Gail gets back from being undercover. Traci informs her that Holly has not stopped contacting her ever since Gail went away. Traci also tells Gail that Holly is in town for Thanksgiving. Gail sends a text to Holly, but no response. Gail knows where the Stewarts live so she decides she may as well tell Holly in person that she is home. That makes sense right, just show up at someone's house without any warning. She doesn't even have to think twice about it as she grabs her keys from her locker and drives to the Stewart's house. She knocks on the door. Now the blonde is nervous, can't take back the knock now though. Gail starts to maybe rethink her bright idea.
The Stewarts are in the family room enjoying spending a quiet evening together. The knock on the door startles them all considering everyone they invited was there already. Holly looks at her parents, "you guys expecting someone?" who shake their heads 'no', she then looks at Cindy and Alfred who also shake their heads 'no.'
Rain and Will jump up from their spots on the floor where they were playing with their baby sister, "we'll get it!"
They run to the door and look through the door's window and immediately rip the door open, "Gail!" they yell in unison and throw their arms around the police officer. "Where have you been?" they say rather accusatory.
"Gail?" questions Holly from the other room. She gets up out of her spot on the couch next to her sister and walks towards the front door to see for herself. As soon as her eyes land on the blonde she walks a little bit faster so she too can throw her arms around her. Her niece and nephew let go, allowing Gail to wrap her arms around Holly.
"Hi," she whispers.
"Hi," Holly says just as quietly.
After holding on to the other for a respectable amount of time, Holly asks, "do you want to come in the other room?"
Gail smiles a sad smile, "I don't know if I'm up to it, I just got back and I still have to fill out some paper work, I heard you were in town, I wanted to tell you I was back, and I just wanted to see you." Needed to see you, thinks Gail.
Holly smiles her lopsided smile and places her hand on the blonde's cheek. "I missed you too."
Gail leans her head into Holly's touch, relishing the feel. She closes her eyes, she's exhausted. She didn't really realize how tired she was until now. "I'm so tired, I just want to go home, take a shower, and crawl into bed." Even though Gail took a shower at the precinct, she feels she needs another one with her own shampoo and conditioner, her scents, to bring her back home.
"Do you want me to go with you? Keep you company."
Gail didn't realize that was an option, she would love for Holly to come home with her, but she also just wants to go home and decompress, she's not sure she wants Holly around for that. "Maybe some other time, I wont be very good company tonight."
Holly doesn't want to push Gail or impose. "Will you come back tomorrow?" Holly asks a little nervously, her thumb rubbing Gail's cheek.
Gail loves that Holly is still touching her, she missed this. "Can I?" Gail didn't know that that was an option either.
Holly shrugs her shoulders, "it's Thanksgiving, it's just my family."
"Oh," says Gail quietly, just Holly's family.
"I would like you to meet my parents, you are my girlfriend," states Holly.
"I am?" Gail says a little surprised, more like really surprised.
"Sure, why wouldn't you be? Just because you said you couldn't do this anymore, doesn't mean I agreed with it. Plus Will and Rain would love to play with you."
"Well, you know how I hate to disappoint kids," Gail smiles wickedly, like that's the reason why she's agreeing to come back to the Stewart's house, even though she is effing delighted that Holly called her her girlfriend.
Holly smiles and leans in to press their foreheads together. "When do you have to go?"
"As soon as you let go of me."
"Then I guess you'll never be leaving."
Gail lets out a huff of a laugh; she leans in to kiss Holly lightly on the lips, just wanting the connection, nothing more. She sighs, forget the shampoo and conditioner, this is home for Gail, right here in Holly's arms. She drops her head to Holly's shoulder, placing her face in the crook of Holly's neck. Holly rests her head atop of Gail's, she can feel the blonde breathe deeply.
"I'm so sorry Holly," Gail whispers.
"Shhh, it's okay, you were just trying to protect me, you're home now." She can feel the tears dampening her shirt; she begins to rub Gail's back.
