gail. Maybe it was because they were both cops, and their code of honor dictated that, whether you like your fellow officer or not, when push comes to shove, you're family. Maybe it was because, like Gail, Chloe was loyal. Mostly though, Gail thought, it was because Chloe was a person who just genuinely cared. She remembered the day that Christian was taken, remembered how she envied Chloe for just being who she was so openly and unapologetically. She remembered how she realized that day, that underneath their exterior, her and Chloe were in fact very much alike – even though they were radically different on the surface. And with everything that had been going on lately, she decided that maybe it was time to turn over a new leaf with Chloe. She had done it with Holly. She had even done it with Andy. And she had realized that it wasn't all that hard.

"Chloe? Thank you." It was a small gesture, but it was a start. Gail just hoped that Chloe would see that.

"No problem, Gail." Chloe threw her head back and grinned at her before disappearing into the bedroom.

She shrugged off her coat and entered the living room. She sat down on the coffee table in front of Holly, taking in the sight of her for a few minutes, debating whether she should wake the brunette from her long overdue peaceful slumber. As she softly brushed back the strands of hair that had fallen into Holly's face and let her hand travel over her shoulder down her side, Holly's eyes slowly blinked open.

"Hey..." She whispered, welcoming Holly with a wide, loving smile. Suddenly the brunette startled up into a sitting position, being fully awake now and becoming aware of her surroundings. She pulled up the blanket around her and moved her hands through her hair nervously before trying to adjust the glasses that weren't there.

"Gail! Hey. Hi. Shit. Sorry, I must have fallen asleep." Gail held out her glasses and grinned, trying to hide her amusement at a charmingly scatterbrained Holly.

"Don't worry, it's ok. I'm sorry to wake you, it's just that, the longer you sleep on this sofa, the more your neck's going to kill you. Believe me, I speak from experience..." She remained seated on the coffee table, handing Holly a bottle of water and waiting for her to compose herself. After taking a few sips and rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she seemed to finally relax a little.

"Look, I'm sorry for coming by unannounced, I know I should have called. But when my mom sent me home, I thought I was actually going home. Until I suddenly ended up in front of your house. I just... I wanted to see you." She searched for Gail's eyes with her own, trying to read the blonde's reaction.

"Well, I'm happy that you're here. So no apologies. I told you, whatever you need, I'm here." She tentatively took Holly's hand in hers, which was answered by a light squeeze and a quiet 'thank you'.

"Anytime. I just dropped by the hospital. Ash was sleeping soundly. Everything's fine. Your mom is keeping watch." She had noticed how Holly's eyes were darting around the room, trying to locate her phone, probably in order to see whether there has been any update on Ash while she was sleeping.

...

She knew it was late already, but she hadn't been to the hospital since the morning of the day before, the day that Ash woke up. She basically had to pull a double shift, only getting four hours in the middle of the night to go home and rest, and spent the rest of her time on surveillance. She was bone tired, but she had to see Holly before allowing herself to succumb to some much needed and well-deserved sleep.

After Ash had woken up, Gail was initially unsure of what to do. She didn't know where they were standing, where Holly thought they were standing, how Holly wanted to proceed. She didn't know what would change now that he's awake. Was it still ok to come by? Or did Holly want to savor every moment with him, by herself, now that she finally had him back? Maybe she didn't even want the two of them to officially meet yet. But since she didn't want to burden Holly with those questions, she decided to just keep showing up and try to read Holly's reaction.

When she approached Ash's room, she saw his grandmother sitting in Holly's chair, reading, and let her gaze travel towards the spare bed, noticing that Holly wasn't there either. Her instinct told her to just turn around and leave, but then she thought, persistence. She opened the sliding glass door wide enough to pop her head in and whispered, in an effort to not wake a sleeping Ash.

"Evelyn, hi." The older woman turned her head towards the door and smiled widely when she realized who was standing in front of her, displaying an openness that took Gail by surprise a little.

"Well hello, Gail!" She whispered back, lifting her hand gesturing Gail to wait a second, while she looked for a piece of paper to use as a bookmark. She placed the book on the chair and approached Gail, ushering her out of the room and then closing the door behind them, taking a last content look at her grandson before turning back towards Gail.

"Hello, dear." She greeted her again, this time in a normal tone of voice.

"Hi." Gail smiled and pointed back towards the room. "How is he doing? Is everything going well? I haven't had a chance to talk to Holly today."

"Oh yes, it's going really well. The doctors are very happy with the progress he is making, and with what they can tell so far, they are very certain that there will be no permanent damage."

Gail sighed in relief. "Thank God. That's good news." Evelyn nodded and apparently picked up on how Gail was looking around in search for Holly.

"I sent her home. Well, actually, Ash and I managed to convince her together that she needed a night in a proper bed, outside of this hospital. And she was finally exhausted enough to just give in."

"Finally somebody was able to talk some sense into her!" She giggled, then becoming serious again. "It's good she went home. She really needs some proper rest. I don't know how much longer she could have kept going like this."

