Chapter 46: Catspaw

Author's Note: Holly's parents will be in town soon! Like in hours!


She felt panic. It had been a long time since Holly had seen both her parents and even longer since she'd introduced a girlfriend to them. In fact, Holly was pretty sure that her parents hadn't met a girlfriend since they'd moved to Vancouver while Holly was in medical school. Things had been tense enough when just her mom met Gail.

The Doctors Stewart, as Gail had taken to calling them, were due to land in less than 24 hours, and Holly rushed home to give the house a good scrub from top to bottom. When she pulled into the garage, she knew something was wrong.

First of all, the garage was organized again. Everything was where Holly wanted it, where she'd put labels for it, cleaned off, and put away. The camping gear was hanging off the pegs and the movable clothes rack with all the winter hiking clothes was tucked to the side where it was no longer at risk of being hit by a car. Speaking of cars, Gail's was cleaned and looked like it had been detailed.

While Gail wasn't a slob, she wasn't fond of cleaning. In order to not face the wrath of Holly, Gail's simple tactic was to clean as she did things. If they watched a movie, Gail cleaned up the living room right after. If she cooked dinner, she cleaned while things were at a hands off stage, and loaded the dishwasher. If she did laundry, by gum, that laundry was folded and away. The bathroom? She cleaned it before she showered.

So to walk in the house and see Gail in the process of mopping was enough to make Holly wonder if she'd fallen into a time warp or an alternate universe. When you added in the heavenly smell of meat and fruit, Holly was agog at the Susie Homemaker world.

"Shoes!"

Holly froze. "What?" She looked at Gail, who was pointing at her. No, Gail was pointing at her feet. Shoes! Holly stepped out of her shoes and, in her socked feet, went to the stairs. "What's happening?"

"It's called cleaning, nerd." Gail took her mop back over to where Holly had been and she re-mopped the path from garage to stairs.

"Yes, but why are you cleaning?"

Leaning on the mop, Gail eyed Holly. "Because your parents are coming tomorrow and you're about to have a full blown nerd panic attack? There's also dinner in the oven."

Holly exhaled, "Oh my god, Gail, I love you."

"I know, I'm awesome," grinned the blonde, her smile broad and toothy. "Go take a shower. I'll be done down here in a minute." She waved Holly up the stairs and went back to mopping the hallway.

This was not the time to argue her luck, and Holly did as ordered, only finding one thing odd. She took the time to wash her hair, and was not surprised to hear a knock at the door. "Come in."

"Hey," announced Gail. "Leave the water on, I'll hop right in." There was, as one might have predicted, a quick kiss shared as they swapped places and Gail yelped under the water. It was always too cold for her tastes and Gail swore as she cranked the temperature.

Reluctant to get in her pajamas just yet, Holly wound her hair into a monument and watched Gail through the gap in the curtain. "Can I ask a question, honey?"

"Only if you hand me a washcloth."

Holly pulled her robe on and handed a cloth to Gail, getting another kiss in the process. Much better. "How come you call other people nicknames but not me?"

There was a moment of silence. "Nerd? Lunchbox? Baby? Those aren't nicknames?"

"I meant… You called Chris 'Chrisikins' the other night."

Gail stuck her head out of the shower. "You want me to call you Hollikins? That sounds stupid…"

"Some people call me Holl, or Holls." Including her parents.

"I like calling you Holly," Gail replied, confused. "You call me Gail all the time." Holly grimaced, the conversation not going where she thought it was. "You can't really make Gail shorter. Unless you make it Gay, which is redundant." Pleased with herself, Gail pulled her head back into the shower.

"Do you ever call Chris 'Christopher' though?"

There was a lengthy silence and Gail turned off the water. "Rarely," she replied. "Towel please?"

Holly handed over a towel. "Other people you've dated get ... Longer names when you're annoyed. And I call you honey, and sweetheart, and ... You just call me Holly. Which I like but ..."

Rough drying her hair, Gail stepped out of the tub. "I like your name, Holly. It suits you and it makes me smile." She let the towel hang around her neck, otherwise bare ass naked. "Holly," she whispered, softly, and leaned in to kiss her.