Gail goes home to the frat house, it's quiet, Chris and Dov are on the night shift. It's a little too quiet for Gail. She plugs her phone in to charge; she takes her second shower of the day and decides to call it a night. She's lying in her bed, staring up at the ceiling; she never realized how quiet her bedroom actually is. Sure she can hear some traffic noises, but it's not the same as being outside amongst them. She places her hand on her belly expecting to pet Charlie, but nothing. She sits bolt upright in mild panic, where's Charlie? She lies back down before she remembers she didn't bring Charlie with her. Maybe she'll go back to the alley tomorrow and see if she sees the little grey cat and see if the boys will let her keep her. Gail tries to settle her brain so she can sleep. Her body is tired but her head keeps circulating. Busy day. She finishes her uc, comes home and finds out she still has a girlfriend. Speaking of, Gail sits up again and grabs her phone. She sends a quick 'good night' text to Holly. Gail smiles when she receives one back pretty quickly. She lies back down again and falls fast asleep.
The next morning Gail goes back to Fifteen, she sits down with Luke and Steve while they each fill out various forms. As she writes more and more she is able to give them more information. She leaves the station around three, Steve asks her if she's going to mom and dad's, Gail just laughs, doesn't even answer, just laughs.
She drives to the alley where she spent five months. Isaac doesn't seem too surprised to see her, "I thought you'd come back for her." He hands over Charlie.
Gail smiles as the cat gets thrust into her arms. "Thank you."
"It's going to be quiet around here," Isaac says.
Gail shrugs her shoulders. "I have to go."
Isaac nods his head, "don't be a stranger."
Gail's not sure how to respond to that, so she doesn't. She turns around and gets back into her vehicle. She places Charlie on the passenger seat and drives away.
She goes to the grocery store to pick up some supplies for herself and the cat. She also doesn't want to go to the Stewarts' empty handed so she grabs a basket of freshly picked local apples, thinking who doesn't like apples, if Holly's parents have no use for them, Gail's sure Cindy can send them in the kids' lunches.
After dropping off Charlie in her room, she puts out a bowl of water and a cat toy for Charlie; she leaves the window to the fire escape open for the cat to explore her new surroundings, and shuts the door to her bedroom so Charlie doesn't leave her room. Gail returns to the Stewart house, a basket of apples in hand, she knocks on the door. This time Cindy carrying the baby opens the door, "you didn't have to knock, you could have just come in, everyone else does."
Gail smiles shyly, "habit," she says.
Cindy smiles, "good to see you again, how are you?"
Gail shrugs her shoulders, "fine."
"Good," Cindy nods her head, she passes Sunny to Gail and takes the apples.
Gail willingly holds the baby, happy to exchange the produce for the newborn. "We haven't met yet," coos Gail, "but I'm Gail and I'm amazing, but you'll find that out soon enough."
Cindy laughs, "come on in." In the front entrance Cindy yells, "Holly! Door's for you!" She looks at Gail, "she hated it when I did that when we were growing up, it would completely embarrass her," Cindy smiles at Gail.
Holly walks to the front door with a red face.
Cindy and Gail start laughing.
"What's so funny?" Holly questions.
"Nothing," Cindy retrieves the baby from Gail's arm, "it's time for a nap I think," she says to the baby.
Holly furrows her brow as her sister leaves her alone with Gail, "what was that all about?"
"Nothing."
"Okay." Holly walks closer to Gail, "hey."
"Hey," Gail smiles, this time her cheeks turning red as Holly places her hands on her hips.
"Want to go for a walk to the park?"
"THE PARK?" yells Will from the other room.
"CAN WE COME?" asks Rain.
"Guess we're going to the park," Gail leans in to give Holly a kiss on the lips. She pulls away leaving Holly with her eyes closed, relishing the feel. "CINDY!?" calls Gail.
"They can go, just make sure they're wearing sweatshirts," Cindy says from the kitchen.
"Then of course you can come," says Gail.
"Don't be gone too long, dinner will be in a couple of hours," Cindy reminds as she walks into the hallway with Sunny and a just warmed up bottle. Cindy sees Holly standing there with a goofy look on her face, "what's up with her?"
