06.07 - Wanting

It's a curious, wanting, thing.


"The kiss was..." Chloe stopped and sighed. "I mean, what was your first kiss like?"

The first kiss was inconsequential. She barely remembered it, to be honest. Gail had been a teenager at best, maybe twelve? It didn't stick. In fact, she wasn't even sure if it was with Andrew, Greg, or Mitch. Probably Greg for the first kiss with tongue. She'd almost slept with Mitch before changing her mind. That had to be later then. The men— the boys didn't really factor in to her life, though.

Now. The first kiss with a woman was life changing. Gail knew that for certain, no shadow of a reasonable doubt.

Kissing another woman was unlike anything else in life.

The first kiss, a gentle, soft, unexpected press of champagne lips, had startled her. Not so much that she'd backed away or ran, but enough that her mind grabbed her with both hands and shook her. She'd not kissed back out of reflex but of a want that had never existed before.

Stupid questions and Dutch courage and the disturbingly intoxicating aura of a woman Gail barely knew. And then. A laugh. A joke. A quip. And lips against her own that felt like nothing else ever had before. And nothing since, excepting every time she kissed them again.

It wasn't electrifying, it wasn't a bolt from the heavens. It wasn't a crescendo or the raw magnitude of presence from music or art.

It was just ...

It was just a thing Gail had never thought could be hers. It was the world she was told, over and over, did not exist for a Peck. It was a promise for other girls, other boys. The happy ending. The fairytale. The celebration.

More over, it was something Gail didn't expect to feel again. Guilt she was familiar with. Anger, pain, annoyance, hate. But that weird burst of something ... Gail still couldn't name it. But it was what she felt with Holly. And it made her feel hope.

And then, drums in her ears, the lips were gone. A joke was made. And she was gone into the night.

Cinderella.

A princess again now, but then, that night, Gail had felt she'd been left holding a glass slipper. Well. Maybe a rainbow one.

And she didn't say a single bit of that out loud.

"I swear to god, Chloe," warned Gail. "If you tell me it was magical, I will taze your nipples off."

Holly, settled deep into the deck couch with her gin and tonic, snorted a laugh that was authentic and real.

Chloe, sitting on an Adirondack chair that Vivian had repaired at least once, giggled. "You don't have a taser up here." Then she paused. "Does she?"

"She does," said Holly, poking Gail with her bare toe. "Don't be an ass."

"Oh fine," muttered Gail.

"Seriously? You keep a taser up here?"

"No, she packed it," corrected Holly.

Not that Holly would tell, but it had been Gail's idea to drag Chloe up to the cabin for a weekend. After Chloe and Frankie had gone on a dinner date, and Dov had been an asshole about it, Gail had quietly passed Frankie a deep case and kidnapped Chloe. Best to get them separated for a bit.

"Fine!" Gail threw up her hands. "Kissing women rocks. They're awesome, I know. I do it daily. You kissed Frankie Anderson."

Chloe blushed. "I did. Oh my god, I did."

Clearing her throat, Holly captured Chloe's attention. "How long have you known her?"

"Since ..." Chloe paused. "Oh, when your brother was under investigation, and you had the Piri Piri Murder."

Gail snorted a laugh. "Oh man, that was when Frankie called you a muppet."

"Care to unpack," drawled Holly, amused. She didn't ask.

"Remember when there was the explosion at Fifteen and my idiot brother used Ollie's badge?"

Holly nodded. "Right. That ... was that a Peck thing?"

Gail pointed at Chloe. "None of this leaves the cottage. Deal?" Her friend (shut up) held up both hands and then made a zipped lips sign. It was old news and old secrets anyway, none of which were classified. And Gail was the keeper of the...

No. Vivian was.

This predated her, though. It was Gail's wheelhouse.

"So back when Oliver was suspended, after the explosion in evidence, it turned out my brother used Ollie's key card to get in to the room. He did it on our mother's orders, which I didn't know at the time, to make Oliver a suspect and see how trustworthy IA was." Gail sighed. "At the same time, IA was looking into me to see if I was on Mom's payroll."

Holly just nodded. "Fun times. Was that when Frankie asked you out?"

"Yup," Gail took a healthy sip of her beer and realized how awkward that was about to make things. After all, Chloe was sort of dating Frankie.

Thankfully, Chloe laughed. "She said she also asked out Holly."

They looked at Holly who chuckled. Of course Gail remembered that. "Frankie asked Gail out twice," noted Holly.

"Denied twice as well. It'd be like dating a mirror," she added. "A fun house mirror."

"I always thought you and I would have been better suited," said Chloe, teasingly. When Gail gagged, she added, "Opposites attract."

"She needed an intellectual," said Holly, smirking.

"Hey! I speak more languages than you do," countered Chloe with a giggle.

