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Ameliorate
"You do realize that I have a child of my own, right Gail? I think I can take care of a sixteen year old," Traci rolled her eyes at the phone. She watched as Jade and Leo screwed in another piece to Leo's freshly purchased motorized car. Steve had taken Leo shopping, while Traci had taken Jade to get her hair braided and now they were reconvening at Traci's house. Of course, before Traci and Jade had walked through the door, Gail was already calling Traci. "You are such a new mother," Traci teased.
"Ha…ha…" Gail said mockingly. "How is she?"
"She is fine," Traci placated her friend. "Her hair is done…she was at the salon from eight until four, and then we went and picked up dinner."
"She was at the salon for eight hours!" Gail asked unbelievably. "How in the hell…"
"She got micros…we are lucky it didn't take longer," Traci said seriously. "There were two people working on her head for a while."
Gail huffed. "Well…did she talk much today?" Gail tried not to sound worried, but it had been nearly two weeks since getting Jade back and the girl had been quiet, if not sullen, the entire time. It wasn't that Gail could blame her, but she wanted the old Jade back, not the teenager that wouldn't come out of her room or talk to her or Holly.
"She thanked me for getting her hair done before her classes started and she talks to Leo; but no, she hasn't said much to me," Traci admitted. "Gail, don't worry about it…she's just a little shy, that's all."
"She's not supposed to be shy with you…you are practically family…" Gail noted.
"Humph, I don't talk to my family," Traci laughed. "Listen, she is fine and great with Leo. Now tomorrow morning, I'm taking her to the hospital to get her stitches out and then right to the station right?"
"Yes, that is the plan," Gail answered.
"Okay then…why don't you enjoy your free night with your girlfriend and stop worrying about Jade…and my parenting skills," Traci laughed. "I'll see you tomorrow afternoon."
"Hey Traci…thanks again for today…"
"No problem…plus, she has synced all my devices to the extra expensive remote that your brother bought and doesn't know how to use."
"Yeah, that sounds like my idiot brother…thanks, Traci."
"Goodbye Gail Peck," Traci said hanging up.
Gail hung up too and headed into the bedroom she shared with Holly. Holly was sitting on her side of the bed looking at a magazine. "You called didn't you?" she asked not looking up.
"Called who?" Gail asked innocently. She hooked her phone to the charger and stared at Holly. "Are you going to read all night?"
Holly moved her right leg a bit and the sheet fell free. "I had a very stressful day, I'm decompressing," Holly informed her girlfriend. She looked over her glasses and watched Gail come closer to the bed.
Gail lay on the bed beside Holly, "I know a way you could decompress that doesn't involve reading," she said running her finger up Holly's bare thigh. "These shorts drive me crazy…"
"All my shorts drive you crazy," Holly said returning her attention to the magazine. "How is Jade?"
"How do you know I called Jade, because I didn't…"
"Then you called Traci…or Steve…"
"Okay, I did call Traci," Gail smiled. "And she said Jade is fine," Gail turned over onto her back. "Her hair took eight hours to do…"
"Yeah, she got micros right?" Holly said unsurprised.
"Why do you know about micros and I don't?" Gail frowned.
Holly smiled, not looking at Gail. "I've dated women with micros, Gail."
Gail was quiet for a moment. Holly never really talked about her past girlfriends, which probably did a lot to save Gail from unwanted headaches and jealousy, but now Gail was intrigued. "Why don't you talk about your previous girlfriends…or boyfriends?"
"Gail…" Holly was still reading her magazine.
"Hey…I can take talking about the past relationships. And you know the idiots I've dated…Chris…Nick…"
"Partially Dov…" Holly added in.
"I did not DATE DOV!" Gail said mocking offense. "This is someone who dates Chloe…now stop trying to change the subject. Tell me about your past girlfriends…"
Holly finally put the magazine down and stared at her girlfriend. "Are we really going to do this?" Gail nodded, not eagelyr, more with trepidation, but she deserved to hear the memories she was up against. I mean, Holly clearly knew she had no competition, Chris and Nick were nice people, but Gail's feelings for them didn't compare to what she felt for Holly. Holly was about to speak, but Gail stopped her.