Okay. Maybe there was a point. Hearing Gail whisper (or moan) her name was a crazy turn on. And while she never heard Gail use an endearment in bed, maybe that wasn't a bad thing. "Oh, my sweet, sweet, Gail," sighed Holly, gripping both ends of the towel and pulling Gail closer.

They kept kissing, reminding Holly of the time in the shower where they felt like they had all the time in the world and yet they had to touch each other. This time they were both nearly naked, and Gail's hands eased inside the robe.

Abruptly a beeping started and Holly jerked her head back. "What was that?"

"Dinner," sighed Gail, somewhat breathless. She exhaled softly and kissed Holly's nose. "Food. Come on, I know you didn't eat." Gail brought the towel back up to her hair and gave it another go at for drying, before heading to the bedroom.

As much as she'd rather be kissing more, Holly's stomach growled loudly. "I hate you," she shouted after Gail, following to get some clothes on. She got another, brief, kiss as they passed by, Gail already in sweats and t-shirt.

"You don't have to eat the lamb tagine," noted Gail, heading back down the stairs.

Holly's mouth watered and she picked up a tank top. Her hand paused at her sleep shorts and she stared at the bed. Of all the things Gail had done, which even included vacuuming the upstairs, where her parents were unlikely to go, she had not changed the sheets. There was an implication that Holly decided she liked. She left her sleepwear on the bed. Dinner. Relaxing. Then maybe...

Leaving her robe on, Holly tied it and put on nothing else. Not even panties. "How early did you get off work?"

When she got downstairs, Gail was at the laundry machine, folding the last of the latest load. "That was fast," Gail remarked, quickly finishing the change of loads, but not taking the clean ones upstairs. "I got home at four. Butler said as long as I have my report in by Friday, he doesn't care."

That was nice. "I keep getting more and more work," complained Holly, joining her to serve up couscous in the bowls on the counter. She didn't mind, except for the uptick of being on call at night.

"I'm sure my caseload will pick up, now that I'm the golden child." Gail brought the lamb over and ladled it in.

"You are amazing." The smell was amazing and Holly sighed. "This is seriously fancy for a weeknight, baby."

Gail shook her head. "The hardest part is waiting an hour and a half for the stuff to cook. Everything else is pretty fast."

For some reason, even Holly harbored the thought that Gail didn't cook. She did, at least as often as Holly did, and she was actually good at experimenting and making new things. Gail liked weird foods and weird combinations, and once told Holly that she loved her simply because Holly would eat the experiments too.

"Patience isn't one of your virtues," teased Holly, and she took a bite. "Apricots?"

"Good, isn't it?" Gail grinned.

They ate on the couch, watching a reality show about mining for gold, and Holly finally felt like she could dare to relax a little. She was fed, her house was clean, and she had a totally awesome girlfriend. Gail even took the plates away and brought back tea. When she sat back down, Holly leaned into her. "Hey."

"Hey," replied Gail, amused.

Holly turned to look at Gail better, "Hey."

"You said that before." Grinning, Gail brushed her lips on Holly's forehead.

"It sounded familiar." She leaned more into Gail, and the blonde almost absently adjusted, slinging an arm around Holly's shoulders and pulling her in. It was comfortable and soft to nestle against Gail on the couch.

Eventually the tea mugs were left on the coffee table and Gail wound both arms around Holly's waist, holding her close. "Feeling calmer?" Gail's cheek rested against Holly's head.

Being settled between Gail's legs like that was rarely calming, but in that moment, with the soft warmth of the detective against her back, it really was relaxing. "Getting there," admitted Holly.

"Good." Gail's form relaxed behind her, and Holly took one hand in her own, gently stroking the back of Gail's hand.

Gail's free hand ended up on Holly's thigh, her thumb absently rubbing back and forth on top of the robe. After another segment of the show, Holly spoke up, "You didn't change the sheets."

The thumb paused. "I didn't. Yet." Gail moved her hand to the edge of the robe, fingertips easing under.

"Yet," repeated Holly, and she bent her knee up, letting the robe slide off her leg and giving Gail's roaming hand access to her skin.

