Laying in bed still Thanksgiving weekend at Holly's parents' house, "when are we going to see each other again?"
"Well…I don't plan on coming back to Toronto until my contract is done, so if you want to come back to California while I'm still there, I wouldn't say 'no' to that."
Gail nods her head, "I could do that, will I be offered the couch again?"
Holly leans over to kiss Gail's shoulder, "only if you want the couch."
Gail huffs out a laugh. She grabs her phone from the bedside table to quickly send off a text to Oliver, "I'll take the three weeks." She sets her phone back down, "done, I'm off for the next three weeks."
Holly laughs, "what?"
"Oliver said I could take off three weeks, can I spend at least one week with you? If I stay in town I'll just end up going back to work early."
Holly laughs again, "okay. Sounds like fun."
"If there's anything you want me to bring back, depending on how much stuff you brought with you, I can bring back a couple of bags to help out or something," offers Gail, feeling like she may now be imposing on Holly.
"Yeah, that could work, I might have some clothing or some other stuff that I wont be using again."
"When do you leave?"
"Tomorrow morning."
"Want me to drive you to the airport?"
"That would be nice."
"I have some stuff I have to do in town for the next couple of days, if I can get a plane ticket for Friday, is that okay?"
"That would be perfect," Holly hugs Gail even closer, loving that she can do this again, enjoying the comfortable silence between them, but something has been bothering her, a question rolling over in her mind since June. "Can I ask you a question?"
Gail pauses, she absolutely hates that question, but it's Holly, she would say pretty much 'yes' to anything for Holly, "okay," she eventually says.
"How come you sent me that text?" Holly feels Gail immediately stiffen in her arms.
"Oh," Gail says simply, Gail knows exactly what text Holly is referring to, why did she send that text? "Um…" Gail's stalling, she doesn't want to express her insecurities to Holly, especially now, now that they've just gotten back together. "Um…" she starts again. Gail knows that this has been her best relationship she has ever had, she knows that what she feels for Holly is real and hopes they will always feel this way, she knows that this has been her most mature relationship, but when Holly said that they didn't really have a relationship, that cut Gail, it completely hurt her, and in typical Gail Peck fashion she lashed out in what she feels the easiest way by breaking up with Holly. Lucky for her, Holly didn't accept the breakup. Maybe Gail should voice this to Holly.
Holly turns Gail so that they are facing each other, "honey," is all Holly says.
Gail melts, that's all that it takes, feeling completely safe, knowing that what's so great about her and Holly is that they talk, they talk things through, Gail hopes they will be able to talk this one through, "I was afraid you were going to break up with me," she whispers.
"What? Why?" Holly furrows her brow.
"Something that you said, I probably took it the wrong way, and it's completely stupid, and I'm sorry," Gail spews, now knowing that that is the last thing that Holly would do.
"Oh, honey, I'm sorry if it's something that I said, I don't even remember," Holly was so stressed that week, the weeks leading up to the medical conference she had been spending long hours at work, trying to get all their experiments done in time for the conference, double checking and triple checking everything to make sure everything was in order, then she was so thrilled to see Gail and spend time with her without the use of a screen.
Gail doesn't want to keep talking about it, she's kind of over it, kind of, but they clearly need to talk about it if Holly brought it up after all these months. "You kind of said that we didn't have a relationship."
Holly tilts her head to the side, needing more information. Holly was slightly overworked that month and she treated the conference in Detroit like a vacation and may have slightly turned her brain off; she thought her and Gail were stable, but clearly she said something that set the blonde off, maybe Holly should have paid more attention to the blonde. But Holly remembers the police officer laughing and smiling and having a good time, Holly doesn't remember Gail annoyed with her or them.
Gail continues, "when I went to visit you in Detroit, we were sitting at that park bench at the river, and you may have said that we didn't really have a relationship."
Ah, Holly remembers saying that. Holly stares into Gail's eyes, "I love you." Holly doesn't continue until Gail says it back, reminding herself and Gail that they love one another, "I meant previously, how we met in a broom closet and how you got my number, you still haven't told me how by the way-"
"I can't tell you all my secrets," Gail plays, already feeling slightly relieved, talking things over clearly helping.
Holly smiles, "how we really didn't know each other, but it doesn't really matter now, does it?"
"No," says Gail, "it doesn't."
"Good," Holly leans over to kiss Gail, a reassuring kiss, a kiss to help calm both of their nerves, realizing how far they've come and how they still have each other. "We're good?" Gail nods her head, "good." One last kiss and Holly starts to move away, "we should head upstairs, my sister's family will be here soon."
"I need to go home and change," says Gail.
"You don't have to," says Holly, "you can wear what you wore yesterday."
"I also have to…do something," Gail wonders if either boy will have fed the cat, she also hopes neither of them will be there when she gets there so she doesn't have to explain Charlie.