"Wait…just tell me about the serious ones…"
"Gail…there haven't been many 'serious ones' or any to think of. I spent years in college and medical school… I did date a girl named Serene for about three years..."
"And that wasn't serious?" Gail asked flabbergasted.
"She was a dancer…and I was in med school … so it was a very quick and unproductive three years."
Gail sat up, "Dancer as in exotic?" she smiled.
"Dancer as in Prima ballerina until she got bumped at 24. Then she toured with another company."
"So…you and she were serious?"
"I just answered that, Gail," Holly rolled her eyes playfully. "We dated…there was no real future in it…"
"So I can date you for three years and still not be serious?" Holly picked her magazine back up, intent on ignoring that comment. There was no way that Gail didn't know that they were serious. Gail reached out and took the magazine. "I'm just asking, Holly," Gail said folding her bottom lip down. "I'm just going to be very sad when I have to start this whole dating process over…"
"You are not going to let me decompress, are you?" Holly rubbed her temples.
"I was just trying to prepare myself…" she didn't have to finish that sentence because Holly's lips were on hers before she could finish. Holly's kiss was hard and bruising, but Gail rose to the occasion. She found herself taking Holly's bottom lip into her mouth and suckling. "You did have a bad day," she said once they parted. Holly was rarely demanding or rough, but Gail had to admit that it was turning her on. Holly didn't answer, just pulled her shirt over her head. "Well…no need for small talk," Gail smiled excited.
"Why was your day so stressful?" Gail finally got around to asking nearly an hour later. She lay on her back, semi-glued to the bed as she tried her best to forget the sensations coursing through her body. Holly was nothing if not a skillful lover and Gail reaped the benefits of those skills gladly. She had turned onto her stomach and was now looking up at her girlfriend, who had closed her eyes after putting her efforts into making love to Gail. It was effort well spent, but now she was indeed, spent.
"I'm still behind at work…" Holly explained slowly. "And, I spent a while with Jade's caseworker today. It's time for our foster papers to be renewed and they had a lot of questions about what happened."
Gail sat up, "Why didn't you tell me? I would have come too…"
"When she called, she said it was just about paperwork…and when I went down there…it became something else," Holly tried to explain. Gail looked worried, but nodded. "Gail…the social worker thinks it would be a good idea to approach adoption with Jade."
"Well…" Gail began thoughtfully, "what do you think?" She didn't want to get her hopes up, because she had seen that look on Holly's face…not to mention the fact that Jade was not feeling family right now.
"I think we should talk to Jade about it…"
"I mean, what do YOU feel?" Gail clarified.
"I definitely want Jade to be a part of our family, permanently."
"Then you should probably tell her that…because Jade has a way of believing what she wants to…" Gail said knowingly. "It's a huge step though, right? I mean, it'll all be official…and Shoshana Mercer can never disrupt our lives again."
"I don't think she'll be much of a problem. Every time they try to bring her out of that coma; let's just say, it's not going well…I'm more concerned with our relationship with Jade. I'm going to have a conversation with her though…and there is something else…"
"What else?"
"The lease is up here in about three or four months…so I was thinking that we should upgrade our living arrangement."
"Is there something wrong with this place? Holly, this is the nicest place I've lived since moving out of my parents' house…"
Holly grinned. "We are in a two bedroom and I'm definitely used to having a spare bedroom. So I was thinking that we need a three bedroom, at least."
"At least…" Gail tried to push the panic from her voice. It was simple for Holly to forget that she made nearly two times what Gail made and although Holly never brought up money, it was always in the back of Gail's mind.
"We could think about buying a house, or a bigger townhouse…I mean either way, we just have to start thinking about it," Holly said yawning. "Gail, we have so much to do…"
"Yes…" Gail said kissing Holly's collarbone. "But can we just start tomorrow and I can help you de-stress some more tonight?"
Holly thought about it, "fair enough," she smiled.
