Note: Sorry this took a week to get up, I kept getting distracted by feels for other writings. Thank you for all the love and support.

The smell of blueberry pancakes practically yanked Gail from her dreams. She sat up in Holly's bed and looked around, the brunette was nowhere to be seen but she could hear her singing in the kitchen. Gail was just thankful that the blueberry pancakes weren't part of her dream. Well, she was glad Holly wasn't a dream either but her stomach told her she was extra happy about the pancakes. The only reason Gail had been worried that Holly hadn't been real was because of the stupid pain killers.

After they had finished talking she had taken another Percocet because her hand was killing her and while it dulled the pain it, coupled with how tired she was, also had her freaking out about the idea that she'd wake up and Holly would be gone. As they cuddled in the gigantic comfy bed, surrounded by pillows, Holly would just laugh and kiss her, promising that she was real. But, come on, that was just the sort of thing figment-Holly would promise.

"Hey." Gail looked over to Holly walking in the door with a tray covered with food. "Food and pills."

"Mmm," moaned Gail as she sat up against the headboard. Holly sat the tray in her lap and ran her fingers through the blonde's unruly hair. "Two of my favorite things served to me by my favorite. Good morning so far."

Holly smiled and moved to her closet. As Gail dug into the pancakes she swallowed the pill down with the first bite. The food was amazing. When Holly stepped out the closet fully dressed, Gail was a little disappointed, knowing that meant she was going to work.

"I'll order you lunch and I'll come straight home after work," said Holly, seeing the pout on Gail's face.

"Uh. I have an appointment at 4," mumbled Gail. She looked down at her plate and poked at the bacon. "I'll get a ride but can you just pick me up after work? Should be around the same time."

"Sure. Where's the appointment?" Gail recited the address from memory while finishing off the hash browns. She moved to down the juice while Holly studied her face. "Therapist?"

Gail nodded while swallowing the knot in her throat down with the juice. Holly moved around the bed to stand near her and planted a gentle kiss where she'd smacked her head into the toilet bowl. The blonde was grateful that she didn't push for any more information than that.

"Text me if you get bored. I'll respond when I can. Spare key is on the counter."

After Holly had left, Gail finished her breakfast and then decided to be the awesome person she was trying to be and took her tray and dishes to the sink. Putting a plastic bag around her hand she managed to wash all of her dishes rather painlessly and put them on the drying rack. Then she turned and inspected the countertop. Next to the spare key, Holly had left two upside down glasses on the counter, each with a pill under it and a post-it note on top with the time Gail should take it. The blonde pulled out her phone. She sent a quick text to Traci before opening her conversation with Holly.

Gail: So, what? I can't be trusted with my own pills?

Holly: They're in the cabinet. I just figured you wouldn't want to open the bottle.

Gail: Oh. Thanks.

Holly: :)

Gail went back to Holly's bedroom and pulled the Wii out of the bottom drawer. She hooked it up and spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon playing Mario Kart since it was pretty easy to just have to turn the controller instead of moving her thumb around constantly. Holly had ordered Chinese food for lunch and Gail was fairly certain that no one could be more in love than she was when she saw the extra orders of fortune cookies.

Traci showed up around 3 with Swarek in tow to take her to therapy. Sam and Gail just sort of nodded at each other and Traci shook her head at them as she pulled Gail into a big hug. When she got dropped off at Dwyer's build she almost thought about leaving and going to the pizza place across the street but decided against it. She needed this. It would help, she reminded herself.

"Good afternoon, Gail."

"Hi." Gail plopped down on the couch, kicked her shoes off, and pulled her feet up. Dwyer watched her do this and nodded, sitting down in her own chair, and pulling her clipboard into her lap. "Can we not with the clipboard?"

"It's just so I can make notes to remember what we talked about. You're free to read them when we're done if that will make you more comfortable." Gail pursed her lips and watched her for a moment before nodding. "I remember how reluctant you were to talk to me during the mandatory session. What made you make this one?"

There was a long silence and Dwyer was about to open her mouth when Gail finally spoke.

"I drank too much, punched a mirror, downed some pain killers, and passed out before I could stop the bleeding. Traci found me. Everyone thought I was trying to kill myself. I wasn't. I was just drunk. And that's just sort of been the topping of a huge pile of shit."

"Okay," said Dwyer. She seemed at a loss for words at how frankly and quickly Gail had said everything. "Let's start with the last part. Besides a series of unfortunate looking events, why would everyone think you were trying to kill yourself? Normally people don't tend to just jump to that conclusion."

