Thank you all for sticking through this, I know chapter 13 was intense and it was hard for me to write and edit too but we are going onwards and upwards now! Gail still has her demons to battle but who doesn't? We saw Gail at her worst, now we get to see her battle her way to recovery, with Holly by her side every step of the way.

Guest13: I know the self-harm angle isn't to everyone's liking but that's your opinion of the chapter which I respect. I'm just sorry to hear you didn't like it, but I do understand why as it was a very dark chapter.

Alloallo: You're welcome. Well Perik was sent back to prison so we can assume that is where he will stay, and I have a lot of ideas about this story.

Guest: I'm sorry but with the self harm angle I really couldn't bring myself to cause Gail anymore pain by making Perik do something worse than just grabbing her. You'll just have to wait and see the aftermath, Steve and Holly were just busy doing their jobs but Traci won't get off lightly, I assure you that.

1076kd: Thank you so much for your response, ah yes I didn't want Gail to pull away from Holly, Gail still has a lot of demons to deal with but Holly will be by her side every step of the way. Yep I'm not done with Traci's actions just yet, I feel justice needs to be done for what happened to Gail in that interrogation room.

Thank you all so much for you follows, favorites and reviews(I do read all of them).

WARNING: Trigger warning, purely because Gail explains why she did it when she was younger.

Enjoy

Chapter 14

Holly woke up and looked at Gail with love and adoration in her eyes, because of how exhausted Gail was she hadn't woken up with any nightmares, she was snoring softly her head on Holly's sternum, one arm by the side of her head and the other resting on Holly's stomach, Holly smiled at the sight, her short blonde hair was sticking out at all angles and her nose wriggled sometimes as she slept, Holly kissed the top of her head, Gail stirred a little,

"morning" she said her voice hoarse from sleep and from crying yesterday,

"good morning, sleep well?" Holly questioned as she nuzzled her nose into Gail's hair,

"yeah, you?" she said as she started to become aware of the events that had taken place,

"better with you by my side" she grinned, Gail moved up and kissed Holly slowly,

"hey" she grinned back,

"hey" Holly flashed her lopsided smile "come on honey, we need to get up", Gail looked confused but then she understood,

"ah we need to talk" Holly nodded and without another word Gail stood up and walked into the bathroom. Holly jumped out of bed, pulled on some sweatpants and headed downstairs.

Gail looked into the mirror, her eyes were puffy and red, she splashed cold water on her face 'it's only Holly, come on Gail, no judgement from her, no judgement, it's Holly, just Holly' she took in a deep breath before throwing on Holly's hoodie and a pair of sweatpants and followed the scent of coffee down to the lounge.

Gail leaned on the wall nearest the TV, the brunette was unaware that Gail had entered as she was buried in some medical journal, Gail saw the way when Holly's glasses slid down her nose she would push them back up annoyed that they had dared to venture down, she found this adorable, her brows furrowed as if she was correcting something,

"Hol?", Holly jumped, medical journal flying off her lap

"you scared me! How long have you been standing there?" Holly questioned her hand on her heart,

Gail chuckled,

"not long, just admiring the view" she winked, Holly laughed,

"come here" Holly patted the seat next to her, Gail smiled warmly and sat down coffee cup in hand,

Holly put her hands and Gail's knee and smiled encouragingly, Gail put her cup down on the table and laced their hands together,

"what do you want to know?",

"why you did it before" Holly said as softly as she could, Gail took a deep breath,

"I...I always felt so alone when I was younger, it got worse when I reached 16-" Holly squeezed her hands gently "- I never felt like my parents understood me, they were always working and had such high expectations from me, the first time I did it, I didn't know why, I felt this huge wave of sadness and helplessness, I picked up the blade, it wasn't supposed to be so deep, it scared the life out of me, there was so much blood-" tears flowed freely down Gail's face, Holly wiped them away with her thumb and kissed her gently "- I was scared, so scared, my parents found out, they had to take me to the hospital, obviously they had it wiped off my record, but they asked me why I would do this to them and wasn't I thinking of the Peck family when I did it, they never asked me if I was okay or how I was feeling, they made me feel like I had done something wrong, they even punished me by taking away my daily allowance for like a month, after the first time I did it, I started withdrawing more from everyone, I stopped hanging out with whatever friends I had, I never left my room, I stopped speaking to my parents, Steve was busy in the academy and hadn't a clue what was happening and I carried on cut-" she sobbed "-cutting, but I knew how to cover it up, things changed once I joined the academy though, I met Dov, Chris, Andy and Traci, they don't know this but they changed me and helped me in ways you couldn't imagine-" a genuine smile appeared on Gail's face, "-they didn't warm to me at first because I was a Peck, they saw me as Police royalty, but once they saw I wasn't like my mother, they started just talking to me like I was a human, they spoke to me like they cared, I became happier and it shone through, I owe them my life in a way" she took a deep breath and looked at Holly whose eyes were watering,

"hey hey don't" Gail caressed Holly's face, the brunette turned into her hand and kissed her palm,

"I'm sorry you had to go through that-" she sniffed "-it makes me so angry that you felt so alone, your parents didn't try and help you, I am promising you now Gail, I love you and I will help you no matter what, together we are stronger, I will be there to catch you if you fall no matter what" she kissed Gail softly, both crying into the kiss,

"I need help Holly, I...I don't want to make a mistake one day that will cost me my life" she rested her forehead against Holly's,

"we will get you that help Gail, because I don't want to lose you baby" she kissed her again,

"I love you",

"I love you too".

