A/N I know you don't want excuses so I will spare you but needless to say this wasn't the easiest chapter to write. A big thanks to those that reviewed and to those that gave me encouragement when I was ready to toss my laptop out the window. All mistakes are mine. I have no rights to Rookie Blue or its characters.

A/N2 I took down the chapter and made a few changes. I have been writing all weekend and hadn't had the chance to read any of the updated stories. After I posted I read the latest chapter of Stumbling Towards Gracefulness by TOFanGirl and found there to be some similarities. I didn't want anyone to think that either of us had copied the other so I made a few changes to the chapter. It doesn't change the end result of the chapter.

Chapter 11

Gail's pov

12:45 p.m.

Gail stood in her bedroom with a towel wrapped around her as she stared at the pile of clothes flung onto her bed. She held up a sweater and pair of jeans and scrutinized them for a second before discarding them with the rest of the rejected wardrobe choices. "This would be a lot easier if Holly would just tell me what we are doing." She thought as she went back to her now almost empty closet, should she go casual? Dressy? It felt too early in the day for dressy but this was a date so…hell if she knew what to do. "But no all she tells me is to dress warm, like that really helps." Gail groaned to the empty room. She had really had never had issues with getting ready for a date before but this wasn't like any other date, this was a date with Holly and she really wanted it to go well and that started with looking just right at least she had her hair done.

Her mind had been wandering since leaving Holly's place the night before, it had felt good talking to her; giving Holly insight into the crazy mixed up mind that made up Gail. She had thrown a lot Holly's way and the other girl hadn't run so neither would she. The look on Holly's face when she had asked out Gail was priceless and even the thought of it now made Gail smile. She knew that they had a lot more things to talk about but they had time, right now she just needed to get dressed. A look at her alarm clock told her that she needed to hurry up because the ever punctual Ms. Stewart would be arriving in less than 5 minutes. After slipping into one of her nicer bra and pantie sets, okay her only nice pair of underwear, Gail pulled on her favorite pair of jeans and a slate blue sweater that she had gotten from Traci for Christmas and gave herself a once over in the mirror, she looked good or at least she hoped Holly would think so. She slipped on her leather jacket just as she heard a soft knock at the door. With a smile she hurried to the door to see a slightly apprehensive Holly on the other side of it.

"Hey you are here." Holly exclaimed as she leaned against the door.

Gail arched an eye brow, "I live here…and you said that you were going to pick me up so of course I am here."

Holly blushed and dropped her gaze to the floor, "I guess I was a little worried that you would back out."

The words stung but Gail refused to let them get to her and instead rolled her eyes and huffed, "Well I am ready. You had better have planned an epic date."

Thirty minutes later

Holly's pov

The car ride had been pleasant; they had made small talk, joked about some of their classmates, commented on the record snowfall and how they couldn't wait for warmer weather. Neither of them broached the elephant in the car, Holly knew she had questions for Gail about where she saw them going but at the same time she just wanted to enjoy the day, so she stayed quiet. They reached their destination and it took a moment for Gail to realize where they were. "You brought me to the carnival?" she asked with bright eyes. Holly wasn't sure if this had been a good decision until she saw Gail whip off her seatbelt and leap from the car chanting, "This is awesome!" Holly smiled to herself as she got out of the car, obviously she had made a good choice. She had to chase after Gail as the excited girl had run ahead to the ticket booth. "I don't know if you could tell but I have a fondness for carnivals." She admitted when Holly finally caught up.

"No? I couldn't tell, what with all the bouncing and shrieking." Holly teased as she paid for the two of them. As they entered the noisy fairground Holly looked around, there were a lot of people there for such a chilly day, the grayish snow covered ground was littered with wrappers and garbage and the rides looked dangerous in her opinion but when she was trying to figure out what to do with Gail this looked like the best option. She felt gloved fingers snake their way between her own and she felt ecstatic that Gail would so willing hold her hand.