"I guess, maybe because I've been kind of off lately. Everything was going great until I walked out on Holly. Then it's like everything blew up all at once. I lose my best friend to a white shirt. Dov has been so preoccupied with Chloe and her drama that I never see him outside work. Chris has been running around shoving shit up his nose apparently. Traci has Steve and Steve has Traci. Then." Gail paused and collected herself. "Then, I tried to save a woman who just ended up dying at the hospital and now this precious little girl is left in the system with no one, no home, no family, nothing and the case just won't leave me alone."

If anyone saw her spilling her heart to the therapist the way she was and asked her why she was going it Gail would have immediately blamed the drugs. But she knew better. She needed this. The tears running down her cheeks, the cracks in her voice. She needed to talk to someone about all of this.

"It feels like, for the first time in my life I'm trying to reach out to people and they're all just too busy to care. And sometimes I get it. You know, people have their own lives. But then they all make their little comments about me having no feelings, about me being so cold like nothing matters to me…and that's not some paranoid exaggeration because they literally say the shit to my face…but then they constantly push me to open up to them, and then are nowhere to be found the second I actually need someone. It's like it has to be on their terms. Holly is the only one who has just been there for me, no matter what and had pushed her away by dive bombing out the tree head first. We kind of worked it out but I'm still scared. Scared to tell her any of this. Because I know she'll worry."

"Tree? Holly?" Gail sighed heavily.

"Holly is the woman I mentioned last time. The one who kissed me. Turns out I liked her. We dated. I fucked up. We talked. And now…I think we're together again. Maybe. But I need help. And I can't keep expecting it all from her."

Dwyer nodded and made note of it on her clipboard. Gail watched her scribble the words out and waited for her to say something about how Gail had insisted she wasn't 'switching teams' but it never came.

"Okay, what happened with her? And what is this tree you 'dive bombed' out of?"

Gail sighed. This was going to be a long session.

By the time she walked out of the building into the fresh air, Gail was pretty sure she'd cried and talked enough for the rest of her life. Everyone would just have to accept text messages for as long as they knew her. Spotting Holly in the parking lot leaning against her SUV, Gail smiled. Gail was amazed at how gorgeous she looked just wearing a plain shirt and jeans with a cardigan thrown on. Although, she actually found everything about Holly amazing. She knew she loved her but she hadn't realized how much until Dwyer stopped her in the middle of a ramble about Holly. Even the therapist had smiled at her knowingly, seeing how deeply ingrained Holly was in her.

"Hey, how'd it go?" asked Holly as Gail shambled up to her, staring at her. The blonde grunted and pushed herself against Holly, snuggling her head into the brunette's neck. Holly froze for a minute before wrapping her arms around Gail's neck. "About how I expected then?"

Gail grunted again while Holly just held her. After a couple of people passed them, Holly moved off the car and managed to get Gail into the passenger seat. As soon they got back to Holly's, Gail shuffled upstairs and back into Holly's bed, burying herself into the sheets and pillows, wrapping herself in what was essentially a bed cocoon.

She must have fallen asleep because she was being woken up sometime later by gentle kisses on her face. She pushed at Holly to get off her and whipped her cheek with the blanket. The other woman just started laughing and pulled Gail up into a sitting position.

"Come up grumpy, I made dinner. Then you can go right back to bed."

With the promise of food, Gail trudged down the stairs and into the dining room. Everything from earlier that afternoon still fresh in her mind and Dwyer had told her to try and talk to Holly. That even if some things would make her worry, Gail not telling her anything would make her worry more. As a plate of macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, and mashed potatoes appeared in front of her, Gail looked at Holly who was sitting down next to her. This was not something Holly ever made. This looked like the food Gail ate by herself when she didn't feel like eating delivery for the fourth day in a row.

"Figured you'd want some comfort food after therapy," said Holly with a smile. She had obviously seen the look on Gail's face. "Don't worry, it's all organic so you can still tell me how gross it is."

Gail grinned before digging in. She was much hungrier than she had realized and she was suddenly glad that she had been dragged out of bed. They ate in silence but Gail didn't want Holly to think she wasn't grateful for everything that was being done for her so she had rested one of her hands on the brunette's knee and dragged her leg closer to her. The blonde felt bad, like she wanted to talk to Holly but she was just so tired of talking that day that she couldn't bring herself to open her mouth except to shove food in it. She stared at her hot dog willing Holly to know that it was okay for her to talk to her even if she wasn't in the mood to talk back.