"Andy have you seen Gail today?" Traci asked, she had been looking for the blonde everywhere,

"Oliver said she's off this weekend" Andy shrugged and walked away, Traci was about to turn back to her desk when she saw Steve enter the homicide department, he looked wary,

"Traci, we need to talk" he said has he approached her desk,

"sure what's going on?",

"you-" he paused "-put" pause "-my" pause "-baby" pause "-sister" pause "-in" pause "-danger",

"Steve please, don't do this", he eyed her,

"when I found out the first time Gail self-harmed and I wasn't there to protect her I made a promise to her and to myself that I would always, always be there for her and I have been and I sure need to be there for her now, and I need to make sure she's okay, your actions, although they were a mistake have probably caused a storm of emotions, you should never assume that a criminal won't try something, Perik should have been cuffed, he is Perik, you let my baby sis in there with him knowing he wasn't cuffed, so just give me some space Traci" with that said he left. Traci collapsed into her chair, she knew she had messed up for good this time and she probably lost one of her closest friends because of it.

"Hey Holly!" Traci yelled from her desk as she spotted the brunette file in hand,

"what is it detective Nash?" the formal title didn't slip past Traci,

"how's Gail?",

"I'm sorry but I'm here on a professional visit only, I have to drop this case file from a couple weeks ago off to Shaw, so excuse me" before she could leave Traci grabbed her elbow gently,

"Holly-", before she could finish Holly interrupted her,

"Traci, you knew he wasn't cuffed, you knew and you still let Gail go in there, you-" she rubbed the bridge of her nose "-you're a detective, you've seen plenty of traumatized victims, so you tell me, how did they seem to you?" Traci was stunned silent, Holly turned and walked away. Holly couldn't help but blame the detective for what had happened yesterday, she wasn't going to make it easy on Traci, seeing Gail so broken had crushed her and she felt drained seeing the woman she loved in so much pain, physically and emotionally.

"Chris get your butt over here!" Gail yelled from the lounge, Chris came through the front door with boxes,

"you know Gail, you could help, this is your stuff after all" he huffed,

"well I could but what would be the fun in that?" she smirked, he scowled at her before setting the boxes down by the plush sofa,

"here have a beer" he eyed her suspiciously before taking a swig from the bottle, he shuddered at the coolness,

"where's Epstein?" she asked,

"he and Chloe went for a weekend away at some cottage in the woods" he said simply,

"creepy but I suppose King and Queen of the Dorks like that kinda stuff"

"so-" he shifted a little "-you and Holly?" she rolled her eyes,

"I asked you to move stuff from my apartment to Holly's, you put boxes of my clothes in Holly's room-" she paused, Chris still looked confused "-yes we are together you idiot" he beamed at her,

"that's great Gail really great! You seem so much happier with her, you deserve to be happy" he said quietly, he hugged her, she shoved him off,

"back off, I'm not going all soppy" he chuckled,

"that's the Gail I know and love" he laughed as she scowled at him before shoving him off the sofa,

"work slave, I'm not paying you to do nothing" she mock-demanded,

"you're not paying me at all!" he said as he brushed the fluff from his jeans, she laughed before adding

"that's what makes it more enjoyable for me!" she squealed with delight, he chuckled at her childishness.

"What are you two laughing at?" Holly asked as she walked through the door and over to Gail where she planted a kiss on her lips,

"Chris is my slave for the day" she said excitedly, Holly chuckled, it warmed her heart to see Gail smiling and excited, it felt refreshing.

"I am not her slave for the day, I can't believe I got roped into this, all because I have the weekend off too!" he argued clearly flustered,

"calm down Chris-" she walked over to him and whispered in his ear "-watch this" Gail looked at them suspiciously,

"Gail-" 'don't you dare Holly Stewart' "-baby-" 'damn it you really went there' "-can you please help Chris, it's just I'm exhausted from work and I would help but I smell like death and I need to take a shower" she put on her best puppy eyes,

"okay Hol, but I'll be so tired after carrying things all day so I won't be up for any-" she dropped her voice so only Holly could hear "-bedroom activities" Holly stared at Gail, who beamed triumphantly,

"come on Christopher lets get moving!" she said as she picked up a box and headed towards the bedroom.

"We have eyes on Dr Cal" Steve boomed at the team, "we take him down today, I want this to be a quick and clean arrest, no screw ups, I want everyone ready to go in 15 minutes meet outside the homicide department, do not be late" everyone began to shuffle out of the briefing room.

There you have it! Things are looking more positive for Gail and Holly and I hope you enjoyed the slightly lighter chapter! I also felt that Traci's actions shouldn't have just been dismissed hence the double shot of Steve and Holly being angry with her, remember...she is yet to see Gail, so the next chapter will be interesting with the arrest and Traci going to see Gail!

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