Yeah, I did wrap that up pretty fast

I'm glad you're excited for the baby because I may have written a bunch of baby scenes already, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, I'll probably end up accidentally writing more than the three chapters that I said I would after this one

Gail pulls into Holly's driveway behind Holly's parents' car. Gail turns off the engine, knowing she will get out of the vehicle to help Holly with her stuff, but they sit in the quiet for a moment. Gail not sure what to say, does this change their sleeping arrangements… "Did you want me to go?"

Holly looks at her concerned, "why?" She reaches over to touch Gail, "you can meet my parents, I mean I thought we had more time, but…"

"No, I get it," Gail sighs, "I'm so tired."

Holly yawns, "me too."

Gail grabs Holly's hand and gives it a squeeze. "Ready?" Gail opens her door and makes her way around the car to help Holly slide out of the SUV. Holly smiles her thanks to Gail. "Should we go in and say 'hi' or do you want me to start bringing stuff in?"

Holly leans into Gail, "my parents don't know I'm pregnant. I might need you as a shield."

Gail laughs, "errrr…nerd, you can't hide your pregnancy anymore, it's uh…" Gail kind of nervous, she goes to twirl her wedding ring, she realizes it is no longer there, she pauses, somewhat lost, she chooses the right words, "it's very obvious."

"No, I know that," Holly sighs, "please come in with me."

"Of course."

Holly uses her key to unlock the front door, she turns to Gail, "you go in first."

"I don't think your parents would like to see some stranger entering their daughter's house, you need to go in first."

Holly sighs, "it was worth a shot." She looks at Gail who is smiling, clearly enjoying all of this. Holly kisses Gail, she kisses her soundly. Gail slowly opens her eyes, caught slightly off guard by that kiss. Holly sighs again, "okay, now I'm ready," kisses Gail on the lips one last time.

Gail laughs lightly; she lets Holly take her hand for comfort and support. She opens the door; she walks into the sitting room, no one's there, she calls, "mom, dad, I'm home."

She hears from the upstairs, "see Charlie, I told you I heard a car door shut."

Gail laughs again, Holly smiles at her shyly. Two adults appear at the top of the stairs, the lady gasps, clearly excited to see her daughter, the man smiles, just as excited. The two walk down the stairs, "we weren't expecting you until tomorrow," Holly's mom says.

Holly squeezes Gail's hand, "I had a good driver."

"Why did you drive?" asks Holly's dad, "Isn't it faster to catch a flight from the closest airport?"

Gail, who's been kind of shielding Holly from her parents, steps away. Both Stewarts gasp. "You're pregnant!" they exclaim.

"Surprise?" Holly tries.

"When did this happen?"

"It's a Christmas miracle!"

Holly laughs, "I wouldn't go that far…." Holly starting to overheat, begins to wriggle out of her coat, she hangs it up. Her mom finally opens up her arms for her eldest daughter. Holly smiles and good naturedly hugs her mom.

"I've missed you," Joyce whispers, "these past couple of months haven't been the same without your weekly phone call."

"Sorry mom, there wasn't anything I could do." Holly hears her mom sniff back some tears.

"I know dear," she gives her daughter one last squeeze, "your dad missed you too." She releases Holly.

Holly immediately hugs her dad once her mom releases her. "I'm glad to see you are home Hol." Charlie smiles into his daughter's hair. "Who's the blonde?"

Holly laughs, having forgot to make introductions, Holly turns to face Gail, "Gail this is my mom and dad. Mom and dad this is Gail."

Gail sticks out her hand to shake, "it's nice to meet you Mrs. Stewart."

Joyce looks at Gail's hand then back at Gail, "Gail you say?" Gail nods her head, "the police officer named Gail that has been protecting our daughter for the past several months?" Gail nods her head again. Mrs. Stewart pulls her into a hug. "Thank you." Gail's stiff at first, but eventually relaxes. Joyce let's go of Gail but holds onto her arms, "not a hugger eh?" Gail shakes her head. "That's okay. You can call me Joyce." Gail nods her agreement.

Charlie sticks out his hand, "you don't have to hug me," Gail smiles at that, "I'm Charlie, thanks for driving our daughter safely home."

"My pleasure." Gail looks at Holly; she notices how tired she is, she notices her eye lids drooping, realizeing Holly will soon become unstable on her feet, "mind if we sit down?" Holly mouths a 'thank you' to Gail.

They move to the family room area, Holly sits on the couch, and her parents sit on either side of her. Gail sits in an arm chair, happy to observe.

Joyce places a hand on Holly's belly, "how far along are you?"

Holly moves her mom's hand to where she can feel the baby moving, recently woken up when Holly started moving again, "I just entered my eighth month, I'm due in February."

"Oh," says Charlie, "so soon?"

Holly kind of laughs, "it's not soon, it only feels soon to you…cause you just found out…"

"I suppose so," he replaces his wife's hand with his and smiles brightly. He looks at his wife, "we're going to be grandparents again!"

Holly laughs, happy that this is going over so well. After a few more questions like how she's doing and how the baby's doing, Holly starts to yawn. Gail knows Holly will try and stay up to talk to her parents, Gail knows how much Holly has missed them, but she also knows that Holly needs her sleep. Gail stands up from the comfy chair, all three sets of eyes look at her. "Do you have to go officer?" asks Joyce.

Gail smiles, "no, I'm going to stay the night, but Holly looks ready for bed."

"You're going to stay the night?" asks Charlie.

Holly nods her head, "Gail's my girlfriend." She reaches up for Gail's hand to help her up from the couch.

Joyce not happy with the idea of her daughter dating a cop, she scrunches up her face, "hasn't your sister's life taught you nothing, or even this little adventure or experience or whatever you want to call it?"