The banter went on like that for a while, just joking around and having fun. Eventually, though, Holly kissed Gail's cheek and went to bed, citing exhaustion, and Chloe made no move to go inside. So Gail waited.

They'd been coworkers for years. Chloe was the first cop to join Fifteen after Perik, which gave her a strange demarcation. Chloe never knew the other Gail. The one who hadn't nearly died. No, the only Gail that Chloe knew was who she was now.

At the same time, Gail only knew the Chloe of now. She didn't know the girl who was nearly chased out of her old precinct. The only Chloe was the goofy, confident, different one.

That afforded them a bit of special kinship. They'd met when broken. And that gave them a little trust they didn't often share with others.

Finally Chloe spoke. "Is this stupid?" Chloe's eyes were wide, wider than normal.

"You and Frankie? Not really. She digs you."

"The other thing."

Ah. Gail sighed and leaned back, looking up at the sky. "I didn't tell Holly, y'know."

Chloe didn't say anything.

It was a bigger, different question. Chloe was a cop who wore a suit, sometimes. Most of the time. She had a uniform she put on for events. It was similar to Gail, in that they both led a diverse group of detectives. But. For either one of them to advance further, it meant putting on a uniform again, this time with a white shirt.

Gail looked at her friend and asked, "You wanna be a superintendent?"

"I think I'd do a good job."

"It's four years out, Chloe. Most people start in on this right after making sarge."

That was, after all, what Dov had done.

"I know." Chloe put down her glass of wine. "I'm going to lose my edge, sooner or later," she pointed out. "There's ... a thing."

Gail nodded. She knew. "It's a knife's edge balance," she said to Chloe. "You hover on it, sometimes getting cut. Sometimes cutting. And then, one day. You can't do it anymore."

Being a cop who worked like they did, the time to hang it up came without as much warning as they'd like. One day they'd be able to face down gunmen, the next they would get the shakes. And there were lives on the line.

For cops like Gail and Chloe, who cared a lot about doing the right things and helping people, knowing when they were about to hit that limit was important.

Chloe looked at Gail seriously. "Am I losing it?"

It was a big question. Gail sighed and shifted to rest her elbows on her knees. "Yes."

Since Chris coming out, and the divorce, and since the gunman at Chris' school, Chloe seemed to be ... less. She'd handled the Safary case beautifully, but things felt different from the outside after that. They felt smaller. Like her heart wasn't in it the same way it'd always been before.

"Retire or step off the line?"

"I can't answer that one," Gail pointed out.

Chloe groaned and slouched. "Gail. You're the only person who'll be honest with me about this. Okay? Is it my nerves or my mind?"

Why did people always ask Gail about this? When Andy had decided to be more than just a patrol office, she'd asked Gail about the options. After all, Andy could have gone the detective route, or the road sergeant, but none of that was right. Andy would be following the paths her father had walked. And Andy had once worn her father's badge number. But Frank was right. Andy needed to walk her own road.

So Gail had stepped up and listened to Andy's fears doubts. Together, with Traci of course, they'd sorted out an idea that Andy needed breadth of experience. So they started her in juvie, which needed people who empathized, and then went to more and more departments. Including the ill chosen run with K-9. Which Andy had failed miserably, albeit entertainingly.

Chloe was different. Chloe had broken away from her designated path. Well. She'd broken back to it. Her mother was the path changer. Gaby Price was a fun woman. Like Chloe, she was sensitive to others. But unlike her daughter, Gaby felt everything far to closely. She'd quit being an officer very early on, after all.

Both Andy and Chloe (and Gail, shut up) empathized with people in pain. Andy bent over backwards to help them. Gail fought it off with sarcasm. And Chloe...

Chloe just knuckled down and helped.

Which gave Gail her answer.

"Nerves," she said quietly.

The tiny woman nodded and said nothing more. Nerves meant Chloe could still do the job, but she needed to change how she did it. Nerves meant she didn't have to give up the job she loved.

Nerves meant she could do this.

After a while, Gail told her to just leave the glass by the sink, and took herself up to bed.

Holly was awake, her voice soft in the late night. "Not retiring then?"

"No. White shirt, though." Gail paused by Holly's side of the bed to kiss her forehead and then went to shower. Her wife waited, eyes unfocused but blinking owlishly. "Hey, what's wrong?"

As soon as Gail was in the bed, Holly swarmed up and pressed her face to Gail's shoulder. They'd talked about Gail retiring, or like Chloe, stepping away from the line. Gail still felt like she knew what to do, and had the strength and temerity to do it. She wasn't afraid to make the hard calls. Yes, they hurt her inside when she knew she was the person making a call that could end in death but ... someone had to. And better her, who cared.

But Holly didn't bring that up. "I want to retire," she said, a voice so small, Gail barely heard it.

"Oh." Gail blinked in the darkness and then rolled over to look at her wife. "Okay."

