Holly ran into the police station not even pretending to stop at the front desk. Whoever was there must have recognized her, because she hadn't been stopped or tackled to the ground. The way she was feeling at the moment, she would have probably ended up in a cell for hitting back. She was really trying to not overreact and be that crazy protective girlfriend Gail would sometimes jokingly accuse her of being, but it wasn't easy.

She rapidly walked down the hallway to the detective offices where Traci typically was. She knew Steve was on the second floor somewhere, but didn't know exactly where. Traci's office she knew – they occasionally had lunch together; sometimes with Gail and sometimes without. In the last few months they had become pretty close spending quality time laughing and commiserating on what it was like dating the Peck siblings.

Before she could make the turn into the office, Traci came storming out with a hand held radio next to her ear. She stopped mid-stride the second she saw Holly.

"Holly…"

"Traci, Gail? What's happening? Tell me."

Traci inhaled sharply and grabbed Holly's wrist to pull her to the side of the hall allowing people to walk by unobstructed. She was actually on her way to the morgue to get Holly so she could calmly explain everything. By the way Holly was shaking like a leaf; it looked like someone got to her friend first. It was moments like this, Traci missed being in uniform out in the field. She had spent the last twenty minutes glued to a radio as everything unfolded, instead of out there helping. Listening to Chris scream, 'Officer down!' and calls for back-up and then, horrifically, the bomb squad had her completely on-edge and frustrated she couldn't do more. Yes, detectives would play their role, but right now she just wanted to help her friends. She may not have been able to help her uniformed friends, but she could help the one standing in front of her.

"Holly, it's going to be alright. I don't have all the specifics yet, but there was a situation at the rally." It wasn't until a few minutes ago, when Steve called her to say he was on his way to the hospital and asking her to get Holly that the full picture began to paint itself. She had some information, probably more than the frightened woman before her, but not a lot.

Holly clenched her fists in frustration and anxiety. "I know. I know that. My friend was there…he said a female cop was…he said there were gunshots. Traci, please. Please tell me it wasn't Gail."

There are some answers that don't need to be said aloud. Some you just know by the look on someone's face. This was one of those. Holly closed her eyes and tried to not pass out. She felt Traci's hands on her shoulders steadying her.

"Holly. Holly, look at me. Chris was there and he radioed dispatch. It hit her vest. Holly, it hit her vest. They're taking her to the hospital, but it hit her vest."

Holly fell backwards leaning against the wall. She bent forward and held her head up with a hand. Her brain was trying to reconcile that Gail apparently had been the one involved…not to mention shot, with the idea that, if what Traci said was true, she was okay. She was a scientist at heart and needed evidence.

"I need to get there…I need to see her." Holly immediately started walking back down the hallway in a daze to leave, but was quickly caught up to by her friend.

"I was on my way to get you. I'm driving." Traci had never seen Holly so off kilter before. She almost didn't recognize the woman next to her quickly walking out of the station. Holly was usually so calm and collected; it was one of the many things that made Holly and Gail such a good couple. Gail would become a quick-tempered fireball about something and Holly would extinguish the impulse as quickly as it had occurred. It rarely needed to happen the other way around.

The both silently got in the car. Traci looked over at Holly and decided to throw the police lights on. It wasn't enough of an emergency to hit the sirens, but she hoped it would help Holly see she was doing what she could to get them there quickly. After a minute, Holly's phone started ringing. Traci briefly looked over and saw the word 'Cop' displayed on the screen and smiled. She had heard Holly refer to Gail as that a few times when they thought no one was in earshot.

Holly frantically hit the button on her phone. "Gail! Gail, where are you?"

Holly's faces scrunched in confusion when a man's voice answered. It took her a second to process who it was.

"Chris? Why do you have Gail's phone? Can I talk to her?"

Traci was trying to listen in on the conversation but couldn't make out anything Chris was saying. Holly just kept saying 'ok' and nodding her head as her leg vibrated the whole car. She hung up a few seconds later and closed her eyes.

