Part 11
"So what are you going to do?" Gail asks as she enters the homicide room and sits across from Luke who was finishing up on his report.
"About?" Luke replied, distracted by the coffee that had just been placed down beside him. "Elmore?" He paused long enough to swallow his coffee. "He'll be up in front of a judge tomorrow, and he's pleading guilty so that makes things easier. He'll go away for a long time." He said as he went back to his report.
Gail stared at Callaghan for a long moment. "I'm talking about Boyd."
Luke stopped and glanced over at Gail.
"He covered up that car crash Luke, I don't care what having Elmore in his back pocket got him, he was wrong to do it." Gail told the detective.
Picking up his coffee again Luke gave it some thought. They had Sam back safe, Jamie Brennan on his way to jail and now they had Elmore over the deaths of Brennan's wife and daughter. Those were all good outcomes for a hard day of work.
"I can call my mom if you want?" Gail offered, not willing to let this drop.
Sitting back in his chair Luke sighed. "You know Sam and Andy are going to be suspended, at best, over this." He watched Gail nod. "Throw SIU in here right now and it's not going to look good on Frank or anyone else at this station."
"Except show that we'll do the right thing." It wasn't just Boyd, it was the scrubbing of the initial accident report that bothered Gail. That Armstrong had been promoted to detective a few weeks later was suspect, but what really bothered Gail was the fact that the car had been destroyed and the mechanics that Toronto PD still used falsified their findings. Leaving a murderer on the streets just to play snitch for Boyd.
This was so much more than Bibby skimming dope money from drug busts. That was just on him being opportunistic and stealing for personal gain. What Boyd did was collude with a murderer for status and worse, he got other law enforcement employees to be part of it.
If Armstrong hadn't kept a copy of her original report they might never have found out what Boyd had kept to himself. If Boyd was willing to do this what about next time? And the time after that?
"Hm." Luke finished his coffee and went back to his report wanting to get out of the station as quickly as he could. "Let me think it over tonight and I'll get back to you." He told her.
Gail glanced out of the window into the bullpen. It was still buzzing with the aftermath of getting Sam back. He was currently being checked over at the hospital while Brennan was being interviewed by Jerry. She could see Andy sitting nervously with Traci while Dov and Chris entertained Pete Son beside them.
"Fine." She stood. "But if the Superintendent calls me before you do I'm not going to lie about what happened today."
That was as good a compromise as he was going to get and Luke knew it. "Fair enough." Tonight Frank was going to have his hands full anyway. He'd speak to him first thing in the morning.
xxxxx
"She'll be fine."
But Gail didn't believe those words any more than Traci did, but there was nothing either of them could do for Andy. She'd put Sam in danger even if she hadn't been the reason he'd been attacked by Brennan.
"Yeah." Traci muttered as they both headed to the locker room to get this shift over with and head to the Penny.
"Maybe if I'd said something to her, stopped her going back to see Sam the second time." Traci wondered to herself as she got changed.
"You knew?" Gail couldn't believe she'd just heard that. "Of course you knew. Why am I even surprised." She scoffed to herself as she grabbed her bag. Traci had let stupid McNally keep seeing Sam undercover and now she was thinking that wasn't such a good idea. Gail left not wanting to hear any excuse Traci could come up with for disregarding protocol so damn much. But then what did it matter in the grand scheme of things, Traci had been dating Jerry since he'd been a lecturer at the Academy and Sam had been Andy's first TO. Neither of those relationships were okay.
It annoyed Gail because she knew what would be said about her if she'd been the one dating Jerry or seeing Sam while he was working on an undercover job.
She'd get reprimanded and reported for it, there wasn't a doubt in Gail's mind about that. Sure, Sam was just as much at fault in this case as McNally was but whatever punishment Frank gave the pair Gail knew if she'd been in Andy's place her mother would be here tearing strips off her.
Gail blew out a breath of frustration and knocked on Luke's open door before sticking her head in to spot him still at his desk. "You coming to the Penny? I need a few rounds after today."
Luke turned to her in surprise, he'd been avoiding the place since his breakup with Andy. "Wasn't planning on it, no."
Gail rolled her eyes. "Well I need a ride so I'll meet you out front." She told him.