There was a soft intake of breath as Gail realized Holly wasn't wearing anything under the robe. "You know, I did promise to make up for my hangover." Her breath was warm and inviting against Holly's ear.

"You did," agreed Holly, and she tilted her head to give Gail more access to her neck. Soft kisses led down to the collar of the robe, and Gail freed her hands to untie and ease it down Holly's shoulder. "I think we should go upstairs," she huffed, her skin warming.

Upstairs, Gail more than made up for spurning Holly's advances two nights (mornings) before. Lying in the bed afterwards, smiling, Holly swore she could feel the earth slowly rotating. Gail lay alongside her, caressing her face and arm. "You look relaxed now," she said, smugly.

Holly closed her eyes and smiled. "I think you're a liar."

"Oh?"

"I'm not possibly the first woman you ever slept with."

Gail laughed and kissed Holly's shoulder. "First and only," she confirmed. "You've ruined me for anyone else." A soft, roaming, hand drifted across Holly's abdomen. "Definitely ruined me for men, never ever going there again."

Turning her head, Holly frowned but did not open her eyes. "Better not. I know where to hide your body, Peck."

There was soft laughter from Gail, and she moved closer to Holly, kissing her neck and collar bone. The kissing started to drift south and Holly sucked in her breath, but then Gail continued across until she came up and found Holly's lips. That was good in a different way and Holly groaned slightly as Gail's weight settled on her. "Never," Gail promised, and started to move down Holly's body again.

After that, Holly's brain was empty. Gail had completely wiped her mind of thought and was drawing the sheet up to cover them. The comfortable and familiar weight and warmth of Gail pressed against her side, the darkness and quiet of the room soothing Holly into absolute relaxation.

She came alert rather abruptly, hours later in the darkness of early morning, in an empty bed with her t-shirt on. That wasn't too terribly odd and Holly had sleep-dressed herself many times before, but she frowned. Gail hadn't had a nightmare that took her out of bed in months. Getting out of bed, Holly found her robe and tugged it on, calling out "Gail?"

There wasn't a reply and Holly poked her head out of the bedroom. The light from the office was barely visible from the closed door. That was somewhat better than the nights Gail played mindless video games to get her mind off things. Holly paused at the door and gently rapped it, "Gail, please confirm existence."

The door opened and Gail looked surprised. "Hey, sorry I didn't mean to wake you." Her hair was damp, the blonde strands standing up like a porcupine. It must have been a hell of a dream for Gail to shower when she woke up. And Holly must have been insanely wiped to have slept through that.

Holly wrapped her arms around Gail and squeezed her. "You okay?"

With a sigh, Gail returned the hug. "There was a … sound. Something outside." She pressed her face into Holly's shoulder. "It was nothing but then I was awake so..."

The sentence didn't make a lot of sense, but Holly generally got the story of Gail's abduction in dribs and drabs. The one time she'd gotten a large chunk of it had been a rather horrible evening. "Sit down?"

The office had gone through multiple rearrangements until they'd sorted out the best way to fit two desks and a couch and a gun safe in the room, along with all the science books. But it worked now and Gail enjoyed reading on the couch while Holly worked.

Looking at the couch, Gail shook her head. "No." She took one of Holly's hands and started for the door, flicking off the light on the way.

There were night lights in the office, and the hallway. Holly had installed them when she and Gail were just friends. Sometimes, like tonight, she felt a pang of guilt for having ripped them out when they broke up. These lights were new, low energy, and the first things Holly had bought after the disastrous visa debacle. She squeezed Gail's hand and followed her back to the bedroom, curling back up in bed.

"Skipping the pajama bottoms?" Gail sounded tired, but amused.

"Figured it's a better chance of keeping you in bed," smiled Holly, and she watched Gail slide under the covers in just a t-shirt as well.

Gail kissed her forehead, "You never chase me out of bed."

They settled into their usual positions, Gail on her stomach, hugging a pillow, while Holly was curled on her side. "Shitty night for it," decided Holly and Gail snorted a laugh.

They both knew that Gail didn't have to talk about it. And Holly would never push. But Gail had once said the trick to a fast confession, or any sort of connection with a suspect or victim, was to lower the bar. So Holly simply tried to do that, to make it easier for Gail.