"I dunno," Gail shrugs her shoulders. "Let's go!" Gail walks out the front door followed by the children, she circles back to grab Holly's hand to drag her with them.
The children run ahead of the two adults who are walking hand in hand slowly to the park. As Holly watches the kids run through the fence and into the park, immediately climbing one of the play structures, she stops making Gail stop, she pulls Gail back to her. "Hey!" questions Gail.
"Hey," says Holly.
Gail smiles as she is now face to face with Holly, "hey," she says again.
"You said that already."
"You know I thought it sounded familiar."
Holly smiles and grabs Gail's face bringing their lips together. Not caring that they are out on the sidewalk, just enjoying the other, they continue to kiss, letting themselves get reacquainted with the other. The kiss starts tame, just a connection of lips, but after not seeing each other for months it quickly escalates, what brings them apart is one of the kids yelling, "LAST ONE TO THE SLIDE IS IT!"
Gail ends the kiss, resting their foreheads together, after a second she turns around and starts running to the jungle gym.
"Hey!" says Holly.
Gail turns her head, "that's not going to work twice Stewart!" Gail continues to run to the park.
Holly laughs and chases after her.
They get back to Holly's parents' house. Opening the door they smell the delicious smells of food cooking in the oven. Gail gets dragged into the family room kitchen area and gets introduced to Holly's parents. She gets invited back the next day for Thanksgiving Sunday for turkey and mashed potatoes and everything else that goes with it. They're told that dinner will be in half an hour and the only thing left to do is to set the table, Alfred volunteers himself and Will for the job, leaving the females in the family room.
Gail and Rain are playing 'Connect Four' on the floor while Cindy and Holly are sitting on a couch nearby chatting with their mom. Rain asks Gail, "can I call you Aunt Gail yet?"
Gail tilts her head to the side, "ummm….no, Gail is fine."
"But you're with Aunt Holly right?"
Gail looks over at Holly, hoping for the brunette to maybe jump in and, Gail doesn't know, do something, but nothing is said so Gail says, "…I am."
"Well, Uncle Bert is with Aunt Betty," states the child in a supposed to be helpful manner.
Two names Gail has never heard in her life, she once again looks to Holly for assistance, who helps out with, "Bert is Alfred's brother, Betty's Bert's wife."
Gail nods her head, "well…see…" she pauses to collect her thoughts. "I think I see where you're confused. Your Uncle Bert is with your Aunt Betty, but your Uncle Bert is married to your Aunt Betty, which makes her your actual aunt, like a real relation, but I'm not married to your Aunt Holly which means I'm not your aunt aunt."
Rain tilts her head to the side, "but Leo calls you his Aunt and you're not related to them."
Gail once again looks over to Holly for some assistance. Holly smiles at the blonde, "I love you," says Holly, "and if you want it, I don't mind the kids calling you Aunt Gail."
"What?" questions Gail, she shakes her head, she looks down at her hands, feeling her stomach flip, taking a minute, she looks back at Holly, "I love you too," she whispers, all shy, looking down at her lap, not really used to declaring one's love for another in front of everyone.
Holly gets up off the couch and sits next to Gail, she takes the blonde's head in her hands to turn her face towards her, "I love you and I know we haven't really talked about a future, but maybe one day, we can make that sort of commitment to each other, to be together forever."
Gail shakes her head, "Holly," she practically whispers, "I don't know how you can talk about this, I mean…I love you, I truly do, but this whole long distance thing is so tough, so tough, and…and I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this, and I only just got back. How can you talk about forever, when you live in another country, when you live in a different time zone, when we've really only ever spent a week together here and there…" Gail drops her head.
Holly nudges Gail to look at her, "my contract in San Francisco is almost up, I have three more months, and I was starting to look at what I should do next, where I should go next…and my mind kept veering back to Toronto. Back to my family, back to you. I still have friends at the lab and they mentioned that Dr. Franth was retiring so I sent in my application," Holly gets that lopsided grin of hers as she says, "and about an hour later I got a response that said 'welcome back.'"
