A/N: Thank you for sending me loads of comments on the last chapter, I really enjoyed reading them all. And I'm sorry for throwing another cliffhanger in there...what can I say, I just can't help myself! Hopefully this gives you some answers though. On with the penultimate chapter; beta'd once again by the awesome Kravn.
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Holly sat in the hard plastic seat, knees agitatedly bouncing and arms crossed obstinately in front of her chest.
"It's time to go, Dr Stewart," McGregor said, standing over her like she was some sort of naughty school child. She ignored him, glancing at her watch instead and looking up at the flight board which was flashing an ominous red 'final call' warning.
"Dr Stewart. Please don't make me cause a scene, because we will carry you onto this flight if we have to," McGregor tried again.
She looked up at him finally, sizing up whether that was a serious threat or not. His iron jaw and squared shoulders told her that it was. She glanced at Jacob Chen who looked decidedly more uncomfortable with that plan, then over to the unfamiliar uniformed cop who had escorted them to the airport. He was completely impassive and she knew he would do whatever McGregor told him to do. And he was a big guy.
"She said she'd be here!" Holly replied, desperately trying to hang on longer. "The gate is only over there," she pointed out. Final call didn't really mean final call did it? There was still a trickle of passengers heading through the gate. She had conceded to coming up here rather than waiting in the main lounge when their boarding time was announced, so that had to give her a bit more leeway.
"We have a little more time," Chen said, "I told them we're here, they'll give us a shout when we absolutely have to board." McGregor turned his apoplectic stare towards him for encouraging the doctor but he simply shrugged in response.
Yet the sergeant didn't have time to yell at his subordinate, as they all heard footsteps thundering up the concourse towards them, the noise echoing through the mostly empty departure gate. Holly's heart leapt but her joy was short lived when it was Oliver Shaw, not Gail Peck, who came barrelling round the corner.
He skidded to a stop on the laminated floor in front of them just as Holly jumped to her feet. "Oliver! What are you doing here? Where is she?" she asked, her mind automatically jumping to the worst conclusion. Was Gail in trouble? Had the Internal Affairs people arrested her for breaking their silly rules? Or had she simply changed her mind and didn't want to see her girlfriend off? Didn't in fact want a girlfriend?
Oliver could see the panic written all over the brunette's face, but he couldn't get any words out to tell her what had actually happened. He gulped in air, trying to recover from his mad dash through the airport which had involved at least three arguments with security staff and the intervention of Sam with his fancy detective badge and cool shades.
"Man, I'm getting too old for this," he finally wheezed, hands on knees as he sucked in a deep breath.
Holly took in his dishevelled appearance, dirt smeared up one side of him and what looked like bloodstains on his shirt. "Oliver!" she pleaded, suddenly realising that none of the scenarios she had imagined that could prevent Gail being here were in fact the worst potential problem.
"She's okay!" Oliver hastened to tell her, getting the good news out of the way first. Holly's legs buckled slightly and she dropped back down onto the seat. The cop took the chair next to her, still breathing hard.
"She took a whack on the head chasing a suspect," he explained, patting Holly's forearm gently. "She's in hospital and they've got her all doped up, so she couldn't make it here. But she's okay, I promise,"
"What do you mean, 'a whack on the head'?" the brunette demanded, knowing head injuries were complicated. "What happened?"
"One of the perps ran from us, so she tackled him and bought him down. Seems like they scuffled and then he hit her with a rock that he had grabbed off the ground," Oliver started to explain but broke off when he heard Holly gasp at that.
"He hit her with a rock?" she yelped. "Where? How hard? Are there lacerations, contusions? Was she unconscious?" she fired out her questions rapidly, making the officer blink in surprise. He wasn't used to a medical grilling when he told family members about injuries amongst his officers; something which he had done far more times than he would have liked.
"Well it knocked her out cold. But she woke up when the paramedics were there. She was pretty groggy. And she's got a cut on the back of her head, here," he said, touching the back of his own head to show Holly exactly where Gail's injury was. "The docs stitched it right up though,"
"And there's no internal bleeding or fractures? Has she had a CT scan? What's her GCS score?" Holly demanded.
"Look, Doc, I'm not sure what all those letters mean, I'm sorry," Oliver replied, still bewildered by the inquisition. "They're doing everything they're supposed to be doing. They're keeping her in to do more tests and keep an eye on her, but they said there was no further bleeding. She's concussed and she was drifting in and out of it, so they've got her on all the good drugs and when I left she was asleep,"
Holly stared at him before wheeling back to face McGregor. "I need to go down to the hospital," she told him.
"No. No way," he flatly replied and when the pathologist opened her mouth to argue back he held up a hand to stop her in her tracks. "You are getting on this plane. It's non-negotiable,"
Oliver saw the fear and anger play across Holly's face and intervened before she got herself into trouble or burst into tears. "Hey. She's okay, I promise you. She's being looked after and we'll all stay with her. You know what Gail's like, the nurses will probably kick her out after a day for being a pain in the ass!"