"If I tell you why, then you won't sleep either," Gail pointed out.

Reaching over, Holly ran her fingers through Gail's hair. She knew it was soothing to her girlfriend and more than once had taken an over-tired and cranky Gail right into sleep. She didn't say anything and didn't really have to, as Gail's eyes slowly drifted closed. It was still hard to tell when Gail was asleep and when she wasn't, unless she was flat out exhausted, but Holly would settle for calm and composed.

Eventually her arm felt too heavy to move, and it stopped of it's own volition. And Holly fell asleep.


Thursday morning came sooner than Gail wanted. Of course it would have to be a night where she wouldn't get half the sleep she wanted when she'd already planned to be a little short on sleep. At least Holly had gotten rest, though, and woke up chipper and, as normal for many mornings, frisky. Which was probably the best reason as to why Gail looked as tired as she felt.

"Man, your eyes are all slitty," remarked John, meeting her at the elevator with coffee.

Grouchy, Gail growled, "Is one of those mine?"

A cup was handed over quickly. "Aren't your in-laws due today?" When Gail nodded, he muttered, "You picked a hell of a day to stop smoking crack."

Gail arched an eyebrow. "That's from a movie."

One of John's odder traits was his movie knowledge. "Airplane, you'd like it." They stepped onto the elevator. "Holly keep you up all night?"

And Gail glared. "Shut up."

"Technically we aren't at work."

"Technically it's illegal to taze you."

"My my, we are grumpy."

She flipped him off. "Thank you for the coffee, asshole."

"Welcome, hoser," he replied, cheerfully, and they went to their desks to catch up on paperwork. Butler had assigned them some more, small, cases. Mostly follow up and backup work to other detectives. That suited Gail fine, since if every case had to be as fast as the Khan one, she'd be more of a mess than normal.

After a morning following up on leads, Gail tackled her reports. The last of her paperwork was filed when the phone rang. "Peck," she answered without looking at the display.

"Help!" Holly sounded stressed, nearly frantic. "I'm stuck."

"Oookay. Do you need a crowbar?" Across the table, John snorted.

"My parents! They're landing at the airport in an hour and I'm elbow deep in a-"

"Ah, Holly, is this a request to pick your parents up from the airport?" It was adorable when Holly panicked, but Gail didn't really think now was a good time to let her ramble. "I can get them."

Holly exhaled, "Thank you, I hate throwing you at them but Dad would just pitch a fit about a taxi."

That sounded like a story. "Not a problem. Go run the gut or whatever you're up to. I'll get them to the hotel and play driver." With a rushed goodbye, Holly hung up and Gail glanced across the desks at her partner. "I'm done anyway."

"Lucky you. Where did you learn to type that fast?"

Gail shook her head, "Where do you think? Call me if you need me, but-"

"But don't need you, yeah I know." John smiled and stretched his arms up and over his head. "Good luck meeting the in-laws."

Everyone kept telling her that, and Gail couldn't understand why. She'd already met Holly's mother and, after that first horrible joke, they'd gotten along fine. Meeting her father couldn't be half as bad; Gail was a lot more comfortable with herself, her sexuality, and her relationship with Holly, so it would be easier. Right?

She made it to the airport with time to spare and found good parking without having to consider the ethical implications of using her badge. She could had easily used it to skip the TSA line, but chose to wait by baggage claim and read from her iPad until the Vancouver flight started filing in.

It was easy to spot Dr. Lily Stewart, PhD. She looked a lot like Holly, with the dusky Spanish skin and hair. The height came from Dr. Brian Stewart, also PhD. He looked annoyed and frustrated with the entire day, as if travel had been invented to piss him off. Gail had a feeling she'd like him right away. She shoved her iPad into her shoulder bag and walked over to meet them.

"Hey, Drs. Stewarts," she greeted.

Lily, as expected, hugged her. "Gail! I love the hair. Is that your natural color?"

The last time they'd seen each other, Gail's hair was some variation of growing-out blonde. "Afraid so. It's nice to see you again."