"Holly, what did Chris say?" Traci's own need for answers were overriding any need to allow Holly to take a minute.

"They just got to the emergency room. Gail told him to call me, which means she must have been alert, right?" Holly didn't let Traci answer, she just kept talking. "He said she passed out but regained consciousness in the ambulance – thinks she has a concussion, but she's okay. The bullet hit her vest and he doesn't know if there was any damage, but she wasn't bleeding. Oh, thank God, it didn't go through."

Traci reached over and took Holly's hand. "Holly, she's going to be fine. It's okay, you can breathe."

Holly tightened the grip around her friend's hand and used the back of her other hand to press it against her mouth in an effort to hold back her tears. She quietly said, "I hate this. I hate that this is part of what you all do. I don't know how to do it."

Traci didn't know how to respond. She had lost one man she loved to this job already and lived in fear it would happen again, but she slept at night reconciling it was part of the job. Something she and all of them accepted when they signed the papers and took the pledge. Holly never did that. Holly never signed up for the job. She just happened to fall in love with someone who did. As much as she wanted to comfort Holly, she just didn't have the words.

They silently pulled into the emergency room parking lot, and Traci took one of the spaces near the entrance. She seriously doubted they would question a police vehicle parking somewhere. As they got out of the car, both women noticed how busy the ER was. There were police and people everywhere. Traci quickened her step to keep up with Holly practically running through the open sliding glass doors. Before they could get to the front desk, Steve called out their name and they were met by both him and Chris.

Steve looked haggard but calm. He accepted the hug from his girlfriend and then reached out to Holly to hug her as well - she really looked like she could use it.

"They took her back. She was alert. I didn't get to see her, but Chris…"

Chris jumped in, "Yeah, she's okay. She's kind of in a fog. I think she hit her head pretty hard and told the paramedics it hurt when she breathed, but all her vitals were good on the bus."

Traci couldn't help going into detective-mode. "What the hell happened?"

Chris paused for a moment, not sure he should be relaying the story before he gave his statement or in front of Holly, but Steve nodded for him to continue so he did. "We were at our posts. There were so many people there, it was crazy. I went over to give Gail a bottle of water and she noticed some guy in the distance that she thought looked suspicious. She went to talk to him. I was watching her the whole time. I don't know… There were so many people."

"Chris it's alright. You didn't know." Traci placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Gail knew. She knew something was wrong with that guy. They talked for a couple minutes and then I saw her try and get everyone to move and she pulled out her gun and so did he. They shot at the same time. I watched her fall and then all hell broke loose and I couldn't get to her. We had to get everyone out and I couldn't get to her."

Steve looked down to the ground. He knew he shouldn't be asking these questions before Chris could go back the station and gave his statement, but he didn't care. This was his little sister and he needed the details. "Did she hit her mark?"

Chris nodded his head in affirmation. "HI think he was dead before he hit the ground. Gail was only down for a few minutes - it may have been less than that…everything was moving so quickly. She was really disoriented, but she told me about the…the…." Chris looked back over at Holly and decided to stop what he was about to say.

She had been suspiciously quiet during all this, but finally spoke up when she realized all eyes were on her. "Diaz, what?" Her tone was short and very Gail-like. She was tired of getting half-answers all day.

Chris shuffled his feet buying some time and decided to continue. "The guy had a bomb. That's why Gail pulled out her gun. She must have figured it out." Chris thought back to the argument Gail had with the paramedics when she awoke in the ambulance and tried to demand she be taken back and make sure everyone knew about the bomb – she must have forgotten she told him earlier. It was actually fairly epic on the Gail Peck scale of meltdowns. Holly was going to have to make the medics a batch of cookies so Gail could apologize.