Holly snorted, just as the airport PA system rang out and the final boarding call for her flight was announced. She looked up at the board, torn between doing what she was told and her fears about her girlfriend.
"I spoke to her in the hospital, that's why I came up here; she asked me to tell you she's okay and you shouldn't worry. Go," Oliver told her gently. "She'll be fine and you can speak to her when you get there and she's feeling a little better," he said, knowing that wasn't strictly true, but that he had to convince Dr Stewart to get on that plane.
The lady from the boarding desk started walking towards them and both McGregor and Chen acknowledged her with a wave. "It really is time to go, Holly," Chen said, resting a hand on her shoulder. McGregor had the sense to remain quiet, so Holly stood up and nodded. Oliver got to his feet and pulled her into a hug which she returned fiercely. He could feel her shaking and so whispered yet more reassurances in her ear.
As she pulled away, Holly gripped the cop's forearm and looked straight at him. "Just let her know that I said I hope she feels better soon. And that she should look after herself and do what the doctor tells her?" she asked.
"Of course," he agreed readily, but Holly didn't let go.
"And will you tell her…" she started but then bit her lip and looked away for a second, catching Chen and McGregor's gaze instead. They had the good grace to look away and step back out of earshot for a moment.
"What, darling?" Oliver prompted her gently.
"Tell her I love her?" Holly whispered, blushing furiously as a brilliant smile bloomed across Oliver's face. "No, wait!" she said, changing her mind. "Don't tell her that. I want to tell her that! I can tell her that, right?" she asked, her emotions fluctuating between assertiveness to nerves and uncertainty in the blink of an eye. She knew it was too soon yet she couldn't help how she felt. She had fallen in love with Gail Peck and she wanted the blonde to know. Maybe it would scare her, maybe it wouldn't, but it was true and it was wonderful and it was crazy…and it was like her heart had flown above the clouds the moment she said it out loud.
The grin on his face was still wide and sincere when Oliver replied, bringing her attention back to earth if not her soaring heart. "Sweetheart, of course you can. You can tell her that every day for the rest of your lives if you want!" he said, and he pulled her in tight for another quick hug.
Holly kissed him on the cheek and then finally turned to join the protection team. "I'm ready," she said and McGregor led her straight to the gate at a brisk walk, only a cursory glance at their documents before they were ushered straight through the tunnel.
Chen hung back however and exchanged a handshake with Oliver. "Is she really okay?" he asked, concerned at the way the officer from Toronto had avoided some of the details.
Oliver pulled a face, realising he had been caught. "She will be," he said, firmly. "She hasn't really come round properly yet, but I didn't want to worry the Doc too much. They think there might be a small fracture at the base of her skull, so they're watching her closely. But the hospital said she would be fine, there was no need for us to worry,"
"So she didn't exactly ask you to come down here?" Chen queried with a raised eyebrow.
"Sure she did. Just not at the hospital," the older officer replied. The airline staff called out Chen's name and they both looked round. "Go on, go. You look after the Doc, I'll look after the Peck,"
"Thanks Shaw," the Vancouver man replied and he sprinted through the gate and down the tunnel, just as the staff shut the doors.
Oliver waved before turning and walking in the opposite direction, towards the departure lounge. He had to get back to the hospital to keep an eye on his rookie; make sure that she was going to be fine because he had just promised her girlfriend that she would be and he was going to deliver on that promise.
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Everyone always talked about floating and flying like they were such wonderful feelings. Some people wanted to take meditation classes so they could float away from their stresses. Others dreamed of floating around in a swimming pool on their vacations, not a care in the world as the sun shone down on them. A lot of folk wanted to fly, free as birds, so they spent their spare time riding rollercoasters and jumping out of planes and all that craziness. Some lost souls even took drugs to fly above the crowd in a state of euphoria. Well, none of that made sense to Gail Peck. She had been floating for what felt like days and it was awful. She was downright sick of floating.
The first time she had become aware of this strange, new sensation was when someone had been poking and prodding at the back of her head, pulling her hair and stretching the skin of her scalp. She had complained of course, in what she thought was a loud and clear manner. However the Gail floating on the ceiling had heard the Gail on the bed speak and all that seemed to come out of her mouth were the words "hurts" and "Holly" and "get off me". And then it had all gone blank again.
The next time she felt like she was floating was when she had been woken from a weird, dream filled sleep by voices arguing about Chinese food. 'Floaty Gail' had tried to shut the voices up and tell them that Szechuan chicken was clearly the best takeaway option. 'Bed Gail' had recognised the voices though and was too preoccupied with how odd it was to have Chris, Oliver and Sanderson in the same room. It was like that Christmas story, with all the ghosts visiting that grumpy old Scrooge guy? Shit, what was that called? 'Floaty Gail' was yelling 'A Christmas Carol' at the top of her voice which wasn't that loud, seeing as she wasn't real, therefore no one heard her. 'Bed Gail' was telling the boys that Chris was Christmas past, Ollie was Christmas present and Sanderson was Christmas future. They were flummoxed of course, because they weren't privy to the Dickens reference and 'Floaty Gail' knew that was going to have bad consequences. Sure enough a nurse arrived, deftly made some adjustments to the line running into the back of 'Bed Gail's' hand and then the world went black again. Though not before she wondered where the fuck Jacob Marley was?