Gail turns around, "Whoa! Wait, what?" Gail knows that some people aren't always comfortable with her job, but the only one who has to be comfortable with it is Holly, of course Gail wants Holly's parents' approval, but it's not necessary in her books.

"Gail you seem like a very nice person, and I thank you for taking such good care of our daughter but-"

Charlie cuts off his wife, "Did you hear what you just said?"

"What?" asks Joyce, totally irate, ready to brash if she needs to be.

"Repeat what you just said."

"She seems like a nice person?"

"The next line."

"She's been taking good care of Holly?"

Charlie repeats Joyce's words, "she has been taking good care of Holly."

Joyce opens her mouth to object, but closes it, knowing better. "I suppose." She looks at her daughter, "are you happy?"

"I am."

Joyce shrugs her shoulders, "okay then, I'm not fond of the idea, but if you take good care of my daughter and she's happy, then okay."

Charlie stands to give Holly another hug. "Don't worry about your mother." Holly nods her head. "Gail seems great."

Holly smiles at that. "She is." Holly lets go of her dad, "well goodnight."

"I'm going to grab some of our bags from the car that we may need tonight, I'll unload the rest tomorrow," says Gail.

Holly nods her head, "I'm going to head upstairs, I don't know if I want a bath anymore, I'm too tired."

Gail heads outside to grab their clothing bags so they have some sleepwear, knowing Holly probably has no maternity clothing in her house, since she found out she was pregnant in Moonbeam. When she reenters the house Charlie is gone and it's only Joyce in the sitting room. Gail wishes her a good night as she walks towards the stairs.

"Gail?"

She turns around to Mrs. Stewart. "Yes?"

"I apologize. I shouldn't judge you based on your job, it's just…our other daughter is also a cop, and she has been hurt on the job more times than I like and this summer with Holly being whisked away from her life because of- actually I have no idea why she had to leave- but regardless," she throws her hand in the air. "I can see you care for my daughter, and…and I don't know what else to say."

Gail sets the bags down and walks over, "it's okay, I can understand where you're coming from. I do love your daughter, and I hope to stay in her life for as long as she'll let me."

Joyce smiles at that, "good. She seems happy with you, Holly's last girlfriend; I always felt there was something off, but-"

All of a sudden there is a call from upstairs, "Gail!"

Gail internally debating whether she should go upstairs and help Holly or stay downstairs and hear what Mrs. Stewart has to say, Gail knows what she has to do, "I should go help her, goodnight, see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight Gail, and thanks again, I do mean it."

Gail grabs the bags she had just set down and runs up the stairs. She finds Holly stuck in her shirt, having a difficult time removing it. Gail can't help but laugh as she assists Holly.

With the two finally nestled in Holly's bed, after all that, Gail is now not ready to sleep. "Mind if I read?"

"No, you can turn on your bed side lamp, but, could you read aloud? The baby is being rambunctious." Holly rubs her belly hoping to soothe the baby.

"Of course," Gail begins to read her book out loud. After a few paragraphs she stops, "do you want me to tell you what's happening in the book, so you're not lost?"

"Hmmm..." says Holly, who was practically asleep, "I wasn't listening."

"Never mind," says a smiling Gail, as she realizes that the bed time story is going to put Holly to sleep too.

Gail's back at the frat house, packing up some stuff so she can have some of her clothes at Holly's while she stays there. How long is Gail going to stay there, she doesn't know, does she move in with Holly, is that what Holly wants, is that what Gail wants, yeah Gail wants that. Chris and Dov left for the day, their shift started a couple hours earlier, she messaged them to let them know she would be at the frat house today, so they wouldn't be concerned when they eventually noticed some of her belongings missing.

Gail's in her bedroom filling a suitcase with her clothes, deliberating how much to take. Did she even need to get anything; she had all of her clothing from Moonbeam that was just fine. She mostly wanted to get out of the house, allow Holly some time alone with her parents. There's a knock at the door that Gail barely registers, lost in her thoughts. Holly's parents seem fine with the situation, besides Joyce's initial misgivings; if anything they now seem relieved. Knowing their daughter is going to be living with a cop, especially after the summer, autumn, and winter she just had. She can see where Joyce is coming from though, her slight displeasure at Gail's job, Gail knows her job is dangerous, and she would never do anything to put her or Holly in danger, but she feels the whole cop thing is a discussion for her and Holly to have, not Joyce. They're also super excited to be grandparents again, which is a relief. Gail knew the parents probably have plenty of questions for Holly, so Gail made up some excuse to go to the frat house.

There's a knock on the front door. Gail thinks that's weird, maybe the guys forgot something, but they would just use their key. She thinks maybe it's the landlord, and since she isn't paying the rent she ignores it.

Gail moves into the bathroom where she collects some of her hair products as well as her stash of makeup. She picks up her eye liner, "I missed you," she says aloud. She looks at herself in the mirror. She takes off the cap and applies the eye liner; she smiles at herself in the mirror. She grabs her red lip stick and puts some on too. She gives herself a toothy grin. Another knock at the door. Gail sighs. She decides to see who it is. She sees the crib she ordered for Holly still in its box pushed next to the coat rack, Gail sighs, she should bring that with her to Holly's, maybe Charlie will want to build it. Or Gail still has a couple of days off before she has to go back to work, it will give her something to do while she's at Holly's. Gail looks through the peephole, but doesn't see anyone. She turns around to go back to the bathroom when there's another knock. Frustrated with all this knocking, Gail frantically opens the door to catch whoever's there. Gail's a little surprised, but schools her expression, knowing to not give anything away.

"Hello Gladys…or should I say Gail?" Gail immediately notices the gun shaped object in her unwanted guest's pocket pointed at her.

Thanks for reading

that's great that you called it, but who is it?

(or did i make that too obvious too)