Holly quirks a smile at her, "you going to tell me what you're up to?"
Gail just smiles at Holly and shakes her head from side to side; there will be other opportunities for Holly to meet Charlie.
Gail arrives back at the Stewart's house, this time she lets herself in. Cindy happens to be walking past the front entrance with a squawky baby, "what are you doing?"
"Yesterday you said I could just let myself in," Gail starts to explain.
Cindy laughs, "I was only joking, here take your niece," she passes an almost crying baby to Gail.
Gail accepts Sunny into her arms.
"Let's go outside," says Cindy.
"Can I bring the baby?"
"Duh, I don't want you to leave her on the floor next to the front door," she opens the door and walks out onto the front porch. "Come on Aunt Gail."
Gail walks outside; she's directed to sit in a rocking chair, "sorry about that."
"'Bout what?"
"The whole 'Aunt Gail' thing."
"Why would you be sorry about that? Gail, my sister clearly loves you, and you very much love her, you are great with my kids, I'm fine with it," says Cindy, happy to not be carrying a crying baby.
"Really?" of all her partners over the years, Gail can safely say she has never really gotten close with any of their families, awkward meetings-yes, but never even formed a relationship, even with Nick's and they were supposed to get married, the idea makes her laugh now, her and Nick getting married, but back then they were totally serious about it all, not a laughing matter. The baby starts to squawk in Gail's arms.
"If you rock your chair, the motion will soothe her and she'll probably start to sleep." Getting back to what they're talking about, "I have never seen my sister this happy before Gail, you make her happy."
Gail smiles to herself and whispers, "Holly makes me happy."
"Good," says Cindy, she looks over at Gail, "you seem like a person that appreciates silence," Gail nods her head, "perfect, I'm just going to close my eyes for a minute."
Gail silently rocks Sunny back and forth watching those little brown eyes struggle to stay open and then finally close, smile plastered on her face the whole time, completely happy.
Gail goes to San Fran again, her flight left early, they made great time with air currents pushing them to their destination faster. Gail exits the airport and looks at her watch, Holly wont be here for another hour and a half. Gail hails a cab and decides to just show up at Holly's. She makes it to the brunette's apartment, she's outside in the hallway and wonders if she should knock or let herself in, Gail never did give back Holly's key in January. She lets herself in, Holly's sitting at the kitchen table reading some article, she hears the door open and turns around, "hey?! What are you doing here? I was just about to leave to go get you."
Gail shrugs her shoulders, "if you want to go to the airport you still can, but I'll stay here if that's okay with you." Gail walks closer to Holly, "unless you were expecting another girlfriend to be visiting you from out of town."
"Nope, just you this week," Holly smiles and gets out of her chair; she walks over to Gail and pulls her into a hug. "Hi."
"Hi," Gail smiles.
Holly kisses her on the lips and hugs her again, giving her a squeeze. "How are you?"
"Fine, I feel all icky from the airplane," Gail scrunches up her face.
"And you kind of smell," Holly says.
"I thought that was just you," Gail says.
The two smile at each other, Holly pushes her away and orders, "go shower."
"Gladly," says Gail as she grabs her bag and starts to walk with it to Holly's room. "I'm not sleeping on the couch," she reminds the brunette.
After her shower, Gail finds Holly still sitting in her kitchen chair. Gail pulls the chair out so she has space to sit in Holly's lap. "Hey."
"Hey." Gail throws her arms over Holly's shoulders.
"Did you get everything done that you needed to in Toronto? All you secret activities?"
Pfft, secret activities, Gail needed to make sure that the boys would watch Charlie for her while she was out of town, Steve also dragged her to their parents house for a family check in, they call it dinner but Gail thinks of it as a check in, where Gail was reminded that she needs to bring Holly by when she comes back home…for good, of course her mom would know that Holly got hired as a medical examiner again, "yup," Gail says not going to elaborate on what she was up to, "this is a really nice top."
"Thanks, I haven't changed from work yet."
"Do you always show this much cleavage?"
"I've actually been told that it's the perfect amount," Holly smiles as she quotes Gail.
"Oh?" questions Gail.
"Yes," Holly leans over to kiss Gail. The kiss starts tame, just a connection of lips, but after not seeing each other for a couple of days it quickly escalates. Gail moves her arms from over Holly's shoulders so that she can hold her face. She trails her hands over Holly's neck to her shoulders and down to the collar of Holly's shirt, she grabs the lapel on both sides and is about to give a pull, when Holly stops her, placing her hands on top of Gail's, "please don't ruin my shirt."
"You don't let me have any fun," says Gail against Holly's lips.
Holly throws her head back to laugh. Gail pounces on Holly's now available neck to kiss. "No fun eh?" Holly hums at the feeling of Gail's lips on her neck.
Holly and Gail are out for a walk, heading to some sort of outdoor market, Gail keeps noticing Holly looking over at Gail and smiling. After about the fourth time Gail finally asks, "what?"