After that, there was an episode with an elephant in the hospital room - a freaky baby elephant that was probably a serial killer in disguise. And then the strange obsession with her own hair. And then the singing. Throughout all those moments, Gail was floating and she didn't like it. Floating was not fun or relaxing like other people made it out to be. It was painful and scary and it made her feel sick.
So she was really glad when she woke up again and this time she wasn't floating. Instead she was aching and as soon as she moved, that ache became a blinding pain which shot through her skull and made her eyes water. She hissed and on the second attempt, turned her head a lot more slowly, which seemed to have better results.
"Hey there, sleepy head!" came a voice to her right and she sat up cautiously, to check she had heard right. Sure enough, her eyes confirmed it.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, smiling despite the accusatory tone of her words.
"Well you know. Found myself with some time to kill and thought I'd see if any sense had been knocked into that head of yours,"
"It's so good to see you," she replied, suddenly feeling a lot better than she had on all the other occasions she had half woken up in this bland hospital room.
"Aw shucks, stop it. Anyone would think you like me!"
Gail rolled her eyes. "Don't flatter yourself, Sanderson," she deadpanned and the guy reclining in the chair next to her bed grinned back at her.
"Good to see you too, Peck. Well, good to see you back in the land of the living at least, as I've been watching you sleep for the past few days," he replied. He got out of his seat and helped her place the pillows into a more comfortable position, which was no easy task considering his left arm and shoulder were strapped in a sling.
"Where's Holly?" she asked in a sudden panic, her brain finally catching up to her. The monitor she was hooked up to began to bleep faster and her partner glanced up at it in concern as he rushed to reassure her.
"She's safe! She's with her family under full witness protection now so I don't know where exactly. But McGregor sent word that everything was fine,"
The sound of the monitor must have alerted the staff, as a nurse came bustling into the room, exclaiming at seeing the police officer awake and sitting up. She ignored Gail's grumbling and completed a round of basic observations before promising to page the neurologist assigned to the blonde's case.
"She'll want to do some cognitive tests," the nurse announced.
"Tell her not to bother," Gail replied. "I was insane before some lunatic tried to split my head open; I doubt much has changed,"
Sanderson snorted and nodded his agreement whilst the nurse looked a little taken aback.
"It's not a psychiatric assessment!" she hastened to add, thinking her patient was worried. "It's purely to make sure your brain is functioning correctly after the concussion,"
"Lady, I can assure this is as good as you'll get from me. My name is Gail Peck, my birthday is in November, my badge number is 8727, Harper is the Prime Minister, I can count backwards from a hundred and I can probably follow your pen around the room with my eyes until we're both bored stupid and I throw it out the window. So do I sound brain damaged to you?" the blonde finished her diatribe with a raised eyebrow.
"No ma'am," the young nurse quickly agreed before she scurried out the room.
"That wasn't very nice," Sanderson chastised her.
"Yeah well. She'll be back with this doctor in tow anyway. They'll probably do more tests now," the blonde replied.
Sanderson laughed. "You'd deserve it. So anyway, where was I?"
"Holly's in hiding again, but this time it's official," Gail supplied the details. "I guess that means I can't talk to her, right?" she asked, trying to control her reaction to that.
"No. But she'll be back for when Kate has to testify. The trial starts today, remember?" Sanderson asked.
"In Vancouver," she replied flatly, knowing that Holly would want to support her sister during that before returning to Toronto. Although she understood that, she couldn't help but feel a little resentful about having to wait longer to see her girlfriend.
"Yeah. But she'll call you, obviously!" Sanderson said, trying to comfort her.
She pulled a face and changed the subject before she succumbed to the lump in her throat and the ache in her heart. She had woken up with Holly every morning for a whole week straight, now she might not see her for a while and she was already missing her. "Can I have some water?" she asked and the fair haired cop obliged by pouring a glass from the jug next to her bed.
She sipped it slowly and queried "How long have I been out?"
"Three days. It's Monday – you missed the whole weekend, apart from a few brief moments," he told her.
"Damn. Never get injured on a Friday, eh?" she asked.
"Exactly. But you may as well have been partying hard, judging by some of the nonsense you've been coming up with whenever you woke up," Sanderson laughed. "You're not good on meds, are you?"
"Apparently not," Gail replied, her hazy recollections of her floaty moments were mixed up in her mind. She decided it was best not to ask. She rubbed at her temples, waiting for the ache in her head to die down.
"You feeling okay? Shall I call the nurse back?" he suggested.
"No, I'm alright. Don't let them give me any more of that crazy juice," she said, even though she felt like shit. But at least she was awake and lucid. "What about you? Are you okay?" she asked, pointing at his sling.
