I love your comments ^^

I wish I could comment on them in the thread of reviews.

Yup guys, seriously! I made a little twist, it appeared to me that it would be too easy and cheesy in case of "win the fight, get the girl" :P

Guest, about the kiss question... the story is marked as "romance", we all know how grand romance ends, right? ;)

Oceanchic13, time jump in years, interesting idea, but I agree with Lea, I would marry Holly despite her being put in shame or not, I guess we are not the only two :)

Guest, misunderstanding good intentions, it is sad, and it sucks, Gail happens to be one of those people who are misunderstood often, but it makes her a really interesting character and the more she deserves happy ending :)

Chapter 11 - Realisation

Three days. That long the members of 15th Division were away from the incident. Three days ago they said goodbye to Frank and Noelle who decided to raise their child on the land, which most of them used to call home. Three days. And still everybody avoided Gail's cabin like she had a plague.

She could care less if at least somebody explained to her, what she had done wrong, because in her book, she had done everything right. After Dov almost threw her breakfast at her, instead of placing it beside her on a table and Andy was anxious every time she brought Gail the meal, the blonde decided it would be easier to pretend to be asleep and not to talk to anyone. Why would she if they did not want to talk to her?

The door squeaked open and small fast footsteps echoed the room. Then someone leant against the side of her sleeping net and Gail had to react fast to steady the balance. She opened her eyes and looked around to see a very smiling boy. "Hi."

"Leo," she returned the smile and pulled him up to her into the net carefully not to get turned around.

"Mum says you are sick and I not bother you, but I not see you three days, I wanted see if you are alive."

Gail chuckled at the sweetness of this child. "Thank you, little man. I am much better now. Do you want to see the scar?"

"Yaaay," the boy rejoiced, clapping his hands.

Gail pulled up her sleeve, revealing a red gush on her arm. The cut was caused by a sharp blade, so it was clean and healed fast without problems. The herb extract definitely helped as well.

"Did it hurt?"

Gail looked straight into his eyes and debated if to tell the truth or play it cool. "Yes," she said at the end. "Do not get into fights."

"But I want to be like you and you are brave and win."

For the first time in a long time Gail laughed heartily and petted his head. "We will see, Kid."

"Leo?" It was Traci looking for her son.

"With Gail!" called the boy excited.

For a moment the blonde was scared that Traci would rush the boy away from her presence. She hugged him, praying for having at least this little guy's presence in her life. The mother knocked on the door and slowly opened it. "Oh. Well, half an hour and then you are off to bed."

"Okay."

Gail let go a deep breath and smiled at her companion. They chatted some more until Traci returned and sent Leo to bed.

"Thank you," called Gail before the other woman was able to close the door.

"For what?"

"For letting Leo stay with me. I could really use a company of some other living soul."

"You were always good to him, which cannot be said about Holly. We were looking forward to have her here and Dov cleaned his wardrobe to make space for Chris."

"But what was so wrong? I fought for her, I won."

"You returned her to her parents."

"So? She is now free and can do whatever she likes."

Traci measured her comrade with a pensive look. She leant against the handle of the door, studying the blonde for a few more seconds. "You really don't know?"

"What?!" Gail was at the edge of her nerves. Why nobody told her anything?

"The courtesy. Asking for the hand in marriage, returning the bride, wedding stuff. Where were you when Oliver gave us the lesson about this?"

"He did?" wondered the injured sailor sitting straight to ease her leg in a different position.

"For three hours."

Gail stared ahead at the wooden wall. She never liked the courses the Superintended made them all attend. Life on the sea was supposed to be fun and free without any obligation. However her mother made sure the crew of 15th Division was not consist of wild sea dogs but educated people. Every day on the sea, the rookies had an educational morning and in the afternoon they trained with weapons or hand and feet combats. The only free days were those spent on the land.

And yet Gail could not remember the one lesson that could prevent her world to be turned upside down. It must have been after Nick took off, she thought, because that time she did not care about the world around. Damn you, Nicholas.

In the evening she changed her bandages and checked the injuries. They did not look good at all, but they were not extra red or heating so it seemed they were healing alright. Gail applied some of the herbal extract and placed over clean bandages. Holly would surly make it better. The girl sighed, she missed her friend so much.

"Knock, knock," Oliver called from the door with a tray in his hands. "Some food for my petulant Peck."

"Thanks." She took the tray over and bit into a slice of bread, leaving the soup intact.

"Which reminds me… I have not seen the petulance for a week until recently," he made a pause and Gail glared at him. "So, I have to wonder why anyone would throw away the source of happiness and accept the petulance back."

"Oliver, just get to the point," she moaned bored between bites.

"There are stories going around and I don't want to believe them," he made another pause, this time Gail continued chewing her supper. "Then Traci came to me that you probably missed a lesson from Courtesy and it led to a great misunderstanding, now that I want to believe." He sat back on a chair by the door, folded his arms on his chest, and leant in to get comfortable. "Tell me what happened at the hospital."

"I refused to marry my friend."

"Even though you fought for her hand in marriage?"

"What does it mean exactly?" she demanded the answer, because it was obvious that there was the rub.

"Frankly quite literally what it says. You are supposed to marry that person."

"And if there is a fight?"

"Then the winner is obliged to marry the bride."

"Obliged?"

"Yes. If they refused then it means the bride is not good enough for them and they return her to the parents, which is a very humiliating act that puts in shame not only the bride but also her family."

"But I wanted to help Holly," the blonde almost whined. Now she could understand what her action meant for a public figure like the mayor and especially for Holly who did everything for the goodness of her parents and not to give anyone a reason to put a shame on them.

"You should have challenged Ross for Holly's freedom rather than her hand in marriage in front of the whole town," he stood up heavily. "But we cannot do anything with it now. If we were able to change our past, there would be a whole different world."

"Holly is my friend."

"Friend or lover, it does not really matter. You fought for her hand in marriage, you were supposed to marry her."

"I wanted to give her freedom so she could be with whomever she wanted and did whatever made her happy."

"Instead you gave her a sign of 'not worthy the marriage'. With that she will never be able to get married and most probably not ever gain the trust of the citizens in her abilities as a physician."

"How can I fix it?" asked Gail briskly.

Oliver shrugged and threw his hands in the air. "Marry her." And he left the cabin.

The young sailor groaned. Fat chance. They were abandoned from the town.

She lied back, staring into the ceiling. What now? Holly deserves to know it was not her fault.

She groaned again, closing her eyes. Think, brain, think, think, think! We need someone with connections to get into the port!

She sat up straight like a lightning ball would hit her. "SUPERINTENDENT MOOOOM!"

thank you for reading!