"Nothing," Holly tries to evade the question, but obviously that's not going to work with Gail.
"It can't be nothing," insists Gail, stopping their walk and forcing Holly to look at her, "tell me."
"I just can't believe that you're here, that you're back," whispers Holly.
"Oh," says Gail, she patiently waits for Holly to continue to voice whatever it is that's going through her head.
"I missed you so much, I missed being able to talk to you, being able to see you, I think I kind of gotten used to not being able to touch you, but knowing that I could just pick up the phone and call you and hear your voice, I really missed not being able to do that," Holly shares with Gail.
"I'm sorry," is all Gail can think to say, she knows that it's tough on police officer's significant others, especially since there's really nothing that she can do about it.
"I just didn't realize how much I missed hearing your voice," Holly repeats.
Gail pulls Holly close, "I'm back now, we're back," staring into Holly's beautifully dark brown eyes.
Holly tries to force a smile, "I know," she whispers.
"Being a cop," Gail stops, she knows she needs to continue to talk to Holly about it, she's never really had to have this conversation with anyone before, she's only ever really dated another police officer, she plows ahead, mustering as much strength and courage as she can, "I know there's uncertainty with my job, if you ever need to talk about it, with me or with someone else, just tell me."
"Okay," Holly nods her head, she says "okay," but mostly for herself, telling herself that it's okay, that they're okay, that Gail's okay. "I don't know if I want to talk about it just yet, but maybe soon?"
"Whenever, whatever time it is, I will be willing to talk with you. I was born into the police force and I'm used to someone being away or getting hurt, half my childhood one of my parents wasn't at home, it's like they took turns or something." Gail shakes her head feeling like she has gone a little off topic. "And if you want Traci there or Cindy there for support or my friend Oliver, we can do that, cause I'm sure you have questions, and I have people who can supply answers if I don't quite know them yet, like what it's like to have a significant other as a police officer. Oliver has had two wives now and a couple of kids, his first wife couldn't handle it, and I want you to be able to talk to me or someone so that we can handle it…okay?"
Holly nods her head. She presses their foreheads together. "I didn't realize how hard that was going to be, not being able to talk to you or see you. I am so grateful that Traci continued to call and tell me how you were doing, even if it was very minimal. When I move back home I need to thank her."
Gail tightens her hold around Holly, "I gave her a hug, isn't that enough?"
Holly huffs out a laugh, "it will get easier when I get home, wont it?"
Gail slowly inhales, "I don't think I can answer that, we will have to wait and see."
Holly kind of grumbles, knowing that that was going to be the answer, but hoping for something else.
The two stand there for just a bit longer. Gail knows they need to think about something else, "okay," says Gail, she pecks Holly on the lips, "let's get going, I'm starving and the only reason I went on this walk with you was the offer of food at the end of it."
Holly smiles, she releases her hold on Gail and starts them walking again towards her latest find.
After spending almost two full weeks with Holly, Gail wanted to get back a day before she was expected back at work to get herself ready, Gail finally gets back to the frat house with two of Holly's suitcases; she leaves them in the front room. Dov gets home from work and immediately notices the new add-ons to their living space. "Uh Gail, what are those?"
"Suitcases," Gail helpfully answers, sitting on the couch playing video games with Charlie sleeping in her lap.
"Shouldn't they be in your room?" Dov asks, hoping for the blonde to actually move the suitcases from their communal living space.
"They're Holly's."
Dov gets a slightly worried look on his face, "is Holly here?"
"No, but she sent them home with me, she'll be moving back to Toronto in a couple of weeks," Gail can't help but smile, all happy and excited for the brunette to be close by.
Dov shakes his head slightly frantically, "she's not going to be living here…is she?"
"Oh," says Gail. Who has yet to really wonder where Holly will be staying. Gail starts to pet Charlie. "I don't think so…" but truly has no clue where Holly will be staying. Gail doesn't want to push Dov and Chris too far, they already let her keep Charlie without too much complaining, the boys took her in when she really had nowhere to go, she wants to keep their living situation amicable.
"I don't mind it when one of our girlfriends spends the night, but having the four of us live here all the time might be a little too cramped," he says honestly.
Gail nods her head, understanding completely, knowing that at times it is a little tight with just the three of them. "I'll ask her what she has in mind," says Gail.
Dov nods his head, "if she needs to stay a couple of day, I'm sure that will be fine, but it can't be a permanent situation."
I was going to start working on a sequel to 'new name', but I don't mind still working on this one, there's still plenty of things that can happen as some of you very helpfully pointed out. Thanks for the grocery list of ideas, I have written them all down and hope to add them in, I have already crossed off one or two in this chapter. I am going to erase what I wrote at the end of last chapter, once again thank you for your interest in 'meet and greet' and thanks for reading, enjoy your weekend