Another Guest: I stuck with rollercoaster182
"You excited?" asks Chloe.
Gail's driving their squad car, the two are paired together, it's mid-December. The streets are cold and icy and Gail's not in a very good mood. "Excited for what?" she curls her lip turning briefly to face the red head.
"Isn't Holly coming home soon?" Chloe furrows her brow, she feels like Dov had told her that, but maybe he was wrong.
"Yeah?" Gail's eyes are back on the road. Gail is excited, but she doesn't need her coworkers to know, more like doesn't want them to know, probably because she's been counting down the days, Holly is supposed to be home on December 29, just shy of two weeks to go. Gail doesn't mind if Holly misses Christmas, she figures there'll be more Christmases in their future the two can spend together, plus Gail usually ends up working on Christmas any ways, with all the other officers with kids wanting the day off, it doesn't bother Gail having to work it. But once again, her coworkers don't need to know that.
"She got hired with the morgue, right?" asks Chloe.
Gail's not sure where this is heading, but responds, "yeah."
"Is it going to be weird working with your girlfriend?"
Gail furrows her brow, "I don't know if you know this," Chloe turns to face Gail with an excited look on her face, like Gail is actually going to tell her something personal about her, "but, I don't work for the morgue, so technically my girlfriend and I wont be working together."
Chloe harrumphs and sits back in her seat; just then a call comes in across the squad car's radio, shots fired near the lake. Gail has never been so happy to be going to an active shooter call.
"Oooh, the lake, I love going to the lake," is all Chloe says.
Gail's doing dishes at the sink, last night's video game marathon with the boys led to some friendly betting, at first it was first person to die had to get the other two a beer from the fridge, as the night went on and the beers started to flow, the insults started to fly. The boys like the classic, why doesn't Gail ever do any of the cleaning, like why she never helps with the vacuuming or does the dishes that are piling up in the sink. So the friendly bets on who was grabbing the next beer turned into who will be cleaning the apartment on their next day off. Unfortunate for Gail she lost, and since she happened to have the following day off she figured she should make good on her bet and started to clean up the apartment. Gail woke up feeling fine, not hung over in the slightest; she saw that the boys' bedroom doors were still closed, so she decided to start on the cleaning. She started in the family room and picked up all their discarded wrappers from the night before, she took the blankets and pillows outside to shake and let the outside air freshen them up; she plugged in the vacuum and started to rid the rug and couch of fallen crumbs. By the time she turned on the vacuum, both Dov and Chris were in the kitchen rubbing their eyes, looking a little worse for wear. "What are you doing?" asks Dov.
"Cleaning," answers Gail.
Dov just sighs, grabs a bowl of cereal and goes back to his room, clearly not ready for all the noise of the vacuum. Chris sits at the table in the kitchen watching Gail, munching on his cereal he says, "I didn't think you were actually going to clean the apartment."
Gail shrugs her shoulders by way of an answer, she lost fair and square, plus she has spotted a fair bit of Charlie's hair throughout the apartment and felt since it is her cat, she should probably pitch in more.
"I thought you were going to try to make another bet with us so that we would end up cleaning the place."
Gail turns off the vacuum, "do you want me to clean or not?"
"No, yeah, you can clean, I have to go to work anyways," he tips the rest of his cereal into his mouth and sets the bowl in the sink for Gail to wash. He goes back to his room to finish getting ready.
Gail turns on the vacuum again and resumes cleaning. Dov's the first one to come out into the shared space again. He calls to Chris, "come on, we're going to be late!" He doesn't acknowledge Gail as he puts on his sunglasses and leaves, still feeling the remnants of last night. Gail wonders how much later the boys stayed up after she went to bed.
Chris comes lumbering into the room, "thanks Gail, you're the best."
"Don't go around telling people that," she says as she turns off the vacuum, ready to put it away.
Chris walks over to her and places a kiss on her cheek, Gail tries to swat him away, but lets it happen, "see you tonight," he says.
"Yeah, yeah," says Gail as she walks over to the sink to start running some water to get started on the stack of dishes. "Have a nice day at work," she rolls her eyes at the sentiment.
"Thanks," says Chris as he heads out the door.
Gail starts playing music from her phone, feeling that time passes faster with the background sound. Hands emerged in the warm water, scrubbing on who knows how old dried on food, when the apartment door opens again, without even turning around she calls over her shoulder, "what did you forget Christopher?"
No response. She feels two arms wrap around her middle and a familiar body press into hers. Big smile on her face, Gail turns around.
"I didn't forget anything," says Holly, a smile just as big on her face.
"What are you doing here?" questions Gail.
"Surprised?"
"Mhmmm, very surprised."
"My contract is up," explains Holly.
"I thought it didn't end until after Christmas."
"Since I hadn't taken all of my vacation time, they said I could take it now and leave early."
Gail hugs Holly. Charlie comes running in from Gail's room and meows. Holly loosens her hold of Gail, "are you still watching that cat?"
"I guess you could say that," Gail shrugs her shoulders.
Holly bends down and sticks out her hand, "what's the cat's name?"
"Charlie."
"Hello Charlie," Holly says and waits for the cat to creep closer.
Charlie looks up at Gail, wondering what she should do. Gail shrugs her shoulders. The cat darts away.
"I don't think that cat likes me," Holly stands back up.