"Never better. Honestly, you wouldn't believe what a chick magnet a life threatening bullet wound is!" he replied with a grin.
She rolled her eyes. "Holly would say 'joking about death is an avoidance tactic'," she noted and Sanderson attempted a casual shrug in response but couldn't quite pull it off with only one working arm. Gail just stared at him expectantly.
"Alright Sigmund, you can stop psychoanalysing me. I'm okay. It's all a little hazy, but they pulled me out of the safe house not long after you guys left. The shoulder is a mess but it was actually the blood loss that was the problem. So I spent a few days as a guest of this fine establishment and a couple of transfusions later they had me back in the land of the living," he explained.
"McNally said it was touch and go for a while," the blonde probed further, wanting to make doubly sure her friend was indeed on the mend.
"Yeah, I guess people were pretty worried. I don't remember much to be honest. One minute Andy was yelling at me in the attic, the next I'm in this place eating jello after being out of it for forty eight hours. There were a couple more days of being prodded every five minutes, then I had an operation to put my shoulder back together. They let me hang around and flirt with the nurses for a few more days, before you showed up with your head bashed in. Even though they kicked me out yesterday, I figured I'd still drop by and keep you company. I'm not cleared to fly and I have a couple of follow up appointments, so why not hang out in Toronto?" Sanderson finished his story with another half shrug and flopped back down in the chair, propping his feet up on the bed.
"You were here before, weren't you? With Oliver and Chris?" she asked, frowning at the vague memory.
"Yup. They've been here a lot. So have most of the guys from Fifteen actually. And I met your brother. He delayed flying out for the trial until he knew you were ok, so he'll be coming back at four when I go for my blood tests and then McNally is on the evening shift," Sanderson told her.
"I don't need babysitting!" Gail grumbled, shooting him a defiant look.
"Oh we're not hanging round to spend time with you. We just want to eat all your grapes and chocolate," he said, pointing at the open boxes on her side table.
"Whatever. So, tell me about the sting? Did they get them all?" asked the blonde, keen to know what happened after she had been knocked out of action.
"Apart from you running into a rock, it all went well. They arrested eight more gang members and a couple of them have agreed to testify, so it's all stacking up well for the trial," he answered.
Gail nodded absentmindedly before remembering it wasn't a good idea to move her head. She winced at the sharp pain and brought her hand up to gingerly touch the dressings at the base of her skull. She could feel the raised stitching underneath the cloth, but got a real shock when she also felt short hair there instead of her usual longer locks.
"They cut my hair!" she yelped, giving Sanderson an accusatory glare even though it was unlikely he had anything to do with that.
Her partner did have the good grace to look sympathetic. "Um, more like hacked I think? They had to, so they could stitch you up. And you've got a small hairline crack in your skull, so you really shouldn't poke it like that," he advised, leaning forward to pull her hand away.
"Get me a mirror!" she demanded.
"Yeah, probably not a good idea? It kind of looks like you chopped it off yourself. But once you get out of here, a hairdresser will sort it out!" he said brightly.
"Sanderson, you'd better be fucking kidding me or I'll be taking a razor to your hair as well!" she threatened.
Scott gulped and desperately sought to change the subject. "You look fine Gail, I'm just teasing! So, tell me what happened after you left the safe house anyway? I was impressed you managed to stay undercover,"
Despite her panic about her hair, that did indeed distract Gail and she launched into the story of their time at Oliver's cabin, how they had gotten out the city and how they had finally figured out who the snitch was. In return, Sanderson told her everything he knew from this side of the investigation, including how he and McNally had also assumed it was Chen or McGregor but couldn't pin it on either one. They hadn't even thought of the IT Tech until news broke of Gail's call to her brother.
Sanderson was childishly indignant when Gail admitted she had thought he might be the inside man for a while. She had apologised – until he conceded that he had the same doubts about her and was worried he had made the worst mistake of his life by sending Holly off with her!
He also filled her in on what he knew about the Internal Affairs investigation. Due to his health, he had only given his interview the day before Gail had finally called her brother but he had told them all about the corrupt cop theory. Gail's subsequent report, the arrest of Niall Glynn and the sting at the motel had backed everything up so things were looking better for her than they had in the immediate aftermath of the siege at the safe house.
After an hour or so of catching up, they both ran out of stories to swap. Gail was feeling fuzzy once more and was seriously debating buzzing that annoying nurse for some more drugs. Before she could though, Sanderson asked the question she knew he had been building up to.
"So, go on. Aren't you going to tell me?" he prompted.
"Tell you what?" she played dumb, wanting to put him off but the Vancouver man was too persistent for that feeble brush off.
"You know what! About you and the Doc of course!"
"I just did. We escaped the safe house, we hid out in the cabin, we figured out who the corrupt cop was and we caught eight more members of the gang. Job done," Gail said, lifting her hands in a gesture that clearly meant what else was there to talk about?
"You know what I mean, idiot," he warned.
"Not a clue, Sanderson, not a clue," she replied with a smile.