Luke chuckled and gave up. "Fine. First drink's on you."
"Just hurry it up." Gail turned, leaving him to finish up, she looked up at Frank's office as she passed and saw McNally leaving. Gail turned into the bullpen and made her way out through the front of the station. It was starting to rain so she pulled her hood up and leant against the wall. She'd give Homicide ten minutes and then she was going to make someone else drive her to the bar.
As she waited her cell phone buzzed in her pocket. Gail smiled as she saw the text from Holly telling her she was just finishing up and asking if she needed a lift to the Penny or not. Gail sent a quick text back that she had it covered and she'd get the first round in.
As much as she was ready for this day to be over Gail wasn't in any hurry to go back to the motel, she had a few apartments picked out that she'd check tomorrow, her day off. She was looking forward to that, not the moving part, physical labour was not her thing and she had no one to help her. Steve was still working his case with Blackstone and while things were a little better with Chris and Dov there was no way she was asking either of them for help.
Pride was going to force her into the type of activity she'd rather avoid but if it was a choice between hard work or eating humble pie she'd break her back moving her own things. Of course she still had to find a new place to live first but almost anywhere would be an improvement on her current living situation.
A car slowed in front of her and at first Gail thought it was Luke but she spotted Sam behind the wheel. She watched it crawl along the side walk before coming to a stop. That's when Gail saw Andy stood there. A few seconds later and Andy was climbing into the car and they drove off.
Unbelievable.
"Peck?" Gail turned her head to see Luke now pulled up in front of her. "You want that ride or not?"
xxxxxx
Luke eyed the third drink Gail placed down on the table as she returned from the bar but his mind was still on the car he'd seen when he'd picked her up outside the station. He would have asked her before now but as soon as she'd sat down in his car Gail had messed about with his radio stations all the way here.
"Was that who I think it was back outside 15?" He asked as Gail had her eyes on her cell phone.
"Hm?" Gail lifted her eyes then her beer. She did not want to spend all night talking about Andy and Swarek acting like a pair of teenagers. Whatever they got up to off hours was their business. Her eyes scanned the room, the other rookies were only a table away having brought Pete Son along with them.
"That looked like Sam's car." Luke pressed.
Finally, Gail's eyes found the first bright spot in her day, Holly saw her a second later as she looked around. "This is yours." Gail gestured to the other beer bottle waiting for its owner.
"Thanks." Holly grinned as she pulled off her jacket and sat down.
Luke eyed the pair then picked up his own beer. "Didn't know you two knew each other." He muttered.
Holly grinned. "That's a funny story actually."
"Holly no." Gail's eyes widened as she realised Holly was about to spill to people she knew what she'd gotten up to the night of the scavenger hunt. "Not a word."
Smiling, Holly just ignored the blonde as she told the detective exactly how they had met. "Gail held me at gun point and carjacked me. Basically."
"WHAT?"
Gail groaned at Dov's voice and she dropped her head down onto the table. Of course the idiots were listening in. This is what she got for wanting a few drinks after a really long day at work.
"Traitor." She mumbled as she could hear the shuffling of chairs as the other rookies all crowded around.
Luke was amused. "Is that true?"
"Yes."
"No." Gail answered before lifting her head to glare at Holly. "Why did I even invite you?" She asked herself.
Dov couldn't stop looking from Doctor Stewart to Gail. "Nah, no way." He didn't believe Gail would do that, or if she had, that he didn't know. "Gail Peck carjacked someone? Not possible."
Holly laughed and swallowed down some of her beer as she found herself centre of attention. Now she regretted saying anything. She looked at Gail for some help as everyone waited for her to explain.
Gail shrugged, pleased not to be the one having to tell the story. Holly didn't know everything that she did that night so really, this was for the best. She'd make it up to her friend with alcohol and food later when they made their escape.
Holly glanced at the faces around them, blocking her in. She knew these people even less than she knew Detective Callaghan.
"You didn't really steal Doctor Stewart's car did you?" Chris asked as he stared at Gail.
Rolling her eyes, Gail downed more of her beer. Maybe she should be grateful he wasn't asking about having a gun on her at the time. "It was the scavenger night." She tried to explain. "Shit happened." She added trying to blow it off and end the conversation.
