Part 11

Gail didn't have to fake a scowl as she looked at the baseball waved in front of her. "Five dollars." She said.

"Twenty!" The boy yelled back at her with a massive grin, hiding the baseball quickly behind his back as Gail's eyes narrowed.

"Ten." It was a more than reasonable offer Gail thought.

"Fifty!"

Gail ignored Traci's snigger from behind the boy. She would not be bested by a mere child. "Five dollar plus ten dollars." She offered reaching into her wallet to add a ten to the five she already held.

The boy's eyes lit up as the money was waved gently in front of him. That was more than he got in pocket money. He glanced pleading up at his mother knowing he wasn't allowed to take anything from strangers unless she gave him permission.

And with that look Gail knew she had him and lifted her own eyes to smirk at Traci. "Do we have a deal?"

Traci smiled and nudge her son's arm holding the baseball. "That sounds good doesn't it Leo, a finder's fee."

"Yes! We can swap." Leo dropped the ball into Gail's free hand and pulled the two bank notes towards his chest.

Gail let out a silent breath, grateful that she hadn't lost more money to the little con artist. Walking away empty handed hadn't been an option she was willing to take. Standing back up Gail tucked the hard earned baseball into her pocket as she gave Traci a hard look. "You've taught him well… fifty bucks?"

Traci let out a laugh and nudged Leo a little to get him to start walking, being too busy staring at the money in his hands to move. "It was a pleasure seeing you Gail."

By some silent agreement they both accepted that Leo's reward would be the extent of their interaction. Both happy to leave questions unasked.

"Yeah, yeah." Gail muttered with a shake of her head as the two walked away before she turned and headed back to the playing field.

On the way she was struck with two thoughts in her head, the first that Holly was going to think finding the ball was a stupid idea and the secondly that Traci Nash had a son that looked to be four or five years old. Which made her kind of on the young side to be a mom. Not that she was judging or anything.

But it did fill in some of the facts she'd noticed about her fellow cadet. The not going out drinking with everyone else in the group, Traci going 'missing' on nights out was starting to make more sense. Though again, she couldn't judge having garnered most of that information from listening to Dov complaining to Andy.

Gail had just assumed there had been a boyfriend on the scene that Nash wanted to keep quiet about. Now she figured it was the son and not a boyfriend taking up Traci's time outside of classes.

But if that was true why hide it? And not even a hint of a rumour either which was a feat given the amount of gossip around the academy. Traci wouldn't have been the first cadet with a family at home and she wouldn't be the last.

It was a puzzle that Gail didn't have it in her to care about right now, if Traci had a kid well other than being hustled by him, he seemed a nice enough child to show Traci was clearly doing something right. And if she didn't want to advertise the fact that she was a mother at the academy then it was no one's business but Traci's.

In fact part of Gail admired Traci's obvious commitment to becoming a police officer even more. She knew the other woman worked hard at the academy and now with the added responsibility of a child to consider, yeah Traci had her respect.

Not that she'd ever tell her that.

Or that Leo was a cute kid. He must have got that from his father's side.

Gail chuckled to herself wondering what Traci would do to her for that comment. Nothing nice she was sure.

As a figure in the distance resolved into a patiently waiting Holly, Gail decided Traci could keep her secrets. Everyone had them. It wasn't like she was about to announce to the academy that she might be in a relationship with another woman.

Sometimes there was a benefit to be had by not being an open book. Especially when Gail knew that every bit of gossip from the academy was making it back to Pecks in white shirts.

"Hey you, I thought you had disappeared on me there for a second." Holly greeted Gail as she arrived back outside the softball field. "Where'd you run off to? Everyone's heading for drinks and pizza."

Gail swallowed as Holly eyed her curiously, her expression open and honest. Her hand tightened on the ball in her pocket feeling more stupid now than when she'd been arguing with Leo. "Oh, I was looking for the restroom."

Holly looked unconvinced for a second, her eyes flicking to the small building off to their side, before she laughed quietly and shook her head. "Well it's over there but if you can hold out for ten minutes we can catch up with the rest of the crew at the bar."

Cringing, Gail shrugged. "Sure, I can wait." Gail said although that was far from what she was feeling. She really didn't want to be with the 'crew' and have to listen to sports talk. This was not her idea of a good time. But then food. "I could eat again." It had been a while since breakfast.

Holly laughed and reached for Gail's hand. "I can believe that. Come on, I really want to introduce you to some of my friends, we didn't get time earlier."

Gail faked a smile. "Can't wait." She could have waited, she really could have.

"They can be a bit much all at once like this, but I'm sure you'll do fine." Holly warned as they approached the parking lot, Holly's car standing out by the number of free spaces around it that hadn't been before.

Holly was really selling this to Gail. "Sounds fun." Gail retorted but Holly just gave her a kiss on the cheek and went around to her own side of the car.