"Fine. So should I say you and your girlfriend? Would that give you more of a clue?" he asked and he grinned when she flushed slightly, still not used to hearing that description.
"You're as bad as an old woman!" she grumbled. "Who have you been gossiping with?"
"Well it's not like I hadn't already noticed something was going on before you left. Which is another thing I didn't mention to IA by the way. But apparently you two are now all kinds of official," he probed.
"You shouldn't believe everything you hear on the jungle drums, Sanderson," she said, still trying to put the conversation off. She wasn't ashamed of Holly, of course she wasn't. She had proved that to the brunette and to everyone else when they had said their goodbyes at the cabin. Yet she wasn't sure she was ready to go into all the details with Sanderson who, aside from Oliver and Traci, had quickly become the closest thing she had to a best friend. Her relationship with her girlfriend still felt too new; too precious and too private. She wanted to hug it close to her and cherish it for a little longer, not have it splashed around the division on the monthly news bulletin.
"You kissed her senseless in front of half your colleagues. I'm pretty sure they didn't need drums to draw their attention to the fact something might be going on between you two," he drawled.
"Shut up," Gail told him, now blushing furiously and throwing a grape at his head. He tried to catch it but being constrained by his sling made him less co-ordinated that usual and he knocked it under the bed. He awkwardly scrambled around on the floor for a while and by the time he emerged victorious with the annoying grape, the blonde was purposefully ignoring his gaze.
"Hey. You don't have to tell me anything, I'm just messing with you. But I've seen you two together and I think she makes you happy. So I'm really pleased for you, okay? Now that she's out of our jurisdiction!" he said, his voice full of warmth and sincerity rather than the jocular tone she was used to.
She softened slightly and nodded at him. "She does make me happy. I really like her, Scott," she said, a smile creeping onto her face as thoughts of the nerdy brunette filled her mind.
"Less of the Scott!" he warned her, casting them both back to that morning in the safe house so he quickly moved back to the topic at hand. "You're good together," he told her, a bright and wide grin plastered across his own face. "Just remember who helped you get the girl when you're picking out a best man for the wedding, okay?"
"You're such a dweeb," she said, rolling her eyes and launching a handful of grapes in his direction, just as the neurologist walked through the door.
"Help me doc, this woman is crazy!" he announced.
But the doctor clearly wasn't amused at their antics. She shooed the lanky officer out the room in double quick time before turning on the blonde.
"So, Miss Peck? I hear you've been giving my nurses trouble and now I catch you throwing fruit around my hospital. Do I need to sedate you again, or are you ready to behave like an adult? One with a professional job that I'm sure you want to get back to, and therefore need me to sign you out of here?" the short, dark woman asked, without so much as a smile.
"The second option, Doctor, definitely the second option," Gail hurriedly agreed whilst privately thinking Holly's bedside manner was much better than this dragon's.
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The neurologist wasn't the only person to get irritated at the Peck and Sanderson double act over the next couple of weeks. Gail had been allowed home from hospital after only two more nights and nobody was quite sure whether it was the cop herself or the nurses that were more pleased about that. With both of them on sick leave from work, they had a lot of time to kill and found a willing partner in crime in each other.
For the first couple of days, she and Sanderson had been happy to laze about Gail's flat, eating junk food and playing video games. They had gotten bored by day three however and so were already looking for something new when Steve's phone call came in. Her brother had been calling every evening, supposedly to update her on the Kolarov trial but she knew it was really to check up on her. That evening though, apart from the boring legal talk, he also let slip that Holly had arrived back in the country ready for her sister to take the stand tomorrow. Gail hadn't known what to say. She debated slamming the phone down on her brother and calling her girlfriend straight away but as soon as the thought crossed her mind, the doubt crept in. Maybe she should give it a day or two, let Holly settle in? Kate's testimony was going to be stressful and Holly would be preoccupied with supporting her sister. Plus she had only just been reunited with her family after a long time apart. Her needy girlfriend calling her was probably the last thing she wanted on top of all of that right now.
So it was boredom and longing that contributed to the introduction of tequila into their video game night. And that led to a very loud shouting match over whether Sanderson's controller wasn't working properly after he suffered his fourth loss of the evening. Which in turn brought on the complaints from the neighbours and that was the end of their gaming.
After that, they started spending their time at The Penny. They drank more liquor, ate cheeseburgers and used their respective injuries into hustling fellow customers into betting on darts or pool. Looking at the sorry state of the pair, most strangers believed they could win and so entered the bet gladly before losing their money. Gail and Sanderson had both spent too many hours in cop bars to let a concussion and a bullet wound stop them winning at darts. Yet their celebrations got too exuberant for the bar owner's liking, particularly when Sanderson fell off the bar during a victory dance. So he threw them out and asked them to give it a rest for a few days.
