A/N: this chapter has made me realise a) how unfit I am, b) how badly I need to get back into tennis, and c) how little direction this story has.
hopefully you do not hate it.
I do have some kind of plan here just fyi. Hopefully you can see it unfolding.
Thank you for continuing to read :) and I truly appreciate the very sweet people who take the time out to leave a review!
...
"Holly, you have been saying no to my set ups for several weeks yet refuse to say if you are seeing someone. This is ridiculous. Is there a girl or not?" Holly chewed for a moment, letting the silence drag out, and Lisa grow more impatient as she waited for an answer, then swallowed.
"It's complicated," she answered, sounding dubious herself at this reply. She had yet to tell Lisa the full story about Gail, because if anyone was going to make a rash judgement about someone, it was Lisa. The woman could be a little shallow (hello, dated a former patient after her boob job had fully healed). Why was it that they clicked so well? At first Holly had thought she was a pompous asshole, but over time she had come to appreciate Lisa for all her faults and strengths combined. The other woman was fiercely loyal and protective when it came to her friends. She knew better than to even try to explain the Gail situation, that was more of a story for Rachel, who would be far more understanding.
"It's really not," Lisa replied, rolling her eyes, "Are you dating anyone right now?" Holly paused for a second. That shouldn't be a hard question. She knew that despite how much she wanted the answer to be yes, it wasn't. She thought of Gail's text earlier that evening, of the total absence of any reply since her last message, and frowned grumpily.
"Well, I guess it's not like there's a tree, so…" she thought out loud, and trailed off as she pushed the mashed potato around her plate moodily. When she looked back up Lisa had one eyebrow cocked, her mouth an amused smile as she shook her head at her friends antics.
"Have you gone crazier since I last saw you?" she asked before taking another bite of her food. Holly laughed.
"No. Well, probably yes, but, it's a metaphor," she explained vaguely, waving her hand in the air as she spoke, as thought this somehow qualified the answer further, and then took a mouthful of orange juice. The diner was bustling with people, and the couple behind them kept laughing loudly every five minutes, but an irritating kind of laugh that made Holly really want to yell at them to shut the fuck up, which wasn't very her, so she knew she was pretty tired at this point.
"Not even going to touch that with a ten foot pole," Lisa replied with a knowing look, "My point, loony tunes, is that you need to go on a date, have dinner with a nice girl, maybe take her out for coffee. Relax, stop waiting around for whatever this might be, might not be thing is that you have going on. You deserve better." Holly watched the ice cubes bob up and down in what remained of her drink, gently poking at them with her straw to perpetuate the movement. When she looked back up she observed Lisa's expression and sighed.
"You already set me up, didn't you?" The other woman gave her a guilty smile, that very quickly expanded into a grin.
"You're going to love her. She is exactly your type," she insisted. Oh, so she's a witty, snippy, adorable blonde cop with an attitude problem and a heart too big for her own good? she thought, before mentally kicking herself. Lisa was watching her expectantly. She let out a low groan, slumping back in her seat, her head gently bumping against the wooden back of the booth.
"If I say yes to one stupid drink with this girl, will that shut you up?" she asked. Lisa seemed to think it over for a moment.
"... Only for about two weeks, but yes," the other woman replied. Holly chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully, before sighing.
"Okay." She practically breathed the word out. Hence likely why her friend had to pause for a moment, unsure if pathologist had said what she thought she had said.
"Okay?" she asked tentatively. Holly laughed.
"I said okay, now go make the call before I can change my mind." She watched Lisa scrambled through her purse, and slide out of the booth, phone in hand, to go make the call. She waited till the other woman was out of sight and reached into her pocket, fishing out her own mobile. No new messages. She stared at the screen, mentally willing it to change, until the lights were so seared into her vision that on closing her eyes she could still see them. She shoved it away again just as Lisa returned to the table, grinning widely.
"Now, what dates work best for you?"
...
Holly spun the racket grip in her palm, staring straight across the net to where her tennis partner was preparing to serve. She had somehow talked Felicity into having a hit with her, though she didn't think the blonde really knew what she was getting herself into when she agreed. It was a Saturday morning, and Holly had been banned from coming into work on the weekend after two more days of coming in early and staying back late and almost falling asleep at her desk twice due to consecutive restless nights. She needed something to keep her mind off of the Gail situation, and sport being her favourite way of letting out repressed feelings, and baseball now being tainted by the memory of the adorable blonde's terrible swing, she had asked Felicity to go for a hit with her. Just a friendly game to kill some time. However when it came to tennis the natural competitor in her came out, and unfortunately for poor Felicity (who had only played a few times on and off several years ago) it was worse when she was in such a mood as she was now. Felicity served and Holly ran forward, hitting a smooth forehand that sliced across the court, straight past the blonde and perfectly clipping the white line. This was the third time in ten minutes that Holly had won the point on her first return. Felicity looked back up, her shoulders simultaneously slumping downwards looking defeated.