She suddenly felt Evelyn's hand on her shoulder, and in a reflex her gaze dropped to the floor, trying to mask the slight awkwardness she felt at the woman's display of affection. "I know, dear."

She forced herself to look back up. "Are you staying here tonight?"

"Despite many protests, I am." She chuckled and nodded. "Ash kept insisting that he didn't need a babysitter, but Holly wouldn't leave unless I promised her to stay the night."

"Ha, sounds totally like her." Gail smiled and shook her head with fond amusement. She continued softly. "It's really great how you support her. She's very lucky to have a family like that."

Evelyn just nodded appreciatively, letting a silence fall between them that Gail was getting increasingly uncomfortable with. She cleared her throat.

"Well. I should get going, I could really use some rest myself. Is there anything I can get you before I'm off?"

"No, thank you, dear."

"Ok, well." She waved awkwardly. "Have a good night then."

She was about to turn and leave, when a hand grabbed her by the elbow and spun her back around.

"Gail?" Their eyes met for a moment before the blonde was pulled into a fierce hug.

"She is also very lucky to have you in her life. So thank you, Gail. I really hope you'll stick around." She let go of her and gave her an open and warm smile, Gail mirroring the gesture.

"I plan to." She nodded.

...

"That's good. He really needs to rest." Holly nodded and stopped the search for her phone.

"Yeah, and so do you. How are you feeling? Are you hungry? I can make some dinner."

"No. Well, I don't know, I could probably eat, but I'm just too tired. I'm really just... tired." She slumped back into the sofa, tilted her head back and closed her tired eyes.

"Ok. Let's get you to bed then." Gail stood up and grabbed both of Holly's hands, trying to pull her up, when she realized that maybe she was too quick to assume that Holly would spend the night here.

"Or did you want me to take you home? I can take you home..." She added hesitantly.

"No, I do... I want to stay here. If that's ok?" The shy and insecure look on Holly's face made Gail's heart melt.

"Of course that's ok. Come on." She pulled Holly off the sofa and led her to her bedroom, where Holly just stopped in the middle of the room, looking a little lost, unsure of how to behave. She had been here several times, spent the night most of them. She knew that the sleeping clothes were in the top drawer. She knew which one of the bathroom shelves contained Gail's towels. She knew Gail liked to sleep on the left side of the bed and that she always wanted Holly to get ready for bed first. It was one of Gail's cute ways of trying to be polite and a good host.

But it had been some time since she was last here, and a lot of things had changed. Or maybe they weren't so different after all. But whatever was happening between them, it was still unspoken, and Holly wasn't really sure which liberties she could take, and which she couldn't.

Fortunately, Gail seemed to have picked up on Holly's unease. She pulled out a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt and handed them to Holly and smiled gently.

"Go get ready. You know where my towels are. Your toothbrush is... where it always is." All of a sudden, Gail was the one who sounded small and insecure, because they both knew what she was actually saying here. Something that Holly should have realized all along. That despite everything that had happened these past weeks, Gail had at no point seriously considered giving up on Holly, on them. That's why the toothbrush was still there, waiting for Holly in the same place as always. Holly tilted her head to the side and gave Gail a knowing and thankful smile before whispering an 'ok' and heading off to the bathroom.

Holly was already curled up under the duvet and on the verge of falling asleep when she felt the bed dip next to her and the warmth of Gail's body gradually approaching. She could literally feel tons of weight falling off from her as Gail's hand slowly rounded her waist until it came to rest on her stomach. She then moved in closely, pulling Holly towards her at the same time, molding their bodies together.

The more the tension subsided, the more room there was for Holly's feelings to really unravel. And quickly, the relief, the gratitude, the longing, it was all just a little too much for Holly. Suddenly, without any prior warning, she just burst into tears, sobbing quietly into her pillow. Gail held her impossibly closer, whispering comforting words into her ear, and pressing tender kisses on the back of Holly's neck and along her hairline. Holly grabbed Gail's hand and clung to it for dear life. It took over half an hour for her brain to process the onslaught of emotions and to catch up with the reality of things, and her sobs eventually died down. Gail thought she might have fallen asleep, when Holly brought the blonde's hand up to her mouth, rubbing her nose into her palm like a cat before kissing it softly.

"Sorry." She whispered into Gail's palm.

"Don't be." Gail replied, pulling the brunette even further into her yet again.

"I thought you didn't do holding?" She wanted to tell Gail how good it felt to finally have her close again, how much she had missed the blonde, how she had hoped that one day she would fall asleep again next to her, feeling the warmth of her body. She wanted to tell her why she cried, that it was mostly all the happiness crushing in on her that needed an outlet. Instead, that was what came out.

"I didn't." It was the simplest of replies, but they both knew its meaning extended far beyond the actual words.

Holly entwined her fingers with Gail's, pulling her impossibly closer, and in a matter of seconds she dropped off. After placing another lingering kiss in the back of Holly's neck, Gail did the same.