Still lost for something to do, they took to hanging around Fifteen. That was fine for a while but eventually Gail's colleagues got sick of them either offering unsolicited advice on cases or playing pranks in the locker room. They were then both banned from the station until they had a doctor's note confirming they were fit to return to work. It was perhaps a blessing for the wider Toronto area that Sanderson was soon cleared to fly as they had run out of places to hang out and cause mischief. As much as he had enjoyed hanging out with Gail, he was also keen to get back to Vancouver and see his family and friends. His parents had visited him in the hospital for a couple of days, but it was nearly two months since he had seen anyone else from his hometown. Gail dropped him off at the airport and told him to get lost because he was boring her anyway. The lanky officer hadn't been fooled though and wrapped her in a bear hug, lifting her off her feet even with only one arm. If it had been anyone else she would have squealed to be put down, but instead she laughed, hugged him back and waited till he walked through the security check before she let her face drop.
She knew how much she was going to miss her partner. She always hated not being able to go to work; not just because of the boredom but also because it reminded her of those weeks that followed Jerry's death. Having someone to hang out with had made it bearable this time around. Sure enough, two days on her own almost drove her crazy. It wasn't just the not having anything to do as she had offered to take Leo for one for the days which was kind of fun. It was the fact that whatever she occupied herself with, it did nothing to distract her from the constant thoughts of a certain pathologist who was now back in the country. She had hoped that as soon as Holly had arrived back in Canada, she would call her. But she hadn't. Gail had waited a couple of days, thinking her girlfriend just needed time to settle back in, yet still no phone call. And no matter how much she tried to tell herself that she was being paranoid, Gail couldn't help thinking that maybe Holly didn't want to speak to her. That maybe the time away had made her rethink this whole thing.
At least once a day she would punch Holly's number into her phone, only to chicken out at the last moment and not make the call. Having Steve out in Vancouver meant not only did she get plenty of trial news, she also got updates on Holly whenever she plucked up the courage to ask her brother. So she knew her girlfriend was spending every day at the trial with her family but then spent her evenings getting caught up on paperwork for the pathology department in a bid to keep her boss placated. It seemed the guy wasn't pleased about employing a new forensic pathologist only for her to miss over a month's work. Therefore it sounded like Holly's life was hectic right now. When she was in a more positive frame of mind, Gail could tell herself that was the reason Holly hadn't been in touch. It wasn't that she was doubting their relationship; she was just swamped. Whatever the reason then, Gail didn't dare risk putting more weight onto the brunette's shoulders by calling her. So she would erase the number, put the phone back in her pocket and move on to the next distraction.
Once she was cleared to go back on duty, her first day was wasted because it was spent being grilled by Internal Affairs. The questions around her relationship with Holly were mercifully brief, but she was glad that Ollie had made her go through her version of events a couple of times, because the investigators certainly spent a lot of time questioning her on every single decision. She had answered them honestly, albeit omitting the help she had from Diaz. Eventually they seemed satisfied that she had acted to protect the pathologist from the corruption within the police service, but then they moved onto why exactly she hadn't shared her suspicions with her superiors. Gail had explained that she didn't know who to trust but the investigators hadn't accepted that, informing her that she should have reported it to them. Her heart had sunk at that point, thinking she was going to be disciplined after all. That feeling only got worse when the Inspector in charge of the team asked her to hand over her weapon. She was convinced it was because she was about to lose her job.
However the officer explained that they simply had to do another round of forensic tests because she had fired her weapon at the safe house when she shot the attacker on the stairs. The also asked her to complete another set of formal incident forms relating to that shooting but told her that they would waive the usual mandatory three day suspension, because she had already been off the job for so long. By the end of the interview, Gail was so exhausted from all the questioning that when the team had eventually told her that they wouldn't be pursuing any further action she hadn't believed them at first.
She had walked home that night in a daze. Eventually she found herself sat on her bed, door safely locked and once again her fingers moved automatically to type in Holly's number. Being cleared had finally sunk in and the first person she wanted to tell was Holly. She still hadn't saved the pathologist's number into her own phone, knowing that as soon as she did, it would only take two swipes to make a call and she wouldn't be able to stop herself. And clearly Holly didn't want to hear from her. But this is different, right? she asked herself. This is a big deal – and we tell each other stuff. She'll want to know! Gail's finger hovered closer to the call button, millimetres from touching it but she couldn't shake her disappointment at not hearing from Holly since she returned to Canada. The doubt crept into the voice in her head once more; maybe she doesn't want to know after all? If she wanted to know, she would have called. She knew you were going to be investigated…if she was interested in the outcome then she would have asked, surely?
Gail sighed and flopped backwards onto her bed. She held the phone in the air above her face, staring at the lit screen and the tempting green button which her thumb was still lingering over. To her surprise, a solitary tear crept from the corner of her eye and she swept it away furiously. She knew she was being pathetic. This was exactly why all her relationships failed. She moved her hand slightly and firmly tapped her thumb onto the red cancel button instead, before tossing the phone aside. She had expected taking that decisive action would make her feel more in control of the situation but instead the tears started to fall in earnest. She wrapped herself up in the bed covers, not bothering to undress and despite her heartache, mental exhaustion claimed her and she fell soundly asleep.