Gail launches herself at Holly, encircling the other in a hug. "Are you serious?"
"Mhmm, yes I am," Holly's all smiles, "I love you Gail, and I want this to be more permanent and I'll be home in a few short months for…well…forever."
Gail hugs her tighter. "I love you," is all Gail can say.
After dinner is done, and dishes are cleaned, and everything is back the way the kitchen should be, Gail felt her phone beeping in her pocket, she excuses herself incase its Steve or Luke. She walks down the hallway close to the front door to open her messages. The first one's from Chris, "why is your door shut? Are you in there?"
The next one is from Dov, "Gail?! Why is there a cat in your room?"
The next one is from Chris, "Dov says there's a cat in your room, we shut your door again."
She texts them back, "that's Charlie." Gail starts to laugh, knowing that the two are going to be even more confused with that lack of an explanation and that's where Holly finds her. She asks Holly, "Ready to go?"
"Go?" questions Holly.
"Yeah, back to my place, so we can," Gail wriggles her eyebrows up and down.
"I thought we were going to stay here, we can," Holly wriggles her eyebrows up and down, "here." Holly steps into Gail's personal space, pressing her body into the blonde's, pushing her up against the wall.
Gail suppresses a gulp as she tries to say in a steady voice, "But your parents could hear us," Gail once again wiggles her eyebrows up and down.
Alfred comes into the front room with Cindy's coat, "ready to go?"
"No, wait this is just getting good. For being two educated women, they're code isn't that difficult to crack," Cindy says somewhat pleased with herself.
"Okay," says Alfred, "let's give these two some space. Good thing they're not rabbits."
"Rabbits?" Cindy questions, completely confused.
"Sure, when rabbits are trying to convince the other to mate, the one pees on the other. I don't want to clean up anyone's pee." Just then the baby in Cindy's arms makes a settling noise as she stretches her arms and brings them back in tightly across herself. Alfred leans down and wiggles his baby daughter's covered foot, "okay, maybe yours, but no one else's'."
Cindy leans over and kisses Alfred's forehead. "Goodnight ladies. KIDS!" She yells into the Stewarts' family home, "time to go! Grab your coats!" Alfred takes the baby to put into the car seat and Cindy takes a moment to put her coat on, slowly does, still feeling sore, she grabs her purse and diaper bag. "Goodnight," she repeats at her sister, but still no response.
"Come on Holly," pleads Gail, "your room is probably right next to theirs."
Holly presses herself into Gail, leaning as close as possible, she whispers into the blonde's ear, "it was, but my old room is now their office, I get the spare room in the basement," she nibbles Gail's earlobe and snakes her hand under the blonde's shirt trailing her fingers over her skin, "the staircase is on the other side of this wall that we can use and you can avoid hugging all my family members goodbye if we go right now, or we could stay here at the front door and I'd have to remove my hand from under your shirt so we could hug everyone and say goodbye and then go back to your place."
"Let's stay," agrees Gail.
Holly smiles and kisses Gail's earlobe, "okay," she grabs her hand, leading the blonde to the basement.
Gail gets up out of bed to go to the bathroom, "are you leaving?" Holly calls after her.
Gail wasn't planning on it, she looks at the digital alarm clock that reads six a.m., she has nowhere else to go today, "did you want me to?" she questions.
"No."
"Good," says Gail as she walks back into the bedroom. She takes up her spot next to Holly again, lying as close as she possibly can, her head on Holly's pillow. Staring at the brunette who has her eyes closed, "I love you," whispers Gail, getting tingles all through her body.
A smile spreads across Holly's face, "I love you too."
Gail smiles and nestles even closer to Holly, "good," she says again.
Turtle, all better now?
I feel like this is the end, I have a little bit of something else written for it, but generally speaking I think this is the end. So I'll probably be marking it as complete, I'm going to think about it for a day or two before I actually mark it as complete, I might just tack on something else, but I feel like it's a half decent ending and I can't seem to think out something else…regardless, thanks for reading, have a great day and stay safe out there.