"So you steal a car?" Dov scoffed. That wasn't what that night had been about so it made no sense to him why Gail would do that.
"Cheaper than a taxi." Gail muttered then finished her beer.
Holly giggled. "A taxi would have been quicker." She told the blonde as she remembered how bad her driving had been that night.
"And quieter too." Gail replied and they shared a smile, both recalling Lisa's wailing and crying that night.
Traci didn't understand the laughter any more than it looked like Dov and Chris did. She also wondered why she hadn't heard this story before either. "You're serious." She realised. "You took Doctor Stewart's car?"
"Please call me Holly, we can leave the Doctor stuff for work." Holly told the group.
Gail drummed her hands on the table. "Well, I'm getting another drink." She said before leaving Holly to deal with the others on her own.
Luke watched the blonde leave and the questions start around him, he left them trying to get more information out of Holly and went over to the bar. "You know you won me the pot that night." He muttered as he rested against the bar as Gail tried to get the bar tenders attention.
Gail eyed Luke before scoffing. "Yeah right, Frank refused to count anything I brought in. I only had a bag of weed left, Dov won the scavenger hunt."
Luke shrugged as Gail finally made her order. "Frank was the one that handed the pot to me." He confirmed. "It might not have counted with the rookies, but between the rest of us, you did win."
Gail threw back a shot of whisky as she kept her eyes on Luke but he didn't flinch under her scrutiny so she figured he might be telling the truth. She pushed one of her shots over to him and swallowed her second.
"Doesn't matter." She said. It might have if she'd been allowed to show the rest of the rookies what she'd done that night but hearing this after the fact didn't mean anything. To everyone else Dov had won that night and that was it.
Gail walked back to the table with her shot glasses, she could hear Dov asking Holly for more details about her. "Hey Doc, you know Luke here almost ended up on your table a while back?" She asked Holly as she stood beside her as she set her shot glasses down.
Blinking Holly eyed the detective who was in the process of sitting back down himself. "Yeah?"
Feeling eyes on him Luke glanced over and cleared his throat nervously. "I pulled through okay."
"This time." Gail muttered with a laugh. "Go on and show her the scars, she's just dying to ask."
Traci groaned at the word choice but had to admit that Luke had Holly's complete attention.
"This is what I get for helping you all out today?" Luke complains.
Gail just rolled her eyes and gestured with her hand for Luke to lift up his shirt. She hadn't seen them before either. She wondered if Andy had but knew that it was probably too soon for that name to be brought into the conversation. "Here, this'll help." Gail slid one of her remaining shot glass over as encouragement.
Luke shook his head, downed the shot, and then stood as he pulled at his shirt. He got a few cheers from around the table as he bared the scars. "No touching." He joked as Holly leant closer to get a better look.
"Gun shots?" Although it looked obvious, Luke nodded anyway and tucked his shirt back in. Holly was impressed. "Must have hurt." Was all she could say as her mind conjured up the torn muscles and how close to fatal those wounds could have been.
Luke shrugged. "Rehab was a bitch." He admitted.
Gail grinned to herself as she'd successfully shifted the focus of the conversation around the table as Dov mentioned Chris' stab wound. She met Holly's gaze as she swallowed some beer and winked at her.
"Impressive." Holly said as she was shown another midriff with a scar. Maybe if she wasn't gay she'd find this less awkward but she had her doubts.
Chris blushed as he pulled his top back down. "It was nothing."
Gail snorted. "Please, you cried like a baby on the way to the hospital." They could laugh about it now, but while they'd been trapped in that back room Gail had thought Chris was dying. She'd been desperately trying to get them out and get him help, blaming herself for Chris getting hurt in the first place.
The EMT that had first turned up had just grinned and told them both that it was going to be fine and only then had she relaxed.
"Cool scar though." Dov told Chris and tipped his beer at him as Pete stared wide eyed at the group.
Gail chuckled. "You'll get used to it New Recruit Pete Son."
Pete put his hands up. "I'm only following you guys around for a week, and then I'm starting in intelligence."
"Yeah?" Chris asked as he regarded the younger officer.