With a resigned sigh Gail let herself into the passenger side and buckled herself in. Dread crept up and rested in a knot in her guts. This was Gail's idea of hell and she had no clue why Holly was punishing her but the pizza had better be the best damn pizza in all of Toronto or Holly was going to have a lot of making up to do.

xxxxx

It was worse than hell.

Gail had been sat at the table for ten minutes and already she was done. It was hard to get her head around the fact these were all grown women and a few men all talking at each other in raised voices over the sound of music blaring out from speakers on the walls. There had to be six conversations going on at the table at the same time and it was giving Gail a headache.

It was a rabble.

Sure they were all in good spirits and the alcohol was flowing readily but even still Gail was just about at the end of her limit.

"Having fun yet?" Holly asked as she slid in beside Gail having retrieved another round of drinks for the table which she'd already slid toward the middle where hands made quick work of the refills. "Your chicken shouldn't be too much longer."

Gail sucked it up and did her best to tune the crowd around them out and just focus on Holly. The reason she was here. "I'm having fun." She replied grabbing a few fries out of the basket in front of Holly.

Holly gave her a dubious look not quite believing her. "I know this probably wasn't what you had in mind for today but it's not too bad is it?" She asked. "I've known Kelly and Annie forever it feels like, and-"

Gail interrupted Holly with a kiss. "I'm having a good time." She repeated.

Holly grinned. "Are you sure?"

Gail leaned in for another kiss. This was definitely a better way to spend her time she decided. "Yes, I'm having fun, and it's getting better all the time." She said pressing another kiss to Holly's lips as the other woman chuckled through the kiss.

"Oh my god!"

Holly pulled away from Gail at the shriek. She eyed her tablemates to see what was wrong only to see eyes staring back at her. Or more specifically at her and Gail. "What?"

Annie pointed at Gail. "You're the blonde!"

"I guess?" Gail wasn't sure what to make of the excitement and turned to Holly for some help. She didn't know these people but her hair was blonde so points for stating the obvious?

Holly bit down on her lip as she felt her cheeks heat up.

"The blonde?" Kelly repeated, then she got it. "The blonde from the bar that Scott mentioned."

"Bingo! Holly did get her number." Annie said in a sing-song voice then offered her hand out to Holly for a high five.

Gail's face flushed with embarrassment.

Kelly pulled her friends hand down quickly seeing Holly was embarrassed enough just by the attention that was now on her and the woman beside her. "Okay now, inside voice please."

Holly cleared her throat. "Guys this is Gail, Gail those two idiots are Annie and Kelly, my loser friends." That got a chuckle from around the table who went back to their own conversations quickly enough.

"Hi Gail, Holly's told us absolutely nothing about you." Annie said, eager to hear about this new development in Holly's life.

"Annie." Holly sighed.

"I should go check on my food." Gail said as she stood, leaving Holly with little option but to get up and let her out from the booth.

Holly watched Gail leave before she sat back down and threw a napkin at Annie.

"What?" Annie asked.

Kelly chuckled and leant in. "Okay Holly, spill before she gets back."

If she gets back. Holly thought to herself as she turned her head and tried to spot Gail in the crowd.

"There's not much to tell." Holly told the pair. And it was the truth.

Kelly rolled her eyes as Annie pouted.

"There isn't." Holly insisted. "And if you both keep this up and scare her away, you will be sorry for a very long time." She warned.

"I'm calling Scott." Annie said not taking the threat at all seriously as she pulled out her cell phone.

Kelly put her own on the table. "I'll try and get pictures."

Holly stared at them in disbelief for a long minute then gave up. "Why do I bother?"

"You're on a date Holly, the others are going to want proof." Kelly added with a grin knowing Holly was going to have to just accept her fate and deal with it. "Just be glad they're working right now and can't coming down here to see this for themselves."

xxxxx

The cell phone in Gail's pocket vibrated again but Gail ignored it. She already knew it was her mother calling to find out what she was doing with her time off.

Pecks had to be productive, be prepared, to be ahead of the rest of her peers. And to Elaine Peck that would not consist of being out at a bar in the middle of the day having spent all morning watching, but not participating in, physical activity.

She let it ring out. Far be it for the Superintendent to be calling to invite her only daughter to spend time together. Not that Gail would have agreed to that in the first place. Ever. But was that not what parents did with their children? Was that not the expected thing to do on rare time off? Spend it together, catch up, talk?

Gail's mind flashed to the image of Traci at the park with her son before brushing it to the back of her mind.

She was a Peck. Peck's didn't conform to what was expected unless that expectation was following in the family footsteps into a career in law enforcement.

Gail snorted to herself as the barman looked to have finally noticed her stood there. The urge to get blind stinking drunk surfaced as anger clouded her vision, food now a distant memory.