"Come on let's check out the games." Gail urged as she pulled Holly along and it was hard not to get caught up in Gail's enthusiasm. They weaved through the rows of games as Gail reminisced about sneaking out as a kid with Steve to visit the carnival and getting turned away from the rollercoaster for being too small to ride it. Holly could imagine a ten year Gail ripping into a poor carney about him discriminating against her over her height and laughed. "It wasn't funny nerd I was almost tall enough that ride nazi had it in for me. Anyway Steve rode it for half an hour and I got stuck holding onto his letterman's jacket, well until I traded it for a few hot dogs and a funnel cake." Gail admitted.

"You gave away his jacket? He must have been mad when he got off of the ride." Holly remarked as they went down another row of games.

Gail bobbed her head in agreement, "Well yeah but what could he do? It wasn't like he could rat me out to our mother because then he would have to admit that he took me to the carnival and left me alone; he wasn't going to risk that. No one willingly faces the wrath of superintendent mom unless you really have to." Gail said with a shudder and Holly gave her hand a little squeeze. "This one, this is it." Gail said as they came to a stop in front of a target shooting game. "I am going to win you a prize because I am that awesome." The blonde said confidently as she passed some money to the man running the attraction.

She raised the air rifle to her shoulder and Holly watched in amazement as Gail took aim and fired with speed and incredible accuracy as she hit all of the moving targets. It was obvious that Gail had spent some time around guns. "What did I tell you? Awesome!" Gail said in a sing-song voice as her eyebrows danced.

Holly had to agree it had been impressive but she didn't want to add to Gail's already massive ego so she shrugged indifferently and smiled, "Lots of people win at this game that is why the prizes are smaller."

Gail attempted an icy glare but ended up sticking out her tongue before saying, "Whatever pick out your prize nerd." she said as she checked her phone and turned away to read a new message. Holly only needed a moment to pick out the stuffed toy she wanted and pointed it out to the bored looking game attendant. Holly accepted her prize and started to walk away as Gail tried to see what she had picked out but Holly tucked it under her coat before she could see. "Hey I want to see what you picked." Gail said as fell in step with Holly.

"Uh uh." Holly replied as she wrapped her arms protectively around her mid-section keeping her new baby safe.

"Ah come on you only have it because I won it for you, let me see!" Gail whined as her lower lip quivered. It was the lip quiver that did Holly in, she didn't think that she would ever be able to say no to Gail when she did that. Holly pulled the prize out from under her coat and handed it to Gail, who in turn arched an eyebrow as to question her choice. "Why this one?" she asked handing it back.

Holly tucked it into the crook of her arm and smiled, "It reminds me of you." She said simply as she started to walk again but Gail blocked her path.

With hands on her hips and her brow furrowed Gail said through gritted teeth, "A gargoyle reminds you of me? I think I am a little offended here. Explain."

It was hard to keep from laughing at Gail's seriousness but Holly held it back. "I have my reasons."

"I'm waiting."

Holly smiled and pushed her glasses further up her nose, "My reasons in no particular order are one: I think gargoyles are cute and so are you even when you are frowning. Two: You both have hard exteriors but are all soft on the inside. Three: The purpose of gargoyles are to protect and that is what you do at least that is what you are going to…" Holly was cut off from finishing her thought by Gail's lips on hers. It wasn't much more than a light brush of their lips but still caused Holly's heart to speed up.

"Sometimes you talk too much." Gail said softly as she pulled away.

As she tried to slow her breathing Holly shook her head, "But I had more reasons."

Gail leaned in and gave her a peck on her cheek, "I think I got the gist of it."

They walked in silence for a few minutes taking in the sights and sounds of the fairground before Holly spoke up after taking Gail's hand in hers, "Not that I am complaining but I thought we agreed to take things slow."

"Slow is so open to question. I mean what is slow?" Gail said plainly. "Besides I have never been all that great at judging speeds, one of my only deficiencies."

Holly smirked, "Kind of an important skill for a cop, isn't part of your job to pull over speeders?"

Gail shrugged, "That is why they give us radar guns duh. Now I think that it is time for you to win me something." Holly followed Gail as she weaved through the games, it looked like Gail was more interested in the prizes than the games. She finally stopped and Holly groaned.

"Are you serious? This game is rigged, no one wins." Holly said a little too loudly earning her a glare from the one eyed carney manning the game. "Sorry but it is true." She said to the man who nodded in agreement. "Even he agrees Gail."