Pete nodded. "Although…I'm not supposed to talk about it." He said looking nervously around the table.
"Two years and all we have is a knife wound." Gail said shaking her head in disappointment.
"You say that like it's a bad thing." Traci said.
Chris looked slighted. "That knife freakin hurt."
"Hello? Shot. Twice." Luke added, holding two fingers up for emphasis.
"You don't count." Dov replied but Chris then argued that it should still count as it happened in their two year time frame.
Gail leaned over to Holly and whispered, "Quick get up."
Unsure, Holly did as she was told.
"Well it's been fun but we're off." Gail said to the table as she handed Holly's jacket over as the protests started to ring out.
Holly looked grateful for the chance to escape and quickly finished her drink. "Yeah, long day." She said as an excuse.
"Wait, you can't leave yet." Dov declared. "We still have questions."
Gail huffed. "Can. Am."
Luke hurried to his feet as well. "Yeah, I was only dropping Gail off anyway." He followed Holly and Gail away from the table.
They paused when they got outside.
Luke pulled his collar up against the cold. "You know, you guys did good today."
"Except for that thing about the thing." Gail muttered.
Sighing Luke nodded as Holly gave them some space by going over to her SUV, he turned to Gail. "I'll call SIU first thing in the morning." He didn't want that on his conscious any more than Gail wanted it on hers.
"Yeah?"
He knew why she sounded shocked after he'd blew her off back in his office. "I gave it some more thought." He explained. "It won't touch 15, we didn't handle the case 34 did." Which was true. "It'll be a mess, and he'll likely get nothing more than what Sam and Andy got." He warned her, when Gail looked confused he explained what he'd been told before he'd left the station. "They were both suspended for conduct."
"Huh." Gail was actually surprised, she'd thought Andy and Sam's mess would have ended up buried. It was part of the reason she wasn't willing to see the same thing happen with what Boyd had done.
"Great. Better than knowing he can try something like that again." And it was. Even if all Boyd got was a slap on the wrist it'd make him think twice before he tried it again. At the very least SIU should recommend that his chain be tightened for a while.
Luke started to go, just as eager as Gail to have this day be done. "And like I said inside, you guys did do good. You did good."
Gail shrugged. They'd done the right thing. But they shouldn't have had to, Brennan's wife and daughter should have had their justice two months ago. "Well, I have tomorrow off so have fun."
Luke chuckled. "Yeah." They'd be down Andy and Sam tomorrow not to mention SIU would want to go over their findings before they went to 34 Division and started interviewing. "Good luck with that." He told her then walked to his car.
Gail scowled at his back but he was gone before she could question him any further.
Noticing Gail was on her own Holly drove over and pulled up next to the blonde. "Need a lift?" She asked before blushing. That had almost sounded like a pickup line. Not that she thought about Gail like that.
Gail got in and slammed the door closed. "How about you just keep on driving?"
Laughing Holly started away from the bar but towards her house. "How about my place?"
"I guess." Gail grumbled, clearly unhappy with that decision. She reached over to change the radio station only to have her hand slapped away. "Hey!"
"Gail, we've talked about this. Do not touch my stereo."
Slumping back in her seat Gail sighed heavily. "Everyone just wants to kill my mellow. So unfair."
Holly snorted as she kept driving. "I will try to make that up to you."
Gail side eyed Holly. "Well, enough about me, how was your day?" Gail honestly couldn't remember the last time she had asked someone that and actually wanted to know the answer.
"No dead bodies if that's what you mean." Holly slowed then pulled into her parking space and turned to her friend.
"Oh, careful what you ask for Hols." Gail warned as she stepped out of the car.
Holly watched her go before slowly following after her. "She's just a friend." She muttered to herself as she saw Gail on her phone, no doubt calling in a takeout order. "Just a friend."
But no matter how many times she told herself that, when Gail turned and smiled at her, the part of her that did want more just continued to grow.
"We're just friends."
xxxxxx
AN/ Not sure how much longer they'll stay friends ;)
We get back to some stuff that was introduced in the first few chapters and Gail might find a new home. Got a couple of months of unknown to fill. Fun times. Gay times. Yay!
Thanks for reading.