Now she had been cleared to return, it was easier to engross herself in work in another bid to stop thinking about Holly over the following few days. She did her usual shifts and volunteered for every bit of overtime going until Oliver forcibly dragged her out of Fifteen Division one evening to make sure she did get some sort of rest. By that stage, it had been three long weeks since she had last seen Holly so he also tried to persuade her to ring the pathologist. But the Peck stubborn streak was firmly in place by then so although Gail took Oliver up on the offer of dinner, she ignored his advice before volunteering to give up her day off and work the following day's night shift instead. Nevertheless, Officer Shaw was also made of stern stuff so he made sure that she regretted that decision by assigning her to the booking desk.
So that was why Gail found herself at a desk at ten o'clock at night; another eight hours stretching in front of her with nothing to do apart from paperwork and wrestling the occasional drunk into a cell. All that meant was more time to think about Holly and to stare at her phone, willing it to ring. But unlike the past couple of weeks, she wasn't just waiting for her girlfriend to call.
Earlier on in her shift she had finally cracked with all the negative thoughts running through her mind and she had called Sanderson in a complete panic about Holly. Whilst her fellow cop had been here in the city, she had mostly used him as a distraction but as soon as he left she had wished he was still around to talk to. She could have told him about all these doubts she had. Oliver and Traci were great and she could talk to them but they didn't know Holly that well. They couldn't tell her whether they thought the doctor would want to hear from Gail or not, whether she would be too busy…whether she would be having second thoughts. Sanderson hadn't answered her call though which left her to stew in her thoughts and yell at the idiots in the cells opposite to be quiet.
She was also waiting for news from Steve. Her brother had texted her yesterday telling her that the jury had been let out in the Kolarov trial. Nobody was expecting a verdict today because of the sheer amount of charges and evidence they had to work through. Yet Gail was still hoping to hear some news from Steve, even if it was just his gut feeling on how he thought it would play out.
Therefore when her phone rang, she immediately answered it without even looking at the caller ID. She assumed it was Sanderson and hoped it would be Holly but unfortunately for Gail, it was the third possibility and it was the voice of her rather inebriated brother on the other end instead.
"Hey little sis!" Steve yelled as soon as Gail answered and she could hear the raucous sound of a packed bar in the background.
"What?" she snapped.
"You're not very polite on the phone, you know that?" he asked, almost sounding puzzled.
"I'm not polite in person either," Gail deadpanned.
"Very true," he agreed, before she heard him get distracted by a conversation nearby.
She raised her voice to get his attention. "Steve! What's happening? Any clue of which way they're going to go?" she asked. Steve had been constantly updating her throughout the two week old trial. He was generally pretty pleased with how things had gone; Kate Stewart had apparently been an absolute star on the stand and several gang members had turned against their boss in an attempt to get a lighter sentence. The corrupt IT tech had testified as well and despite the best efforts of the defence team, it seemed to Gail at least that things were looking grim for Kolarov. Steve would never commit to saying they had it won though and Gail could understand that. They were both experienced enough cops to know nothing was ever certain when a case went to trial. So Steve's next statement was a surprise to say the least.
"We got the verdict, Gaily!" he replied and a loud cheer followed his words.
"You're joking!" she said, completely shocked. The elder Peck didn't respond and all she could hear was the sound of hands drumming on a table. "Steve!" she yelled, trying to get him back on the line.
"Yeah?" he replied.
"We won right? Guilty?" she asked. She already knew it was good news judging by the celebrations she could hear but she still wanted Steve to confirm.
"As sin, little sis, guilty as sin! Convicted of all charges, apart from a couple of minor ones. And we've nailed most of his top boys as well. We did it!" he crowed and there was another riotous cheer from whoever he was with.
"Thank God!" she breathed to herself before congratulating her brother. "Well done Detective Peck," she said, smiling at the glee she could hear in his voice. She knew how important this case was to Steve.
"Thanks, Gail. Couldn't have done it without you," he told her.
"So, you're out celebrating? Who are you with?" she asked.
"Everybody! All the team. You should come! I'll pick you up! Come out with us Gail!" he suggested excitedly and she had to laugh.
"How many have you already had? I'm in Toronto, remember?"
"Oh yeah. Well. Never mind then. We'll do something when I get back. And I've only had a few!" he defended himself, but the slight slur in his words told her differently.
"Is Holly there?" Gail asked, wondering if her girlfriend was out celebrating too. She knew how relieved the brunette would be, not just for herself but for her family too. And now the trial had ended, her life could return to normal. Gail knew how keen Holly would be to get back to work and come home after over a month away. And hopefully she would be happy to come back to Toronto for another reason too; to finally see Gail again.
"Nah. Think it would be frowned upon to have the family of our star witness out celebrating with all the cops. She said she was going to have a quiet one with her folks I think," Steve answered and the blonde's face fell a little. She thought that maybe if Holly was there, she might be able to talk to her finally. "Haven't you spoken to her yet?" her brother queried, breaking into Gail's thoughts.