And naturally, Holly was smart enough to pick up on how Gail was feeling.

"Work was better today," said Holly after she had finished eating and pushed the rest of her plate toward Gail. "Nothing super crazy or…stressful. Okay, work was actually kind of boring. But boring is pretty good compared to stressful."

Hanging on every word, Gail listened to Holly talk about her day and how Randy had been hungover so she kept messing with him until he threw a pen at her and she acted mortified and like she was going to fire him. Then he started freaking out and apologizing and she just laughed at him. Such a couple of nerds. Sounded a lot like 15 though. Like 15 but with science and stuff. It took Holly a few minutes into a story about a visiting superior to realize that Gail had cleaned both plates and was just watching her talk. Holly was just so amazing.

"Oh. Sorry," laughed Holly as she picked up their dishes and started to wash them in the sink. Gail just shot her a small smile to say it was okay. As she watched Holly clean everything and put it all away Gail suddenly found her voice again.

"How do you do it?" Holly finished putting some plates away and turned to look at her.

"Do what?"

"Go from being a complete wreck to…you in barely a day?" Gail watched Holly nod confirming that she understood exactly what the blonde was talking about.

"I had you," shrugged Holly. Gail looked skeptical. "Seriously, Gail. You, someone I trust and love, were there for me. That's all I needed. For some people that's all they need. Other people, who have mothers with the emotional depth of tracing paper, need more and there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, sure what happened is still bugging me and it's going to but, overall, I'm feeling better because you were here for me. Because you are here with me."

Gail smiled at the mother comment and then stared down at her feet.

"Come on. Let's get you back into your cocoon so you can start to feel better too." Holly stretched her hand out for Gail to take and they walked back to Holly's bedroom. As Gail snuggled back into her spot, Holly changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top. She pulled the band out of the hair as she hoped into the bed and turned on the television.

Gail moved the comforter so Holly's torso was under it too and pulled her into being a part of her cocoon. Holly smiled down at her and started petting her head while she flipped through the channels looking for something to watch.

"Dwyer said I should take a few days off. I have another appointment tomorrow and the day after. She said that if I was feeling any better after that she could recommend me for light duty," mumbled Gail into Holly's side.

"That sounds good," said Holly, scratching lightly behind Gail's ear. "And you're welcome to stay here."

For a few minutes, Holly just watched whatever crime show was on the TV and Gail ran her fingers long the hem of the brunette's shirt.

"Are we…?" asked Gail.

"If you'd like us to be. I certainly would like us to be," said Holly as she tilted Gail's head up to look at her. "I love you Gail. I'm not going anywhere. If you just need a friend right now. I can be a friend but I can't lie and say I wouldn't love to be more with you."

Gail moved herself into a sitting position since she couldn't prop herself up and looked at Holly.

"You saying we can't date and be friends. Sounds fishy to me," teased Gail, poking at Holly's ribs.

"Hush. You know what I meant. Here I am trying to be serious for you and you're making fun of me." Holly stuck her tongue out.

"I want to be with you," said Gail. "I'm probably being crazy needy right now and I'm sure that's a terrible time to be making…"

Gail was cut off by Holly kissing her, gently at first then much more passionately as Holly's slid to the back of Gail's neck. They broke apart when Gail couldn't catch her breath fast enough.

"I love you," breathed Gail. Holly smiled her biggest toothiest smile and the blonde found herself unable to keep herself from smiling back. While Gail knew she still needed to see the therapist, she couldn't help thinking that Holly was definitely at the top of the list of things she needed to help her keep going. Holly grounded her, reminded her that she could be better if she worked hard enough for it.

Gail had her best friend back and it just so happened that her best friend was an amazing kisser. Everything else seemed a lot easier so long as Holly was somewhere nearby.

Note: Here's the deal. I really feel like I could end this here and technically this was originally planned as the ending (yes, this fic was planned as smut free). However I am willing to fill any blanks or glaring questions people have. I really love writing for this fic but this was literally meant as a comfort piece. I really didn't plan on going too far with it because I feel like it would just turn into one of those never ending fics with no ends and "Campfire Story" is already like that enough.

I dunno. Let me know what you guys thing. Maybe you'll agree that this is an understandable ending, maybe you won't. Maybe you just really want me to write some specific scene for this fic. I don't know. Let me know. xoxoxo