"They did find a device. It was dismantled quickly and will be investigated. The only injuries, outside of Gail, have been reporting in as minor from people trying to get out." Steve supplied. He had been called by his father on the way to the hospital telling him that bomb squad had dismantled a homemade devise during the rally and he wanted Steve to get involved in the investigation. His father never mentioned Gail and he had no idea if it was because of the rift between them or that he didn't know. He tried filtering out the scenario of his father knowingly not asking about his own daughter's well-being when guns and bombs were involved. His dad had been silent these last few months, but he wasn't a cruel man.

Holly looked down and noticed Chris was holding a vest. She saw "Peck" on the name badge and reached over and grabbed it before Chris could stop her.

"Holly, it's evidence; I need to take it back to the station."

She put one hand over the impact site on the outside and another on the inside. She felt the indentation pushing through the Kevlar and knew how deep it would have smashed into Gail's right side around her 6th and 7th ribs. "BABT – 'behind-armor blunt trauma…' I spent half a semester looking at pictures of chests and abdomens with this kind of impact. At least one of her ribs is cracked if not more. They need to check for flail. If they're broken, they need to check for internal bleeding and puncture wounds to her…."

"Holly, come on. I think we need to go find my sister so you can see her. We can stand in the corner or something. What's the good in being a cop if you can't break some rules?" Steve put his arm around Holly's shoulder and motioned for Traci to come as well. He then quietly took the vest out of her hands giving back to Chris who informed them he needed to go to the station but would be back as soon as possible. He also said he would make sure everyone else was updated. All their phones had been vibrating throughout their conversation with people wanting information.

XXXXXXX

Gail made a decision. It was a simple decision that she planned to fully see through even in her groggy and immobile state. The next person that shined a light into her eyes was going to get kicked. They had taken her boots off so the damage of her kick wouldn't be too great, but it would send a message. Didn't they know how badly her head already hurt? At least they nicely took off the boots and didn't cut them like they did her shirt and pants. Her uniform was expensive and there really wasn't any need for the cutting. If they were really nice, they would release her head from the medieval torture device they had it locked in so she wouldn't move; but instead they were being dramatic and putting on a show. She hated hospitals.

She needed to call Holly, but they wouldn't let her use the phone and she couldn't remember where hers was. If Holly knew what happened, she would be going out of her mind with worry. She knew her girlfriend went from rational nerd to on-edge rambler when it came to the dangerous side of her job. It was something they discussed occasionally and this little episode would likely bring on another round. She asked the nurse for a phone again and was told, again, it would need to wait. Instead they asked her for the fifth time 'what was her name?' and 'what was her birthday?' It was all so very irritating.

Some new guy came in and started asking her questions and poking at her side commanding her to take deep breaths. She was deciding whether to kick him for bringing on such pain when she heard a very familiar voice across the room. She started waving her left hand to come closer and called out in the direction of the voice.

"Hol. Hol, come here." She smiled when she heard her girlfriend tell someone, maybe with a touch of rudeness, to move. She recognized she wasn't in any great health danger because whoever it was actually did. She felt Holly's hand take hers and was soon looking into the brown eyes she loved so much.

"Hey! I've been trying to call you, but they stole my phone. Did I reach you? How'd you get here?" She was still having trouble stringing sentences together but it sounded like it made enough sense.

"Chris called. He has your phone, by the way, no one stole it. Traci brought me. Gail, are you in pain?"

Gail squinted her eyes a bit trying to think. "They keep putting lights in my eyes. Make them stop."

Gail's words were coherent but all had a touch of dreaminess to them like she was floating on a cloud. Holly knew they wouldn't have given her drugs until they could fully determine the extent of her injuries and chalked it up to lethargy from the concussion she most certainly had. "They need to examine you. Let them do their jobs."

"Hol, I think my nose got sunburned. Can you ask them to fix that?"

Holly let out a deep breath she had no idea she had been holding and gave Gail a weary smile. Only Gail would think about something like that in this moment – concussed or not. She finally allowed herself to believe that Gail was going to be alright. Yes, she was a little battered and bruised, but she was whole and she was going to be fine. She squeezed Gail's hand a little more.