Gail ignored her outburst and pointed at the prize she wanted. "Win me the big blue and pink one."

"Maybe a different game, like the basketball one?"

Gail's smirk got wider, "Nope this one." She said popping the 'p'. "Like I said the blue and pink one."

Holly shook her head and got some cash from her wallet and grumbled, "The blue and pink one." under her breath. The game was easy enough, knock the three stacked metal milk bottles down with a softball but if it was that simple more people would win Holly thought as the attendant handed her three softballs. She set two of them down on the counter and tossed one lightly in the air to get a feel for it. It felt much lighter than a regulation ball. Holly gauged the distance to the milk bottles and decided that between her knowledge of physics and her softball skills that she could do this. After doing some quick math in her head she determined the velocity and angle she needed to throw the ball and took aim and threw… and she watched the ball hit the top of the upper most bottle…it didn't even wobble. She could hear Gail laugh behind her but didn't turn around, instead she picked up the next ball and recalculated her trajectories, maybe there was a slope that she was unaware of that needed to be included in her computations, she thought as she lined up her next throw. It was a perfect pitch but it merely glanced off of the left base bottle. Holly was getting a little aggravated now, her math was right, her aim was true and these damn balls were not cooperating. She forgot about doing the math and just threw the third ball as hard as she could and it hit dead center of the pyramid of bottles and bounced off them without so much a tremble. The attendant caught the ricocheted ball one handed and went back to reading his magazine as Gail grabbed her from behind to steady herself from laughing so hard.

Holly fished some more money and slammed it on the counter, "Again." The attendant raised the eyebrow over his good eye but accepted the money and gave her three more balls.

Twenty minutes and 30 balls later…

"Holly not that I don't appreciate the effort but stop. You are not going to win and that vein on your forehead is throbbing and looks kind of scary. I don't even want the stupid prize, come on Holly I saw garlic fries, you love garlic fries." Gail pleaded.

"One more time. I think I have it figured out." Holly said through gritted teeth. The truth was she wasn't any closer to figuring it out but she wasn't ready to admit defeat. She shoved what looked like the last of her cash at the carney but he refused to take it.

"Listen to your girlfriend, it is time to stop. No one wins and the garlic fries are delicious." He said as he backed away from the counter and bumped the table with the milk bottles hard, hard enough to knock the top bottle down. "Hey look we have a winner." He said with a one eyed wink as he handed Holly a tiny blue and pink elephant.

Holly laughed as she accepted it and mouthed "Thank you." to him as she turned to Gail and presented her with the prize she "won" for her.

"For you." She beamed as Gail took the tiny pachyderm that was slightly larger than her hand.

"Thank you. Now can we get food? Watching you throw air balls made me hungry." Gail asked as she hooked her arm through Holly's as she led them to the concession area.

Holly laughed, "When aren't you hungry? I swear you should be huge the way you eat."

The blonde shot her a glare, "You are just jealous of my amazing metabolism. For that I am getting one of everything."

True to her word Gail ordered one of everything and Holly felt sick to her stomach, she barely had enough money to pay for all of it so she order the cheapest thing on the menu and started to look for loose change in her bag as Gail handed the cashier money. "I got this Holls."

They walked over to the waiting area and Holly turned to Gail, "I asked you out that means I pay."

Gail shrugged with a sweet smile, "I am new to this whole dating a girl thing, and no one has explained the rules, hell I haven't even gotten the manual or my complementary fleece yet. I plead ignorance."

"You really are insane."

"Well you want to date me what does that make you?" Gail said as she shoulder bumped Holly.

"More insane. We make quite the pair." Holly waited for Gail's reaction to her calling them a pair but was saved by their food arriving. Gail grabbed to overloaded tray and followed Holly to an empty table in the heated eating area.

They both took off their jackets and Holly allowed her eyes to take in the sweater that accentuated all of Gail's already eye pleasing features and then moved her gaze to the very sad looking burger that Gail placed in front of her. It was barely big enough for two bites and she looked at Gail's pile of much more appetizing food wistfully. Gail rolled her eyes and looked over her food before putting one on the hotdogs in front of Holly and grabbed Holly's pathetic burger. She took the top bun off of her own triple stacked burger and removed some of the bacon and one of the meat patties and put it on Holly's before giving it back to her without a word.