"That's okay," assures Gail, slinking her arms around Holly, "I do."
Gail and the gang are at the Penny, having a couple of drinks, sort of celebrating Christmas since most of them will be working on the actual day, she's waiting for Holly to show up after her shift at the morgue. Since Holly was in town sooner, she wanted to familiarize herself with the lab again, so she went in, and the morgue figured if she's there anyways, why not let her start early. Gail's phone's screen lights up, she picks it up, a text from Holly: "I'm behind you."
Gail throws her head backwards, viewing the world upside down, she sees Holly at the bar holding a drink, "want to join us?" smile plastered on her face.
Steve, sitting next to Gail, says, "what are you doing? Don't you have a girlfriend?"
"There isn't any room for another chair," says Holly.
"You could sit in my lap," offers Gail, pushing her chair out to make room for Holly. Steve punches Gail. She turns to face him, "what the hell Steve!"
"What are you doing?" he repeats.
Gail furrows her brow at him and shakes her head. Holly sets her drink down on the table in front of Gail, she sits in Gail's lap, Gail wraps her arms around Holly, making sure she doesn't go anywhere, "hi honey," she says to Gail.
"Honey?" Steve questions to himself.
Gail rolls her eyes. "Holly this is my brother Steve, Steve this is my girlfriend Holly."
"Oh you're Holly! Thank God!"
Holly, who's never had this reaction before, laughs it off, "nice to meet you Steve, in person this time."
Steve and Gail get a little red faced.
Holly looks around the table at the other police officers staring at her, she says to Gail, "I recognize some of their faces, but would you introduce us?"
"Why?"
Steve punches her again.
"What the fuck Steve!" Gal sighs, "fine."
Holly kisses her on the cheek.
"You already know Traci, beside her is Andy, don't tell her anything you don't want the world to know."
"Hey!" says Andy slightly indignant, "actually, that's fair."
"Next to her is my roommate Chris."
"We actually already met," says Chris, "we met the other day, I was the one who let you into our apartment, and I was the officer at the station when you came looking for Gail when she went undercover without telling you," Chris helpfully points out, smile plastered on his face.
Gail furrows her brow, "I don't know what to say to that, except sorry?" she looks sheepishly at Holly.
"It's okay," Holly kisses the top of Gail's head.
Gail smiles, "moving on, next to him is my other roommate Dov."
"Nice to meet you," Dov stands up and sticks out his hand.
"Sit down Dov, she doesn't want to shake your hand," Gail says.
"Which one where you engaged to?" asks Holly.
Gail laughs, Gail laughs heartily, "this is why I love you Holly, you make me laugh, I wasn't engaged to either of these two," she says with a 'what are you ridiculous' kind of voice and wipes a tear from her eye.
Both Dov and Chris look a little affronted, "what's wrong with us?"
Gail ignores them, "I was engaged to Nick, he's still on shift, you can meet him some other time."
"You told her about Nick?" questions Dov.
Gail gets a 'duh' look on her face, "uh yeah, unlike you and your girlfriend, my girlfriend and I have discussed previous weddings." Dov shrinks in his seat. "Moving on," says Gail, "and next to Dov is his girlfriend Chloe."
"You're beautiful," says Chloe, who doesn't seem at all offended about Gail burning Dov about her and Wes, "so is Gail, you're both beautiful."
"Price," says Gail, she then motions putting her fingers to her lips and says, "shh!"
Chloe mimes zipping her lips, locking them with a key and then throwing away the key. Gail rolls her eyes, like throwing away the key's going to stop Chloe from talking.
Just then Oliver approaches the table, "Peck!"
"Yeah?" questions Steve.
"Not boy Peck, girl Peck."
"Yeah?" questions Gail.
"You going to introduce me to your lady friend?"
"Holly, this is Staff sgt. Oliver Shaw. Oli, this is my girlfriend Dr. Holly Stewart."
"Are you an actual doctor?" asks Chloe.
Gail gives her a 'what the fuck' look.
"Nice to meet you," says Holly to Oliver.
"The pleasure is mine," says Oliver, shaking Holly's hand, "I've heard some great things about you Holly."
"Likewise."
"Wow," says Oliver to Gail, "you must really like me, talking about me to your girlfriend," Gail rolls her eyes at him, "well, I should get back to my table, I just wanted to say 'hello' and welcome you home."
Home, thinks Gail, as she tightens her hold around Holly, she likes that idea, Holly is home.
Now that would have been a great ending, I feel like that that is an even better ending then the one I wrote the first time, but it's not the ending, I haven't finished the list yet, however, I did cross another thing off on the list with this chapter. Since it's not the ending, cue the classic Gail actually likes her friends scene:
Gail and Holly have spent over an hour or so with the gang at the Penny, Holly's still sitting in Gail's lap, Gail doesn't seem to be letting Holly go and get her own seat. "I like your friends," says Holly to Gail.
Gail kind of shrugs, "they're my coworkers."
"GAIL!?" says the table, who has overheard the conversation.
Steve punches her again.
"Ow! Fuck Steve! Stop doing that!" She rubs her shoulder, "you're going to give me a bruise, fine, they're my friends, happy?"
"You love us," says Traci in a sing-songy way.
"Don't push it Nash!" glares Gail.
The table erupts in laughter.