"How much longer do we have to do this for?" she asked, walking back towards the basket of tennis balls in the corner of the court, "When you said a hit of tennis I was thinking; me looking cute in a tennis skirt, demurely hitting a couple of balls over the net before we grabbed some coffee? Not like, serious exercise," she moaned. Holly let out a loud laugh - probably the first since dinner with Lisa - but it sounded hollow as it echoed out of her mouth. She pushed her glasses back up her nose from where they had slid during play, and flicked her ponytail back over her shoulder.
"Okay, last game, I promise," she insisted, grinning as she stepped back behind the baseline to wait. Felicity bounced the ball awkwardly, what had once been a confident if not slightly flawed serve, now flawed and nervous as well. As the blonde tossed the ball, a sound behind them caught Holly's ear, enough to throw her as the ball collided with Felicity's racket and began to propel it's self diagonally across the court towards her. Holly paused, the sound still ringing in her ear, and by the time she snapped to her sense and ran forwards her timing was off, her racket swung through missing the ball completely and she stood looking a little dumbfounded for a moment as Felicity stood grinning at her, jumping up and down.
"ACE!" she yelled excitedly, "Did you loose that on purpose just to make me feel better? Cos, I have to be honest, it worked," Felicity was grinning from ear to ear as Holly turned her head, glancing backwards across the park. The park on a Saturday morning was always busy, runners and joggers and walkers filling the paths, the tennis courts booked out, the grass turned into a temporary bootcamp, the playground equipment crawling with children. It was the noises, or more accurately the voices, coming from the basketball court that had drawn her attention. She sucked in her bottom lip as she watched. Dov and Chris were on the court, in disturbingly short gym shorts, attempting to verse a couple of young guys who'd been having a game. Chris was okay, Dov was fairly hopeless though. What drew Holly's eyes however was the surly blonde slumped on the park bench beside the court, watching with a bored look across her face. The pathologist's stomach clenched at the sight of her, blonde hair pulled back in a high pony tail, fitting gym clothes sitting comfortably around her lithe form. For someone who ate so much, who knew where it was going. Dov kept running over to her, panting, begging her to hand him the water bottle.
"Wimp," Gail scoffed throwing the bottle up to him and watching him drain it quickly, sweat sliding down his forehead, "Dov, I don't know if you can survive this. Maybe knitting is more your thing." Dov glared at her and threw the drink bottle back before rejoining the game, taking a pass from Chris, fumbling and having the ball snatched out of his loose grip. Holly was lost in the vision of Gail's signature smirk, perfect pink lips curling smugly as she watched her friends in amusement.
"Holly!" Felicity yelled out loudly behind her, sounding mildly irritated. The pathologist had a feeling this wasn't the first time the other woman had called out to her, only the first time she had heard. She froze in place, her cheeks flaring bright red as she tried to subtly look away before the blonde glanced up to spot her. She looked back and glared her tennis partner down.
"Hey isn't that your hot friend from the morgue?" she heard Chris ask loudly from behind her, and she couldn't help glancing back around again to where both boys had momentarily stopped playing, looking over in her direction. Chris gave her an awkward smile as he saw her looking, and Dov was laughing at him until Chris threw the basketball at the back of his head. Gail gave her a small sheepish smile and got up from the seat, walking towards her. Holly's tennis dress was suddenly feeling incredibly short and mildly embarrassing, she tugged at the bottom of the breathable material, casually attempting to pull it further down her legs and failing miserably. Gail semi sauntered up to the edge of the fenced off court, leaning against the doorway almost nervously as Holly approached her. The pathologist gave her a tight smile as they came within speaking range.
"Hi," she hoped she didn't come across as too kurt, but she wasn't really sure what to feel at this particular point. Were they on or off, friends or nothing? She tried not to get frustrated just thinking about it. The blonde ducked her head and scuffed her incredibly clean sneakers on the edge of the tennis court, not daring to step in.
"Hey," she replied. Her voice was incredibly soft, husky and fragile, and god Holly had to admit, really sexy. How did Gail just seemlessly do that sexy voice? That made her simultaneously want to give her a bone crushing hug and also rip all of her clothes off. Holly felt her stomach twist in a whole other kind of way as she watched those blue eyes glance up towards her again, sun light catching in them as she did so and moving like light through shallow water.
"What are you doing up so early? I didn't think morning was your time," Holly commented lightly, tapping the end of her tennis racket against the toe of her shoe. Since when were they so awkward? She leant into the fence and gave Gail a small smile. The blonde seemed to pick straight up at this.
"Believe me, I was dragged kicking and screaming. But, Chris is going through a thing, so Dov is making me be extra nice to him," the blonde shrugged as though it were no big thing. It was a very big thing, Gail didn't get out of bed before ten on a weekend for just anyone. The pathologist had to swallow back down the jealous feeling that was crawling at the back of her throat.
"Nice shoes by the way. They look barely warn," Holly nodded down to the pristine white runners on the officer's feet. Gail cast her eyes down again and self consciously shifted her weight in the aforementioned footwear. There was literally not a single mark on them.