"Thanks." Holly said before taking a big bite of it. Gail pushed the basket of garlic fries between them.

"I could hear your stomach growling from here. I may not know a lot about dating but I am pretty sure that your date attacking you over funnel cake isn't good so you are welcome." Gail said teasingly.

Holly was too busy eating to answer but took the time to watch Gail methodically place some of the garlic fries in her burger and pour some of the ranch dipping sauce over it before putting the top bun back on. Holly swallowed hard as she watched Gail chomp down on the enormous burger, it was hard to believe that someone so small could eat so much. Holly went back to eating and enjoyed the sounds of Gail eating, not so much the sounds of chewing but the little utterances of pleasure the blonde took from the food, the moans made the fine hairs on the back of Holly's neck stand at attention. She really liked the moans, it made her wonder what else would make those noises. Gail licked her lips slowly before she wiped her mouth with a napkin and grabbed a fry, "Are you going to eat or stare because if you aren't hungry…" she said as she reached for the hot dog in front of Holly but was met with Holly swatting away her hand.

"Mine, no take backs. Just because I choose to enjoy my food and not inhale it doesn't mean you can scavenge my food." Holly scolded teasingly as she took a big bite of the hot dog.

Gail rubbed her hand and sat back shaking her head. "I see how it is, I can share my food…"

"Gail?" Holly interrupted. "I had a reason for slapping your hand."

"I would love to hear your reason nerd."

"The hot dog has ketchup on it and I seem to remember a certain snarky blonde being allergic to the main ingredient of ketchup. So I was kind of saving your life." Holly said using her authoritative voice.

"Show me." Gail order as she reached for the allegedly dangerous food but Holly knowing that it was in fact ketchup free popped the last bit in her mouth and destroyed the evidence.

"Oops."

Gail raised an eyebrow and slowly shook her head, "I never would have pegged you for the obstructer of justice type Holly; I have to say I am a little disappointed in you. But I know a way for you to redeem yourself."

Holly thought she saw a mischievous glint in Gail's eyes and wondered what the girl had in store for her. "Gail I am not going on any of those rides, I am fairly certain that they are death traps disguised as entertainment."

"I am not going to make you go on any rides you big wuss. No the only one taking a risk is me." Gail said as she stood up and walked around the table to Holly.

Holly was feeling nervous, what was Gail up to? "What do you mean? What risk?"

Gail plopped down on the bench next to Holly and leaned back against the table. "Well I am only in danger if you were telling the truth but honestly Holly you are a terrible liar so I think I will be safe." Holly didn't have a chance to speak as Gail placed a hand on the base of her neck and pulled her in for a kiss. She was more than a little surprised by the action and more so when Holly felt Gail's tongue run across her lips as if asking permission for entry; Holly gave it freely, it is the closest that Holly had felt to bliss. They both got lost in the moment as Holly reached for Gail wanting her closer, needing her closer. She was getting dizzy from the kiss and broke it for a moment to breath and looked into Gail's darkening eyes.

Gail's breathing was labored as she smiled, "Liar."

Holly's brain wasn't working properly at the moment and so she responded with an eloquent, "Huh?"

Gail licked her lips and kissed the corner of Holly's mouth, "If there had been ketchup on the hot dog I would have a very different reason for breathing hard after that kiss."

Holly pulled away and shifted so that she was straddling the bench. "My god you really are insane! What if I had been telling the truth?! You could have…you would have…" She once again found Gail's lips on her own.

"You forget that I ordered the hotdog nerd and I always check to make sure. I may be insane but I am not stupid. Now I am I going to have to kiss you quiet every time you start rambling?"

Holly nodded, "Good plan, it could work."

Gail got up and walked back to the other side of the table and started to pick up their lunch debris, "What do you plan on naming your gargoyle?" she asked.

Holly smiled as she played with the stuffed toy, "I was thinking Gail or Little Peck."