Smiling happily, Lily held Gail at arms length to look her over. "You look good." Behind her, her husband coughed. "Oh, stop it, Brian." Lily let go of Gail to tug the man closer. "Brian, this is Gail Peck, Holly's girlfriend. Gail, this is my husband, Brian."

Extending a hand, Gail put her best smile on. "Nice to meet you, sir."

"Sir," he repeated. "She's polite. I like her."

Gail wondered a little just how many of Holly's girlfriends they'd met, but did not ask. "Did you check bags? Holly didn't say."

"She didn't, eh?" Lily shook her head. "I thought she was coming, actually..."

"She's mid autopsy."

Brian sighed loudly, "Of course. We did check luggage."

It didn't take long to collect the luggage and get everyone loaded in the car. Brian sat in back, sulking about everything, and Lily cheerfully took the passenger seat. As they drove to the hotel, Lily explained that Brian would be giving a lecture at University of Toronto. When Gail mentioned she'd graduated from there, Brian sat up and asked what she studied. That gave them enough conversation to take them to the hotel.

At Lily's request, Gail stuck around, making sure to text Holly that everyone was safe and sound, and went with them to the rather nice hotel room by the university. "We're eating out tonight, I gather," Brian said loudly, falling into the easy chair.

Taking the desk chair, Gail nodded. "Italian. It's a tiny little place, but they have a good fresh tomato soup."

Brian narrowed his eyes. "My progeny informed me you were allergic."

"To tomatoes? Uh, yeah. Yes. But she said the soup was good." Gail shrugged.

"She said she didn't eat it anymore."

He was rather pushy and Gail frowned, thinking about that. Holly hadn't ordered anything with fresh tomatoes ever since she accidentally ate one and kissed Gail, giving her a rash in some rather annoying places. "True, but we were friends before we dated."

If pressed, Gail would admit wasn't so sure about that. There had always been some sexual tension between them. From the moment Holly sassed her back at the crime scene, she knew she was going to like the strange nerd. All that silly kiss in the coat room had done was make Gail wake up to the fact that gender didn't matter all that much.

Brian studied her face. "So a cop."

"Detective," Lily said from the bathroom. "Holly said you might not be able to spend much time with us, that you had a case?"

"I did. We closed it this morning." Gail paused, "Sorry, that probably doesn't make sense to you. We solved it Monday, got a good confession and finished the paperwork today. Now it's all lawyers."

"You sure you got the right person?" Brian looked suspicious.

Awesome. Holly's dad wasn't a fan of cops. Or he was just poking the bear to see what kind of woman his daughter was dating. But again, Lily stepped in. "Brian. Stop." He held up his hands, defeated quickly. "What about your parents?"

Oh good. "My parents?"

"Will we get to meet them? Holly said they had important jobs."

"No," sighed Gail. "I'm sorry, I told Holly she could tell you but... My parents and I aren't on speaking terms right now."

Both Brian and Lily looked surprised. "Because of Holly?" Brian's face was set in stone.

Shaking her head, Gail explained it as simply as she could. "My mother used to be Staff Superintendent, and she used her job to push me around. When I applied for the detective slot, she decided I should be in a different department. Short version, she messed with my application. I found out and, ah, reported her to internal affairs."

Every time she'd talked about it, it sounded horribly cold and unfeeling. Even Steve, who had grown up in the same house, said it was harsh. Gail realized she didn't know how her father felt about the whole thing, and had only seen him in passing when her mother left the last IA meeting.

"She sounds like a piece of work," Brian announced. Gail studied his dour expression and grinned, toothily, at the man. In a heartbeat, he returned the smile. "I like her, Lily, she's spunky. Bet she keeps Holls on her toes."

Lily sighed, "Spunky. He thinks that's a compliment." But she too was smiling, fondly, at her husband.

"Could be worse," smiled Gail, feeling as comfortable with Holly's parents as she had, initially, with Holly. Less weird tension of course, since she was dating their daughter.

Brian snorted, "Since we have her alone... Holly said you met at a crime scene."

Uh oh. "That's true," confirmed Gail. "I thought she was crashing the scene." And Gail told her version of 'How Gail met Holly' and won smiles from the parents. This might work.


You'll see a little more from the Stewarts, they're not leaving right away.