She hated that she couldn't get away from any of it, not at home, or at the academy, or with her other cadets. They all knew her last name and what it meant.

They all judged her for it before ever giving her a chance.

Screw them.

Screw her parents, screw her instructors and screw the rest of her classmates.

It was her weekend off too and if she wanted to spend it off her face then she could. Steve would even cheer her along. If he'd been here.

The name of a whisky brand was on the tip of her tongue a split second before a hand lightly touched the small of her back and all of her anger dissolved at the voice that accompanied it.

"Hey, thought you'd run off on me there."

Gail's mind tagged on the again that was left silent.

"Sorry the jerk behind the bar was too busy hitting on his customers." Gail replied as Holly brushed shoulders with her.

Holly laughed, she'd worked behind a bar during college and flirted with the best of them, it almost always guaranteed good tips by the end of the night. However she'd have steered clear of Gail right now as well. The girl was not giving off receptive vibes by any means of the imagination.

"Are you sure he wasn't checking your licence? Being unsupervised in a bar is against the law you know." Holly joked.

Gail scowled as her cheeks flamed.

"When you two are done let me know. Or don't." Said the barman before he walked over to another group waiting to order.

"Rude much." Gail scoff as she sent a glare after him.

They stood there together for a bit as Gail played with a coaster on the bar top.

"This was too soon, wasn't it?" Holly muttered annoyed at herself. "To meet my friends, even just a few of them." Holly could just imagine how much worse this would be with just Scott added to the mix never mind any of the others.

Gail wanted to say no. Because this shouldn't be too much for someone. She felt her phone buzz in her pocket again and it made her clench her jaw.

"I'm sorry. I thought this would be fun." Holly continued. She forgot sometimes that not everyone enjoyed the same things she did. That meeting a bunch of people Gail didn't know wouldn't be nearly as much fun for Gail as it was for Holly. She'd considered it a small form of payback for disappearing on her that morning only now she saw that she had judged it all wrong.

Clenching her hand around the baseball in her pocket still, because handing that over right now would have made this oh, so much better. Gail could just picture Holly's friends laughing at that one. Her phone continued to buzz distracting her further. It wasn't like Elaine to be so persistent so if it wasn't her mom calling to annoy her, maybe the call was about Steve.

"We can go if you-"

"Hello?" The worry about her brother getting hurt while undercover blocked everything else out as Gail answered her mother's incessant calling. "Is everything okay? Is Steve okay?"

"Well, hello to you too Gail, good of you to finally pick up." Elaine Peck replied.

"Gail?" Holly asked.

"Is he okay?" Gail asked again, putting a hand up to stop Holly from talking, she was already a mix of emotions, she couldn't deal with two conversations going on at the same time.

"He's fine, I called to ask after you." Elaine finally replied. "But who was that and what is all that noise in the background? Where are you Gail? You know you should be studying."

Blowing out a breath in relief at Steve being okay, or as okay as a cop during an oc operation could be was enough for Gail. She ended the call and switched off the device as she returned it back into her pocket.

"Everything okay?" Holly asked tentatively, she knew Gail was worried about her brother and that his name was Steve. It cooled her temper at Gail's hand gesture as she ignored her in favour of talking on her phone. "Your brother okay? I can give you a ride if you need one."

Gail rubbed a hand down her face. "He's fine, I just, I was worried but it's nothing." Just Elaine being Elaine.

Holly nodded, completely understanding that.

"Can we get out of here?" Gail finally asked. "I can't, I just can't do this." She wasn't good at this, dealing with people. It was hard enough when she had to, she sure didn't want to do it if there was a choice in the matter.

"Yeah, just give me a minute to say goodbye and we can go wherever you want." Holly answered and with a squeeze of Gail's arm she turned and headed back to her table of friends.

Gail watched her go, seeing the confused look on the faces of those Holly spoke to. She couldn't watch for long and moved towards the door ready to get out of here. After a second she moved outside.

She knew that Holly was smart and that her own behaviour was erratic at best since they'd arrived. Gail wouldn't be surprised if Holly's friends tried to convince the woman to stay with them instead and just let her leave.

So she'd wait outside for a bit.

And if Holly didn't show in a few minutes Gail would just start walking.

She was used to it anyway, and after how she'd been acting she probably deserved it.

The baseball was still in the grasp of one of her hands and it felt like a dead weight. It had been a stupid idea, arguing with Traci's son had been stupid, and this whole confusing thing she was doing with Holly felt stupid.

Gail didn't know what she was trying to accomplish but she still stood there and waited.

Because part of her wanted Holly to come out and meet her.

Even if she didn't deserve it, she wanted it.

xxxxx

AN/

Hey Maddie and everyone else still reading this!

Happy Holidays!

Next up will be Bravo.