"Are you serious?" Gail asked rolling her eyes, "You can't name it Little Peck, that brings up all kinds of middle school nicknames…little pecker comes to mind." She muttered.

"Okay Little Peck is out. Can I name her Cranky Pants?" Holly asked as she made the tiny gargoyle wings flap.

"But it doesn't have any pants…well then I think I will name mine Dr. Jurisprudence Nerdinstein."

She had to laugh at the seriousness that Gail exuded, "Wow such a big name for such a little elephant."

"It would have sounded better on the big one." Gail shot back as she dumped the garbage in the trash can. "So one a scale of one to awesome how is this date going?"

It was hard not to smile at Gail's attempt to see how she was doing date-wise. "Shouldn't I be asking you, since I asked you out?"

"I got to shoot things and eat my body weight in junk food…basically best day ever so I give it 9.99. I took off a tenth of a point for you not sharing the hot dog. Your turn." Gail said smugly.

"Hard to say, the date isn't over but right now I would give it an 8." She said knowing that it would get a rise out of the blonde.

"I don't believe you. What was your best date?" Gail challenged.

"I had a date take me to one of Keith Campbell's final lectures before he died." Holly explained but Gail looked clueless. "He was the doctor that cloned Dolly the sheep." She clarified and Gail sat back down laughing.

"You really are a nerd! God I have my work cut out for me to top that one." Gail said between laughs. They both got up and Gail was picking up her jacket when Holly caught in her peripheral vision a teenage boy staggering towards them looking an unhealthy color, before she could say anything the kid fell onto Gail and released the contents of his stomach all over her sweater. The boy muttered something that sounded like sorry and ran when he saw Gail's face, Holly would have run too if Gail glared at her like that.

Gail's pov

She refused to look down, she didn't want to see the vomit but she didn't need to to know that it was bad, the smell alone told her that. "Tell me that it isn't that bad."

"It doesn't look that bad." Holly said softly avoiding her eyes.

"Liar." Gail grumbled as she looked down to see the devastation. "Argh! He got my boots too. Where is the little pukey punk?!"

"Let me help you get cleaned up. You can enact your revenge later." Holly offered as she grabbed her own jacket and slipped it on as she nudged Gail towards the restrooms. Once inside Gail stepped into an empty stall and carefully peeled off the soiled shirt. "Pass it over and I will rinse it for you." Holly offered from the other side of the door. Gail rolled the sweater up so nothing would fall onto Holly and passed it over the door. "Oh it smells." She heard Holly say as she gagged a little. Gail climbed up onto the toilet so that she could watch Holly over the stall door. The med student acted as if she were defusing a bomb, carrying it oh so carefully to the sinks and unrolling it as if the vomit was going to jump on her. It would have been funny had it not been her new sweater.

"So doctor can it be saved?" Gail asked as she peered over the stall door.

Holly stopped rinsing and held up the sweater to look it over. "Well the perp ate at least two chili cheese dogs and what can only be described as a crap-ton of pink cotton candy."

"That wasn't my question. Doc can you save it?"

Holly turned to face her, "I am so sorry Gail, I have done everything I could to save it but this was a lost cause from the moment you were hit, chili cheese leaves no survivors."

"But it was so new…today was the first day I wore it…" Gail sighed as she stepped down and leaned with her back against the door. "Are you sure that there is nothing you can do?"

Holly gave a strained laugh, "I'm sorry, maybe a dry cleaner would have better luck but I have done everything I can do with barely warm water and powdered soap. I have a spare shirt in my gym bag back at the car. I will go get it for you. Wait here."

"Not like I can go out there topless nerd!" Gail called out but she knew Holly was already gone. "Don't want to get arrested for public indecency…mother would love that." She muttered as she wrapped her arms around herself, the restroom wasn't exactly a warm cozy spot. After a few minutes she was getting impatient, "Come on Holly, hyperthermia is going to down grade this date to a 6." Gail said to herself as she shivered.

"You aren't going to become hyperthermic you big hypochondriac if anything you would become hypothermic. Hyperthermia is when your body heat rises, hypothermia is when it drops." Gail looked up and over to the next stall and saw Holly looking down on her smirking.