"Are you sure you are going to be okay? I'm just going to drop Leo off at his dad's and be right back," Traci explained. Dex had pulled one of his patented moves and decided that Leo should be dropped off instead of him coming to pick his son up. This was always the case with Dex, anything to make things harder, and although Traci knew that she should fight him on some things, she just didn't have the energy to that day.
"I'll be fine," Jade said readjusting her arm in the sling. "I've been through a thousand of these appointments," she said easily. She turned and looked at Leo in the backseat. "Hey, see you this weekend," she smiled at Leo. Jade had agreed to watch Leo the entire weekend, so they would be seeing one another soon. Leo smiled and fist bumped Jade, but quickly went back to his video game.
"I'll be right back," Traci promised.
"No problem," Jade assured her. She headed into the hospital and up to the third floor where her appointment was to take place. Her surgeon was going to check her progress and take the remaining stitches out. Amazingly, for once her appointment was on time and she was in and out before Traci made it back. Her stitches were removed and her shoulder was "progressing." Jesus, she was beginning to hate that word. She had been progressing for days, weeks, months, and just as soon as she was "healed," something horrendous would happen and she would be back at square one. This time, she knew better than to even get her hopes up; stoicism…it was going to work!
Jade checked her phone again. Traci had been gone for nearly an hour now and Jade was getting antsy. Antsy was never good these days for her. She didn't really want to talk; well, actually that was a lie. She wanted to talk; she wanted to talk Gail, but she would undoubtedly get angry about something. She wanted to talk to Holly, but Holly had more than enough on her plate just dealing with her and Gail; but most of all, she wanted to talk to Haley. She scrolled down her short list of contacts and landed on Haley. They hadn't talked in what was forever in Jade's mind, and it hurt her feelings that Haley hadn't reached out. She knew it wasn't fair and that she should definitely call or text Haley, but she couldn't. What if didn't answer her call or text…or worse, what if she did and told her to stop contacting her. It was a real possibility that Haley did hate her now…Still, Jade took a deep breath and pressed the talk button on her phone. The line picked up and rang, and rang and rang, but no answer. Jade killed the line when Haley's voicemail picked up…she absolutely hated how chipper Haley sounded on her voicemail message. How could she be so happy when Jade was utterly miserable?
Maybe it was the misery that made her send the short, concise text: Hey…I miss you.
Jade waited a while, knowing that this would eventually land, but five minutes later and Haley still hadn't responded. Jade blew out a quick breath and stood, heading out of the orthopedic waiting room and down the hallway. She truly hated hospitals, but to be honest, she hated everything right now. She stopped at the directional chart in front of her and remembered something Gail had said nearly a week ago. Shoshana was or had been transferred to Toronto, and for the first time in a long time, Jade considered how the woman was progressing. Hmmm, that word again. Jade looked up at the directional chart and pondered, if only for a second, if she should head towards the burn unit. She had given herself permission to do so, but before she had a chance to move forward, her phone vibrated in her pocket against her thigh.
She smiled, assuming it was Haley, and pulled her phone out, relieved that Haley still gave a damn. However, she was wholly wrong and it was a text from Traci telling her that she was in the parking lot. Jade's smile immediately dissipated as she found her way to the elevator and down to the parking lot where Traci was parked.
"Sorry I took so long. How was your appointment?" Traci asked brightly although Dex had mentally drained her.
"Good, all my stitches are out and three more weeks before this," she pointed to her shoulder, "should be all healed."
"Great," Traci smiled enthusiastically. "Gail said you were going to the station until she got off."
"Okay," Jade put up no fight. Traci would have pushed her to talk, but she was lost in her own mind until she pulled up to the station.
"Jade, thanks again for this weekend."
"No problem," Jade said getting out of Traci's car. "Thanks for taking me to get my hair braided."
"Yeah, I'm still impressed at how you managed to sit still for over eight hours," Traci laughed.
"I had nowhere to be and nothing to do," Jade said before heading into the station. Dov was working the front station and lit up when Jade came into the building.
"Jade…" he smiled, "I have some trivia for you."
