Gail finds herself spending more and more time at the Stewart house with Holly. She tries to get back to the frat house everyday to see Charlie, but finds it a lot easier to just send a text to one of the boys to feed the cat. One day after work she stops in at her house and is greeted by Charlie at the door, the cat does circles around Gail's legs looking for some attention. Gail bends down and scratches the feline behind the ears, earning a purr sound. Gail finds herself taking a seat on the floor and the cat moving to sit in her lap. Gail loses track of the time and hears her phone buzz. She glances at the screen and sees Holly is texting her. Gail looks at the clock; she was supposed to be at Holly's by now, "where are you?"
Gail shifts Charlie so she can text with her one hand, "at my place."
Instantly, "I thought you would be here."
"I don't think I'm going to make it, I'm just going to stay here." Gail's thumb hovers over the send button, she kind of feels bad blowing off Holly, but she knows she hasn't been spending that much time with Charlie since Holly's moved back home, Gail knows it's the right thing to do, she hits send.
Those pesky dots appear on her screen then disappear, then the dots are there and feel like they're there for like five whole minutes, Gail thinks Holly is writing a book, but then two letters appear in their thread, "ok."
Gail sighs. "It's just you and me tonight Charlie," Gail gives one last pat and stands up.
"Meow," Charlie follows after Gail, happy to have Gail home.
The next day, Gail gets called out into the forest to a potential body drop. She's working the perimeter with other officers, Traci and Sam are the detectives on this case and she allows them access to the scene. She continues to stand in the somewhat cold weather, not quite spring yet, buy you can feel the seasons are ready to change. Gail's just looking around, making sure everyone who is there is supposed to be there, a familiar head starts the trek up the hill. Gail watches as her girlfriend walks through the forest to her, Gail wonders why Holly brought her lunchbox with her. Once they are within speaking distance Gail furrows her brow and says, "hey? What are you doing here?" Gail doesn't give Holly a chance to answer as she continues through with her questions, "and why did you bring your lunchbox?" Gail looks around to see if her coworkers are watching her, but everyone is still busy doing their jobs, "now is not the time for a picnic, how did you even know I was here? Maybe," Gail reaches out to grab Holly's free hand, "on our next day off we can go for a picnic, but not right now. Plus it's kind of chilly for a picnic." Gail kind of whispers to her girlfriend, "you're not really allowed here."
Holly furrows her brow and smiles a lopsided smile, "yes I am, I'm the responding pathologist," Holly lifts up her red box, "I brought my forensic kit with me," Holly threads their fingers together, "you're not up to date on your medical jurisprudence, are you?" Holly decides to explain her job to Gail, "we need to determine the cause of death, I test the water for diatoms and if we find diatoms in the bone marrow," getting completely ahead of herself, "oh did you notice if the femur is still intact?" Gail shakes her head 'no', "I'll check later," getting back to what Holly was talking about, "if the diatoms match we know the person drowned, if there aren't any diatoms then we know the cause of death was something else, I'll need to consult with the forensic anthropologist, I'll grab some leaves, bugs, dirt so they don't have to come back. It helps in identifying the post mortem interval-"
Gail cuts her off, "why are you saying all these words?"
Holly gives her a lopsided smile. Holly has been back for a couple of months now and the two have yet to work together on a case, this could be fun.
Sam in the background, "all right, are you two done up there?"
Holly smiles one last smile at Gail; she releases their hands and walks towards the victim and detectives. After Holly has learned all she can from the scene and told the detectives enough to give them a lead, she's ready to go back to the morgue.
"Peck, am I going to regret sending you to the morgue?" asks Sam.
"No."
"Okay then go," Sam dismisses Gail without a second thought.
It's quiet in the morgue, Gail likes it. "Did you have a nice night?" asks Holly.
"I did..." Gail feels awkward, "you?"
"Yeah," Holly shrugs her shoulders, "it was quiet."
Gail's not really sure what else to talk about, "so what are you doing over there anyways?"
"Putting together a puzzle."
"What can you tell about the person?"
"He's a full grown male, probably early twenties, not archaeological, the bones are still greasy, a bit smelly you find?"
"Oh I just thought that was you."
Holly suppresses a laugh. She gives Gail more information which she passes on to Traci and Sam. Holly has provided all the help that she can for this case and is getting ready to wrap it up, "you doing anything tonight?"
"I will need to feed Charlie, the boys will have already left for their shifts already and wont be back until tomorrow morning."
"So, we swing by your place feed the cat, and then can I take you somewhere?"
"You going to shower first?"
"I think I can fit one in and even change my clothes, get this decomposing smell off of me."
"I suppose I can hang with you tonight then," says Gail with no expression on her face, like she's really doing Holly a favour.
Holly smiles at her girlfriend, finding it amusing that Gail thinks she's playing hard to get even though Holly already knows she's got her.
Sitting on the banks of Lake Ontario at Trillium Park, shoulder to shoulder, stealing the other's body heat, the two have a great view of the Toronto skyline, "it's beautiful," says Holly.
"Mmmm…"
"I missed it when I was in America," says Holly, "it shouts 'home' to me."
"Did you know that it is the fourth most photographed skyline?"
"Interesting. What are the three above it?"
"I don't know, I just read somewhere that Toronto's skyline is the fourth most photographed skyline worldwide."
"What do you think could be the top 5?"
"New York's is pretty iconic."
"Same with London England's."
"Thanks for clarifying that you weren't referring to London, Ontario," Gail says sarcastically.
"You're welcome hon, I'd think Dubai, with all those new buildings being built would be up there."
"How about Chicago and the Sears Tower?"
"What are we at?" Holly counts on her fingers, "five already and we didn't even say Tokyo yet, with Mount Fuji in the background, that's got to be up there."
"I don't know," says Gail, "according to the most pictures being uploaded to the internet, Toronto is number four, that's all I know."
"Well…I like our skyline."
"Me too."
The two continue to sit there watching the sun set over their city and the lights come on in the buildings as the sky turns dark.
"I have to leave early so I can go feed Charlie before my shift, the boys texted me and said they wont be home until the afternoon," says Gail as she slides into bed next to Holly.
Holly turns to face the blonde, "I wish you could bring Charlie here that way you didn't have to keep going back and forth to your house, but my parents wouldn't let us have a pet as a kid, so I'd assume the answer would still be 'no' if I could get a cat."
"It's fine," says Gail.
"I've started looking for places, my parents will be home soon, if I have to rent, I'll make sure the places are pet friendly, that way I can bring my two cats with me," Holly smiles into the darkness.
"Ha ha," says Gail.
"Meow Meow, that means goodnight in cat language, but you already know that," a soft smile on Holly's face.
Gail rolls her eyes at her girlfriend but says it too, "meow meow."