Chapter 28 was posted today, but I've had a couple of reviews and a couple of PM's basically conveying a similar message, so I'm about to do something that I've never wanted to do... It's not a chapter... It's a long authors note. Noooo. This is the point in the story I thought was going to prove unpopular though!

Let's start with one little thing: We know hardly anything about Holly. We can all have the head canons we want, but really we know next to nothing about her other than the fact she's snarky, she likes Gail and she doesn't understand how shirt buttons work. I'm being sarky, but you get the point...

We do know that the night after a date in season four she kisses Gail (albeit she had just been shot at), we also know that she dropped her 'girlfriend' like a hot potato and went back to Gail at the end of season five (am I the only one that thought that was really fucking harsh of her?), and as someones recently pointed out to me during the break up scene Lisa kind of references Holly's past history with girls. And I'm sorry, I love Holly, I really do, but she's not going to be perfect and I do think she's a bit of a ladies lady.

Like I've said, the show didn't really give us much Holly to go on, but two things we know for certain are that during the breakup she takes a job in San Fran and picks up a new girlfriend, which to me seems like the actions of someone trying to convince themselves that they're moving on. That's what I'm trying to do with Lindsey at the moment, Holly knows she's not over Gail and she knows to an extent that she's stringing Lindsey along, but she's still trying to go through the motions of a relationship, which includes having sex. I mean I've been there before, I've sort of known that I was just using the other person as a stop gap to get over someone else, but at the same time I've managed to convince myself that they're not a rebound. Looking back on it I could see what a tit I'd been to them and really regretted it, but at the time I was too busy trying to convince myself that it was a legit relationship.

You're right though, Lindsey is a rebound, and despite what Holly likes to think, she's being an ass and Lindsey definitely deserves better! Rachel calls her out for it in chapter 26, but Holly doesn't want to listen. You should be pissed at Holly, she's making terrible life choices, and all because she's refusing to just talk to Gail!

That brings me onto the other little snippet of information we get. Holly tried calling. There's no mention of her actually trying to see Gail, which considering her history of just showing up at Gail's workplace is important. I'm not sure how the show wanted to portray it, because Holly randomly turning up at the last minute of season five was just so odd and rushed and it felt really terrible story wise and Debby (my love) you're right, it was a really odd portrayal that didn't seem to match up.

For this fic Holly has already tried to talk to Gail in person and she got shot down, then the second time Holly sees Gail after the breakup she's completely blanked. You have to remember, Holly doesn't know about Sophie, all she knows is there was a case that was distracting and upsetting Gail, and even now when the case is over and she's 'better', she still doesn't want to talk to her. Basically, Holly's feeling hurt, and she's angry at Gail for just walking away, and she's scared that if she tries to talk to Gail in person again, she's just going to get hurt again, so she's avoiding it and hiding in her lab and pretending she's moving on instead.

Now, lets be very clear, at this point in the story line the main problem with both Holly and Gail is that they're both being stubborn asses. Neither of them is willing to give any ground and be the first to talk and neither of them is particularly 'in the right' anymore.

Anyway, this has been excessively long, but I do hope you choose to stick with the story. I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say that once we're over the hurdle that's episode seven Holly does stop being such a tit and they do finally start sorting their shit out. That's essentially what the final arc is.

I hope it explains a bit and apologies if I'm not quite conveying everything a clearly as I should be. If there is anything that doesn't make sense, or that you think is really OOC, then do call me out on it. I might agree with you!

Feel free to ask questions on tumblr as well, I'm under AmyBot3000, and I answer quicker on there than here.

(I might swallow this into the next chapter, or I might leave it here, I'm not sure yet.)