Jade managed to smile, "Okay, let's hear it…"
"In the John Grisham novel, The Testament, the main character travels to Brazil where he catches a mosquito-transmitted virus known by what two-word name?" Dov figured he had the girl stumped this time. Jade racked her brain for a second before laughing.
"Dengue Fever."
Dov's face deadpanned. "How did you know that? Did you actually read The Testament?"
"No…you said two-word name though," Jade grinned.
Dov buzzed Jade in, "One day, I'm going to stump you."
"Not when it comes to science, Dov," Jade yelled back as she headed to Gail's desk. The blonde was sitting at her desk finishing up some paperwork. "Dov thinks he can beat me in science trivia," she said sitting down beside Gail. Gail grinned at her daughter.
"Dov is an idiot," she said easily. She reached out and took one of tiny braids that Jade had pulled back into a ponytail. "I can see why this took eight hours," she said in awe. "It's beautiful though; you look gorgeous."
"Yeah, you have to say things like that," Jade reminded her. "But thanks…it was the longest eight hours ever. Hey, I agreed to watch Leo this weekend; is that okay?"
"Sure," Gail said turning back to her computer. "I have a couple more things to do and then I have to swing by the mall."
"Picking up another gift for Holly?"
Gail side glance but continued typing. "Holly said you needed shirts…" she didn't say anything about the ten or so shirts that had the sleeves cut out of them.
It was well after seven before Gail and Jade actually reached the mall, but Jade hadn't minded being at the station. She was also kind of getting a kick out of shopping with Gail. Gail had rejected nearly anything "revealing" and they had finally agreed on what were pretty plain tee shirts. "I think you got very nice things," Gail smiled at the fact that she had blocked anything revealing, short, or god forbid tight.
"I'm only going to shop with Holly from now on," Jade said teasingly.
"I think we did great…" Gail said, but her words stopped as she saw someone familiar in the distance.
"What?" Jade asked following Gail's eyes into the distance. Her eyes fell on Haley and for a second, it felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. She was walking with Peter, and Jade could literally feel the bile rise from her stomach. She wanted to duck behind Gail, but Haley's eyes had already met hers and now she was exposed.
"Erica!" Peter said making an ass of himself by waving to the girl. Jade did not return the greeting and had every intention to turn in the other direction if not for Haley stopping her.
"Jade," she said looking at Peter to correct him. "Hey…I was…"
"Hey…Gail and I were just leaving," Jade said seriously. The fact that Haley hadn't even answered her text, but was walking through the mall with Petey made Jade fume.
"Jade," Haley said softly.
Peter spoke over Haley, "Hey, we just got out of a movie marathon. Four movies for the price of one…" he said eagerly. "Now we are going to dinner, wanna come?"
"No," Jade said dryly.
"Well, I'm taking Haley to this great seafood restaurant…"
"Haley doesn't even like seafood," Jade said quickly, her eyes searching Haley's. Why in the hell did she put up with this idiot?
"Well, maybe she hasn't tried the right seafood…" Peter said rigidly. "She's so spoiled…she never wants to try anything new. At least I got her to watch a sci-fi movie without trying to explain why it was implausible," he rolled his eyes. "It's so annoying sometimes," he turned to Haley, "you never enjoy anything…"
"Really…we never had that problem," Jade shrugged.
Peter looked from Haley to Jade. "Well, we are going out to dinner. Nice seeing you again, Erica."
"It's Jade," Gail felt compelled to speak up.
"He knows…he knows my name," Jade said rolling her eyes. Gail couldn't help but enjoy the fact that Jade wanted to punch Peter in the throat; yet she knew that this meant that Holly was correct. Jade and Haley definitely had feelings for one another.
"Holly isn't going to be home for another couple of hours. She got hung up today at the morgue," Gail explained. When they reached home, everything was quiet and they had to forge for dinner before Jade's blood sugar took a dive. Now Jade was cleaning up the kitchen, but she hadn't said much after seeing Haley at the mall. Once Jade finished in the kitchen, Gail could see that the girl intended to make a quick retreat to her bedroom. "Wait…wait…wait," Gail stopped her. "Come here and sit beside me…"
Jade didn't hesitate to do what she was told. She sat beside Gail and placed her head on Gail's shoulder. "What's wrong" Gail asked gently.