"Don't be a perve and stare. Can I have the shirt? I'm freezing." Holly dropped the sweat shirt onto Gail's head. "Turn around?"

"Nothing I haven't already seen Gail." Holly said but she dropped out of sight anyways.

Gail pulled the Holly-scented hoodie on over her head and relaxed into it. "I am beginning to think that you set this whole thing up to see me topless again Stewart." She accused as she stepped out of the stall and found Holly leaning against the sinks.

Holly laughed and smiled that half smile that had a way of making Gail forget what she was thinking about a minute prior. "You got me Gail, I plied a kid with junk food and made him go on the tilt-a-whirl until he felt sick enough to projectile vomit all over you just so I could see you in your very nice bra. Black suits you by the way."

"I knew it. You are a devious woman Holly Stewart." Gail exclaimed in a faux shocked voice. "Can we leave now? The thought of going on rides isn't as appealing now after the tilt-a-whirl comment."

Holly nodded as she pushed away from the sinks, "Sure after you wash off your boots. I have a no puke policy in my car. Then we can start part two of Holly and Gail's excellent adventure."

"We are not calling our first date that."

"Too late. Now wash off those boots, times' a wasting."

Twenty minutes later in Holly's car

"Are you planning on telling me what we are doing or do I need to text Dov that you have kidnapped me? I will tell you right now I parents won't pay a ransom. Something about not negotiating with terrorists." Gail said as she watched the scenery change.

Holly kept her eyes on the road but Gail could see the corners of her mouth twitch, "Relax, no one is getting kidnapped, we are almost there."

It took a moment but then it clicked, "Why are you taking me home?" Gail asked a little bewildered. "The date was going well until…well the demise of my sweater…but we can salvage the day…"

The car stopped in front of Gail's apartment building and Holly turned and placed her hand on Gail's shoulder and squeezed. "The date is going great, I love the date but Gail…you smell…like bad…really really bad and I spend my days around cadavers and other decomposing things so that says a lot coming from me. There is a cheesy horror movie marathon at the revival theatre and I don't think they would let you in smelling the way you do. I brought you home so that you could shower and change so that we could continue our date after."

"Oh…okay." Gail sniffed and she had to admit she wasn't exactly smelling lily fresh. "You want to come up, the boys are out doing boy things." Gail offered as she exited the car.

Holly got out as well, "Sure, it will give the car a chance to air out." She said in a teasing manner and followed Gail into the building and into the elevator. "Maybe you should take the stairs?" Holly suggested as they entered the confined space.

"Shut it and hold your breath nerd." Gail glared as she pushed the button for her floor. She watched as Holly took an exaggerated deep breath in before the doors closed and held it. "Smart ass." Gail said rolling her eyes as she took a step closer to her. Gail traced a finger along the zipper of Holly's jacket and let her finger linger along the curve of Holly's breast before letting it drift down. She watched Holly gulp and start to cough and Gail laughed at how easy it was to get her worked up. "That will teach you." She smirked as the elevator dinged.

"You don't play fair." Holly said as she stopped coughing.

"Nope." Gail said as she fished her keys out of her pocket and unlocked the door. "Make yourself comfortable, I won't be long." Gail said as she pointed to the couch and headed to her bedroom.

Holly's pov

She had been in Gail's shared apartment numerous times but never left alone for any length of time so Holly took her time to really look around. It was obvious that boys lived here, while the apartment was clean it had a faint odor of dirty socks and stale pizza, not to mention the stack of shoot'em up video games but she knew that Gail played those as well. Holly wandered over to the small bookcase near Chris's bedroom door, she was surprised that several of the books were on photography and history. She pulled what looked like a photo album out and started to open it but felt a brief moment of hesitation, she didn't want to invade anyone's privacy so she went to put it back when a loose photo fell out. It was a picture of a little dark blond haired girl, her hair pulled into pig tails holding a hockey stick twice as tall as her. The girl was clearly a young Gail, perhaps four years old, a huge smile plastered on her face. Holly glanced around the room like a criminal and took the album to the couch and opened it.