"I bought them three years ago, and wore them once," she replied candidly, giving Holly a smile, "Hey, about the other night?" Holly couldn't help noticing that the other woman's eyes turned a lighter shade of blue when she was feeling vulnerable, an electric, summer sky kind of blue.
"Gail," she spoke the other woman's name gently, as though it took a tremendous effort to form the word on her tongue, it felt like it did, "I meant what I said. I'm not going anywhere, I'm not just going to let you push me away because you're upset, or going through something, or whatever it is that's going on with you. However, I am not going to force myself on you either." She watched the other woman's face, as Gail's features contorted into an unreadable expression. Holly tried to keep her own face neutral as she waited for some kind of response. The blonde seemed to be struggling to construct a sentence, opening her mouth and then pausing uncertainly.
"Lunchbox..." she began, pulling an unintentional smile across Holly's lips, "I think I jumped the gun with the whole, sleeping with you thing," the pathologist had to stop from scoffing, "Everything I said the other night is still true-"
"Gail," Holly interrupted, sighing, "If we moved too fast, or you just don't think you want to be in a relationship with me, you know, we can go back to just being friends?" She wasn't really sure what else to say, and in all honesty a part of her knew it would be hard to stop herself when it came to Gail, from saying things, from reaching out and touching her, but the other part of her also knew that here was this incredible woman who she had connected with instantly, and she really didn't want to loose that. She pulled herself out of her own spiralling thoughts to focus on Gail's face, expression caught in a mixture of relief and hurt and confusion that was such an entirely Gail centric expression, and probably not something that could be pulled off by many others.
"Oh. Yeah, I mean, okay," she mumbled, nodding slowly, before something behind them caught her attention and she furrowed her brow somewhat adorably, "Uhm, your friend is giving us a weird look." Holly glanced back and saw Felicity standing at the net, watching them curiously. She saw them looking over and smiled unabashedly, giving them a small wave. Holly felt her cheeks colour as she returned her full attention to the woman in front of her. The way that Gail was leaning against the door way in the fencing, one hand holding onto the wire linking, her body leaning on an angle, reminded Holly of seeing her silhouette in the window after dropping her off that first night.
"That's Felicity, from work. Sorry she's a little too inquisitive for her own good," she explained, her hands moving in the air in front of her as thought these strange and random hand gestures shed more light on the awkward situation, another nervous habit. She felt Gail's smirk focused on her, but more of a shy smirk than usual, one that just dimpled her cheeks and creased one corner of her lips more than the other, something in her eyes reading kind of like she found Holly endearing.
"Well I should leave you to your game. I know what you're like with your sports, nerd," Gail moved backwards, nodding her head in an attempt a nonchalant goodbye, and then almost stumbling on a particularly large clump of grass. Holly giggled, the first time in a week that such a sound had come out of her mouth.
"Don't worry, I'm kicking her ass," she replied, grinning and adjusting the position of her glasses as she watched the blonde walk away.
"I have no doubt," Gail called back over her shoulder. Holly watched her walking a way for a moment longer, probably not in the way that a friend should do, before jogging back over to the court to find Felicity grinning at her knowingly.
"So this is the girl, huh?" she was more stating than asking as she walked backwards to the baseline, "Why do I get the feeling this one last game is suddenly going to be extended to several?" Holly did her best attempt at batting her eyelashes, which didn't quite come across as she had hoped but Felicity's smile in return seemed to indicate she was in acceptance. It took an incredible amount of self control not to keeping glancing over at the basketball courts. More self control than it took not to eat chocolate. More than it had taken the one time she attempted to forgo caffeine for a week, and that was saying something. She was absoloutley thrashing poor Felicity, although her co-worker was being an incredibly good sport about it. After winning the set she finally agreed to stop. She turned around, with the pretence of picking up some stray tennis balls that had rolled into the corner, and tried to surreptitiously catch a glimpse of the officers. Dov was, very amusingly, lying flat on his back in the grass breathing at an unnaturally fast pace, as though he couldn't possibly get enough air into his lungs, while Chris was standing near his feet chatting to Gail. The blonde looked mildly bored by the particular conversation topic, her blue eyes looking straight past him to glance over at Holly. The pathologist dropped her gaze to the balls she was awkwardly holding clutched against her chest, one wrong movement away from dropping them all. She walked quickly back to the other side of the court and dropped them into the basket, before picking up her bag. Felicity was slumped in the ground against the fence draining her water bottle.
"Good game," Felicity breathed heavily, "Coffee now, please?" Holly laughed as she pulled out her phone.
"Yes, as promised, coffee," she mumbled, distracted by new message icon flashing on her screen, accompanied by Gail's name. She glanced up and over to spot the blonde heading back to her car. She caught Gail's eye momentarily before the boys drew her focus back, and then quickly opened the texts to read.
You were right - you really are kicking her ass.
Did this Felicity do something to you in a past life?
Remind me never to play tennis with you. Ever.
Did I mention that I love your outfit? (this is sarcasm. in case you've forgotten my texting tone.)
Holly tried to stop herself from grinning as she quickly texted back.
Could anyone ever forget you? You are very memorable. Not necessarily in a good way.