"Nothing," Jade blatantly lied.
"Try again," Gail encouraged.
"Everything," the girl said gently. There was so much she wanted to tell Gail, but she didn't have the energy. "Can we just watch a movie or something?"
"Jade, how can I make it better if you don't tell me what's wrong?" Gail asked gently. She really did want to make whatever was bothering her kid so damn much, better. Gail could feel a slight wetness on her shoulder. "Hey…Jade…don't cry," she cooed, and then she thought about how silly that sounded. No one deserved to cry more than Jade.
"Ameliorate, that's the word of the day," the girl sniffled. "Haley set up an app that gave me a new word each day," she explained, realizing that this would be confusing if she didn't. "It was the first app I downloaded on my new phone…and today, after I texted Haley, the word of the day popped up. It was ameliorate, which means, to make better. I thought at first, if I just told her I didn't want her around, we'd both feel better. We were just torturing each other…but today, before I got my stitches out, I just wanted to talk to her. So I called her…and she didn't answer," Jade sniffled. "And then I texted her and she didn't answer. And then she was with …him…and it feels like the worse thing ever."
"Why did you tell her you didn't want her around?" Gail inquired softly. Jade sat up straight and looked at Gail, tears still flowing from her dark brown eyes. Gail was sure her heart would break, with everything Jade had been through, it dismantled her to see the girl in anymore pain.
"Because I know she deserves better," Jade tried to explain through hiccups. "I wanna be with her, but I'm not a normal person, Gail."
"What does that mean?" Gail was startled by the statement. When Jade wouldn't respond, Gail took a deep breath. "Jade, if you want to be with Haley, you need to tell her that and trust that she is smart enough to make the decision on what type of person she wants to be with. She knows if she wants to be with you or not, and I think she does, but you can't push her away and then be upset that she is dating an idiot."
Jade wiped away a few tears, "but he is an idiot."
"Oh, without a doubt…but from how Haley looked at you, I don't think she wants to be with him. Tell her how you feel…truthfully and then let her decide."
"She wouldn't even answer my call or text…" Jade found another excuse.
"Well…keep trying," Gail encouraged. When Jade laid her head back on Gail's shoulder, Gail wiped the girl's eyes. "Are you going to try again?"
Jade shook her head, "not yet…it still feels like I got punched in the jaw after seeing them together."
"I've definitely known that feeling," Gail grimaced. "What movie do you wanna watch then?"
Jade still cried softly. "Whatever you pick," she said wearily. "I'm going to be asleep soon."
And of course she was asleep soon, way before Holly made her way home at ten thirty. Gail had managed to get Jade to go to bed and she had clonked out on the couch. She sat up when she heard the front door close.
"Sorry…did I wake you?" Holly frowned. "Sorry I'm home so late…after regular work and trying to catch up…"
"No…I understand," Gail said rubbing her eyes until they watered. "Did you eat dinner?" she asked stifling a yawn.
"Yeah…I'm fine. How about you and Jade?"
"You were right," Gail conceded. "Jade and Haley…"
"Oh…" Holly said not really needing any further explanation.
"I encouraged her to tell Haley the truth…"
Holly sat down beside Gail. "Wow…you? The person who never wants her to date?"
"She's heartbroken, Hol," Gail explained sadly. "I'd rather be uncomfortable with her dating than for her to feel a second of pain. I don't wanna be too uncomfortable though…so I should probably put Haley on notice…"
Holly shook her head laughing. "You are not going to threaten, Haley," she said kissing Gail softly.
"Oh yes I am," Gail said against Holly's mouth.
"I can think of better things you can do with your time, Gail Peck," Holly said kissing her again.
Gail pulled back a moment, "You are right…I should be perfecting that damn bubble," she laughed as Holly rolled her eyes. "I'm going to bed Stewart…some of us work hard," she slapped Holly's thigh before bouncing off of the couch and heading up the stairs. Holly rolled her eyes skyward, but followed her girlfriend to bed.