It wasn't a very large book it only had a few dozen pages in it and it looked only half filled. Holly flipped to the first page, it was a picture of a young redheaded boy holding a baby, he looked scared as the baby was bawling, its tiny mouth wide open, Gail and Steve she assumed with a smile; of course Gail would have been a difficult baby. On the next page there was the picture Gail had mention when they were first getting to know each other; Gail couldn't have been more than a few hours old, still had the red wrinkled complexion but there she was with her wide blue eyes dressed in a little police officer onsie. The next few pages had various photos of Gail as a toddler and as an adolescent. Holly's smile faltered as she could see that as Gail grew and got older the smiles in the pictures looked less genuine and more forced until they looked completely fake. She thought back to her own childhood, she had no fake smiles captured on film; it was sad to think that Gail couldn't say the same.

It surprised Holly that the pictures jumped from Gail as a ten year old to her at seventeen…she flipped through the rest of the pictures to see if they were out of order or if she overlooked the missing years.

"They aren't there. There are no pictures." Holly heard behind her as she dropped the album as if it were a hot rock.

"I…I…I was just…sorry." Holly stuttered as she reached to pick the album back up and stood up.

Gail stepped out from behind the couch wearing only a towel around her mid-section, her hair damp and hanging loose, curly slightly framing her face. "There is no evidence of my 'awkward years' as my mother likes calling them. But I can fill you in, imagine me with a few pimples and every year a few pounds heavier until I was fifteen. That was the year I got a personal trainer for my birthday and monthly visits to the dermatologist."

Holly wasn't sure how to respond for a few reasons, first Gail was practically naked in front of her and what can you say to a person after that confession without it sound trite or cliché? Did she mention that Gail was wearing only a towel?

Gail rolled her eyes as she tightened her hold on the towel, "I think that our date is over…"

Holly felt her entire body tense and freeze, she had gone too far with looking at the book, "I am so sorry I should have asked…I knew better but I was curious…"she was cut off once again with Gail's lips on hers. Holly reached out to pull her closer but Gail took a step back breaking the kiss before it could become more heated.

"Holly it started to snow again and we have class tomorrow and I know that you would have a nerdy little freak out if you got stuck here without your books." Gail explained softly and slowly as she took Holly's hand. "I didn't mean that I want the date to be over."

Holly ran her thumb over the top of Gail's hand soothing small circles over the warm skin. "You could come home with me." She said softly and then realized how that sounded.

"Now look who has trouble with taking things slow." Gail smirked, leaving Holly feeling relieved that she hadn't gone too far. "Holls I would love to go back to your place but…"

Holly gulped, "But?"

Gail bit her lip and shrugged, "It's a school night." Holly let out a laugh and let go of Gail's hand and gave her a light nudge to Gail's bare shoulder making the towel slip slightly. "Hey watch it!"

"Sorry! Sorry…look you could pack your school stuff and go from my place in the morning to classes. I promise all I want to do is talk…" Holly rambled as Gail started to leave the room.

Holly slumped back onto the couch and threw her head back in frustration, she couldn't help but feel like she was blowing it. "Holly?" she sat up and turned around to see Gail's head poking out from her bedroom. "I am going to pack a few things and get dressed could you make sure the dvr is set to record 'The Walking Dead' Dov keeps forgetting to program it."

Fumbling with the television remote Holly it took a fraction of a moment for it to hit Holly that Gail was coming home with her. A flood of feelings surged through her but the dominant emotion was hope: this was going to work, Gail and she had a shot.

She was pulled out of her inner happy dance by a now fully clothed Gail (still wearing Holly's hoodie) tapping her shoulder, "All set?"

"Yep." Holly said with a smile as she saw Gail's backpack. "Any fleece in there?"

Gail rolled her eyes, "You will just have to wait and see. By the way nerd you suck at lying." Holly furrowed her brow and tried to think, other than the hot dog she had been honest. Gail held the door open for her, "If you think all we are going to do is talk tonight you are in serious denial." Holly could feel her mouth dry and a heat build in her, unable to speak she followed Gail out the door with a new thought, "Who needs cloned sheep when you have Gail?"

A/N I can't believe that I actually finished this chapter. It did not want to end but somehow I got it done. What do you think?