Later at the diner Gail and Holly catch up with Steve and Traci
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The looks on their faces were priceless she had to admit. Worth all of the embarrassment the story of the other night, which Holly just recounted, was causing her.
"He WHAT?" Traci said, sitting up a little bit straighter, hands still clasped around her coffee.
"Yup, just barged right in." Holly said with a smirk and a shake of her head. I tried to warn him, but…"
"And Collins wasn't right there with him?" Steve interrupted, eyes narrowing dangerously.
Gail was beginning to like this turn of events.
"Uh, no. He came up a few minutes later." Holly replied "And you should have seen the look on his face." She smirked
"I'll bet." Traci grinned
"Really." Steve mused, eyebrows raised, ferial grin spreading on his face.
"Really, it's ok Steve, I can handle this." Gail said, pretending to be concerned.
"I know you can little sister," Steve smirked "But what fun would that be?"
"Steve!" Traci kicked him sideways under the table.
"What?" He replied with wide-eyed mock innocents.
Holly laughed. "Are they always like this?"
"Welcome to the Peck and Peck show." Traci sighed and smiled into her coffee.
"You know, " Steve said, trying hard to keep a straight face, and failing, "Don't we have a huge backlog of old case files and ancient evidence boxes that need to be entered into the computer? You know, domestic disturbances, traffic violations, noise complaints, dating back into the early nineties…"
"You know," Traci smiled, " We could use some help with the backlog of old expense reports too. Thompson, right?"
Gail laughed. "I love you guys!" Maybe going out with them wasn't such a bad idea after all.
"Good!" Steve replied "Cuz you will be buying us drinks for the next month."
"Oh really," Holly laughed
"Yup." Steve winked at her
Gail's phone rang. Steve raised his eyebrows at her as she answered it with a sigh.
"Hello Mother, " She groaned audibly and rolled her eyes. "Yes. Yes I am at the lake house with Holly. She rolled her eyes again and sucked in a deep breath.
"No. No, you are not coming up here. We can talk when I get back.
There was a pregnant pause; all eyes were on her now.
"No mother, this is not a phase as you would like to call it." Pause. "No. No. Frankly I don't care." Pause. "No, I am not going to call my therapist to schedule an emergency family meeting. Just because You are having a problem does not make this an emergency." Pause "No mother, I do not need to drop everything to help you deal with this. As far as I know, you have always been able to spin whatever situation to your public advantage all by yourself." She said bitterly.
She could feel Steve staring at her.
"Look, " she gritted her teeth, "I'm not having this conversation right now. I will be back Sunday night, and I will speak with you on Monday."
She glared out the diner window at the lake below the highway.
"You want what?" She said incredulously, "Ok, ok, I will ask her. Yes mother. Uh huh. No. Goodbye. No. Goodbye Mother." And with that she hung up, cutting Elaine off mid-sentence. She might pay for this later, but right now she was too angry to care.
"She wants to know if I can bring Holly to family dinner on Thursday night." She looked at Steve, panic starting to set in.
"And you want me and Traci to come along as a buffer, don't you." Steve replied.
"Um, well, since you put it that way…" She practically begged.
"Oh little sister, I wouldn't miss this for the world!" He smirked "Hey Traci, looks like we are going to be drinking for free for quite some time." He teased, grin growing wider until he noticed Holly's expression.
She was sitting in a very un-Holly-like way, shoulders hunched, staring at her hands and the half eaten piece of cherry pie in front of her on the table, looking like she was trying hard not to cry.
Traci moved first, eyes full of compassion. Taking Holly's hands in hers she said, "Oh honey, it will be ok." She soothed in a motherly voice. "Elaine's bark is far worse than her bite!"
"It's not Elaine I'm worried about" Holly shrugged.
Gail was about to say something when her phone rang again.
"What." She answered in a clearly annoyed tone. "What do you want now."
Gail knew she was pulling face as she held the phone away from her ear and glared at it murderously. She waited until there was silence on the other end before responding.
"You know mother," She replied in an acid tone, "You wouldn't give two cents about my personal life if you didn't think it would effect your twisted career ambitions."
She sighed and continued, "Yeah, I do mean it. No. No. Don't give me that suddenly concerned for my well being crap either." She sighed again, and mindlessly picked up a spoon, trying hard not to simply bend it in half. "That's your problem, not mine." She shook her head and rolled her eyes again, "Actually mother, if you really must know, " She took a deep breath to steel herself, and placed the spoon with exaggerated care back on the table, "I am wildly, madly, deeply in love, possibly for the first time in my life." She reached over to place her hand on top of Traci's that was still holding on to Holly, and gave a little squeeze, "And no, I don't care how you feel about it. So, no, we are not coming to dinner on Thursday, or any other night, until you calm the fuck down and I am sure you will treat Holly nicely."
There was a moment of stunned silence on the phone before it erupted again.
"I don't care if you like my language either. And what about Nick? No. No. You leave him out of this. This has nothing to do with him or my being abducted last year. Like you care." There was silence on the other end of the phone. The rush of adrenaline was starting to wear off, leaving her feeling empty and tired. "Listen, I am turning my phone off now. If you want to have a reasonable discussion with me, we can talk after I get back. Goodbye Mother." She said firmly hanging up and shutting off her phone.
Steve was looking stunned, but Traci was grinning ear to ear. She had finally done it! She had stood up to her mother for once in her life and rendered Elaine Peck speechless.
"Wow!" Steve said, eyes wide with shock and not just a little bit of admiration.
"Good for you!" Traci beamed at her, piling another hand on top of Gail's.
Holly was silent. Gail looked over to find her staring at the table, eyes brimming with unspilled tears.
"Hey." She said quietly, removing her hands from the pile.
"Hey, " She said again reaching up to cup Holly's chin in the crook of her forefinger and gently turn Holly's face toward hers. "Why are you crying?"
A storm of emotion clouded Holly's brown eyes when she finally did look up.
"I heard what you said." She replied softly
"Uh huh." Gail replied, caressing Holly's cheek with her thumb.
"I mean about me, about us." Holly stammered, barely holding it together.
"That's right." Gail said looking into those beautiful, troubled dark eyes. "I meant every word"
"You would be willing to do that for me…" Holly whispered
"That's right." Gail said with a tiny smile.
She leaned over to kiss Holly tenderly, not caring that they were sitting across from her brother and Traci; not caring that they were in the diner where she spent her childhood and everyone knew the Peck family. All that mattered in that moment was Holly. Breaking the kiss she looked up to find Traci forcibly dragging Steve from the booth. He was looking rather smug too.
"We got to get going." Traci smiled as she made their parting excuse, "I didn't realize how late it was getting to be… Right? Steve!" She pulled on him by the elbow of his sweater.
"Um, yeah…right.." he stammered, and then giving Gail's shoulder a squeeze on his way out he added, "Don't worry about Mom, I got this."
"See you on Monday!" Traci called over her shoulder.
"Thanks!" Gail replied, and then looking back at Holly with eyes full of love and longing she whispered "Let's go home."