"No. I'll see her when she gets back I guess," the blonde replied.
"Just call her, you dumbass!" Steve groaned and she swore at him. He would have carried on trading insults, but another round of yelling and banging interrupted him.
"Look, I'm gonna get back to the party. Sentencing will be later in the week, I'll let you know, eh?" he said. Gail congratulated him again and was about to hang up when he added "She misses you too, you know?"
She tried to say something else, but her brother had gone so she sat motionless at the booking desk, staring off into space. It was over. The trial was done, Kolarov and his henchmen would be in jail for a long time and Holly and her family were finally safe. The brunette could go back to her home, start work again – just be normal once more. Gail was thrilled, she really was but she couldn't help be a little apprehensive about it too. How are we going to do this when we're not sharing every day together? It had to be a good thing that her girlfriend was no longer under police protection and they could just have a normal relationship. Although could she even still call Holly her girlfriend? She hadn't spoken to her in nearly three weeks! That's not exactly normal, is it? Gail asked herself. Yet Steve had said Holly missed her too.
Not for the first time, her fingers hovered over the dial icon on her phone. She wished Holly would just call her so she'd know where she stood. If Steve was right and the pathologist missed her, then why hadn't she called? Maybe her brother was wrong. Though if Holly didn't miss her and there was something wrong, then surely she would still let her know? She would tell Gail what was going on right? She owed her that much? The cop sighed, all the possibilities running through her mind getting jumbled into one confused mass. She had been waiting for almost three weeks for Holly to contact her. Maybe she should take Steve's advice and do it herself. She tapped out the number from memory and hit the call button before she could talk herself out of it again.
However, the universe chose that moment to intervene and before she even heard a dial tone, the door to the sally port crashed open and Collins and Price bundled a handcuffed guy through it. As the suspect started yelling, Gail groaned and shut off her phone, putting it back into her pocket. As she rose from behind the desk to help her colleagues she had time to ask herself the question that had worried her from the start. Is this what it's always going to be like? Is work still always going to get in our way?
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"What?" Gail answered the phone in her customary manner.
"Hey, it's me," came the reply and she rolled her eyes.
"I know it's you, Sanderson, I am capable of reading the screen before I answer a call," she told him, scathingly.
"Ah. Still in that 'woe is me' mood I see," replied the Vancouver man and he laughed when Gail growled at him. It had been two days since the trial ended and she still hadn't heard from Holly. After being interrupted that night in the station, she hadn't worked up the courage to ring the brunette herself and so her loneliness and longing had only grown. Sanderson was right; she was feeling very sorry for herself. Worse than that, she couldn't rid herself of the anxiety that had crept in. She was terrified she had already lost Holly before they had really begun and it was eating her up inside.
"I don't want to talk about it, Sanderson, I really don't," she said, cutting him off like every other occasion he had tried to get her to open up since he left.
"That's fine. I'm calling to cheer you up, anyway. Guess where I am?" he asked.
Gail took the phone away from her ear and silently made all the rude gestures she could think of at it. Was she really going to spend her day off playing games with this chump? "At your knitting club?" she suggested when she put the phone back to her ear once more.
"Nope. At the airport," he corrected her.
"Wonderful. Well you watch out for those luggage trollies. They can be complicated and we wouldn't want you injuring yourself again," she said. Sanderson was still off work - she knew it was driving him crazy and referring to it would only wind him up.
Still, the younger officer didn't rise to the jibe, instead asking. "Guess what I'm doing here?"
"Going for a swim? Milking the cows? Meeting up with all your dorky friends to spot planes and write down the numbers in your dorky notebooks?"
"Nope, wrong again. You're terrible at this game," he said.
"This game is terrible," she snapped.
"Okay, one last go. Guess who we just put on a flight back to Toronto?" he queried and she could actually hear his wide grin despite not being able to see his stupid face.
Gail didn't respond even though she knew what he was trying to tell her. She didn't know what to say. She didn't know how to feel; everything was hitting her all at once; shock, excitement, happiness…fear, nerves and panic.
Her ex-partner got tired of waiting for her to reply however and confirmed it for her. "The Doc of course!" he said excitedly. "She lands about two thirty your time!"
"Two thirty," Gail mumbled, still trying to process this. She knew Holly would be returning soon, but she had assumed the pathologist would wait for sentencing and then maybe spend a bit more time with her family. She thought she had more time to decide what to do.
"Yup. You can thank me later, Peck!" Sanderson told her. "You kids have fun! See you soon," and with that, he ended the call.
"See you," Gail finally said into the long dead line before she dropped the phone onto the table in front of her. She blinked in disbelief.
I'm going to see Holly. Holly is coming home today. She repeated the fact in her head over and over and the more she said it, the more real it became. She finally jumped off the sofa in the frat house like she had been scalded and ran off into her bedroom, nearly crashing into Dov as he strolled down the hallway.
"Hey! What's up with you?" he yelled, but she didn't answer out loud.
Inside her own head however, she screamed it at the top of her voice. My girlfriend is coming home!