"I'll make sure they put some aloe on it."

"Thanks, Nerd." Gail returned Holly's smile. She saw the initial look of fear and worry on Holly's face and was happy she could ease it.

"Holly, I'm fine. They are going to poke at me for a while but I am fine. It's okay."

Holly just nodded her head and tried to control her emotions enough to not cry. It wasn't working. "I was so scared. I didn't know what was going on and I thought the worst."

"Hey, you can't get rid of me that easy. I'm tough."

Holly chuckled through her tears. "Yeah? Tough one can't even find her phone."

"I didn't want you to worry. Don't worry, Hol. I love you." Gail reached up and wiped away a tear falling from Holly's cheek.

Holly mouthed she loved her too and leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Hey, your brother and Traci are here."

Gail shifted her eyes back and forth trying to find them. She heard footsteps getting closer and the couple appeared on her right.

"Hey, little sister, seems you found yourself in a bit of predicament." Steve gave his sister a comforting smile as Traci also greeted her friend.

"Steve, can you make sure Holly is alright. She worries."

"Gail, I'm still standing here."

Gail glanced back to her left. "Oh, yeah. My brain isn't quite…"

"Don't worry; we'll take care of her." Traci patted Gail's leg to let her know she meant it.

"Good. Good."

Steve put his hand on Gail's shoulder. "The nurse is giving us an evil look. They want to take you for tests. I tried to explain how hard headed Peck's were and that you would be fine, but they're insisting."

"Ugh…I just need a few hours in bed." Gail tried to shift and pain immediately shot through her side. She groaned, "…or maybe days."

"Gail, I'll be here when you get back. You are very likely going to get admitted for observation so just accept it now." Holly squeezed the blonde's hand again to let her know it was alright.

"But…"

"Accept it. 'Difficult Gail' is not to come out and play today." Holly gave her girlfriend her best glare which Gail tried to return but ended up scrunching her face when the light above hit her eyes. She gave a wry smile in the direction of Holly with her eyes shut instead.

A nurse and assistant broke the conversation and insisted they needed to take Gail up now for head and chest CT scans. Gail waved good-bye to her family as they pushed her out of the room, leaving Steve, Traci and Holly standing there.

Steve ran his hands through his hair. "She looked good considering. She'll be fine." He nodded in confirmation of his statement.

"She's going to terrorize the entire hospital staff for as long as they keep her. I kind of feel bad for them." Steve and Holly laughed lightly at Traci's comment all recognizing the truth in it.

"I'm staying. If you two need to go…Leo…work…"

"Leo's with Dex until tomorrow. I'm gonna stay. The rest of the crew will probably start coming after shift in a few hours. " Traci reached over and put a comforting arm around Holly's shoulder.

Steve looked down at his phone and noticed the number of missed calls. "I need to run back to the station. There's going to be a big investigation into all this. That group - the one at the rally – we need to make sure they weren't involved and I want to make sure Gail gets her version of this front and center."

Holly snapped her head in Steve's direction, "What does that mean?"

Sometimes Steve forgot Holly wasn't police. He immediately had an apologetic look on his face. "I just meant that Gail shot someone today in a public place filled with people and they are going to take a lot of statements including hers - someone will probably be here soon. Sometimes people think they see things they didn't actually see and I want to make sure that doesn't happen. Trace, if they want her statement today and I am still at the station will you…"

"Of course. I won't let them talk to her alone." Steve leaned in and kissed his girlfriend before leaving.

A nurse came in and gave them the number for the room Gail was going to end up in for the night and told them they could wait there. They began to walk tiredly to the elevator. Another day was ending.

A/N: As always, thank you kindly for the reviews. Sorry for teasing a bit with the cliffhangers. Last chapter's wasn't intentional, I was just too tired that night to write the rest. :-)