Holly didn't look at Gail. She just pressed her forehead into Gail's cleavage. At another time, Gail would have made crude comments. "I'm tired, Gail."

Gail gently ran her fingers through Holly's hair. "Okay," she repeated.

"You said that already."

"Sounded familiar," Gail said and smiled.

A laugh huffed against her chest. "I'm serious."

"I know, Holly." Her hand stilled on Holly's back. "When we get back, we'll call the accountants, make sure we're all good. And then the lawyers. And then... you want me to be with you when you make Pete cry?"

Holly snickered. "No. I have to call the .. there are formalities. I think."

"Full retirement?"

"Maybe I'll consult now and then," mused Holly. "But the idea of getting up at 3 and going out to the field ..." She inhaled wetly. "I can't."

Ah, Holly felt guilty. "Hey, Hey, Holly." Gail scooted back and touched Holly's chin, trying to make her look up. "You've done way more than, you know, anyone out there. You're the most famous medical examiner in Canada. You earned retiring whenever the fuck you want to."

"I feel like I'm running away," admitted Holly.

"You're not. You're handing the job to people you trained. Look at Rodney, killing it? Look at your friends all over the country, who changed the fucking world of science."

Her wife nodded. "Yeah but... but there's so much more..."

"And they'll carry on your legacy and do it," Gail said firmly.

Holly sighed and didn't reply to that. She just lay in bed, cradled in Gail's arms, silent and thinking. Gail didn't disturb her at that point. After all, Gail had her own deep thoughts now.

She was older than Chloe but younger than Frankie. Her brother had retired. Maybe she should as well. But ... Gail didn't feel like she should yet. She still loved what she did and who she did it with. She loved solving crimes. Finding answers. And she felt, she felt strongly, that she was still on top of her game.

"I promise to tell you if I think you're slipping," said Holly quietly.

"You're not," replied Gail.

"I know. But I will soon." Then. "I think this is right."

"Well. Then you should do it," said Gail, trying to sound more confident than she felt.

Because a small part of her worried that Holly, without the job, wouldn't be as interested in Gail. That Gail was only so loved because they had a shared career and life. Did that bother Holly? Did she worry Gail only loved her for the mind as it pertained to work?

She didn't. Gail love Holly for everything. The mind, the caring heart, the calmness in the crisis, the hair cutting. She loved the way Holly danced when she was drunk and sang in the shower. She loved Holly's wit and depth of knowledge. And Gail knew none of that would leave. She knew Holly would write and study, just not be stuck hunched over a body all day,

Easing Gail's mind, her beautiful, brilliant, wife spoke again. "Plus you can keep me entertained with cop and lab drama that I don't have to clean up after."

Gail grinned. They'd be fine.


"How did he get in there?"

Vivian stuck her head in and craned it around to look at the small alcove. It was, indeed, a strange situation. The cavity in the wall was just big enough for a person, if they were small. The panel Vivian was looking in through, trying not to touch the body within, was about the size of her head.

If the dead man hadn't slumped down, his face would have been level with the panel. Maybe. Depending on how tall he turned out to be.

"Well not through this, that's for sure."

Jenny chuckled. "Is it really a body and not a dummy?"

"It appears so, yes." Vivian pulled her head out. "Why am I doing this?"

"You're ETF. Used to gross things."

Vivian rolled her eyes and poked her head back in. "I don't see any access ..." As she looked up, Vivian spotted a possible point on ingress. "There's a hole," she announced. "In the shaft above."

It was the most amusing call of the day. A dead body at the mall. Fine. That sort of thing happened all the time. Dead in the bathroom. Okay, a little weird. Dead man in the ladies room. Now it's peculiar. Dead man who was clearly dead for a long time in the ladies room at the mall.

"Gosh, it's too bad Dr. Stewart's on vacation. She loves oddball cases like this."

"Don't we all?" Vivian popped her head out again. "Okay, we're gonna need an extraction set up. Sawzalls or a circular will do. Of course that will get trace on the body, so they'll want to collect that as much as possible before hand. And it'll ruin any chance of figuring out what the hell he was doing."

"Are you sure it's a he?"

Vivian shot Jenny a look, but her classmate remained impish. Asshole. "Body appears male." She took her phone out and carefully shot a few pictures.

Behind her, Jenny mused aloud. "A thief maybe. He could have diamonds on him."

"Zebra," she cautioned, and toyed with her flashlight. It was possible, certainly, to be a thief, but the hole above the alcove made that unlikely. She looked back in, shining her light up, and frowned. "Has this bathroom always been ... cold or hot?"

There was a sound of paper shuffling, as if Jenny was flipping through her logbook. "Uh. No, but it always smelled bad. Most complaints of ... well ... extreme bathroom smell."

Vivian blinked. "Is that a quote?"

"It is indeed."

"Suddenly I understand why my mom never uses public restrooms," muttered Vivian.

"Peck Mom?"

"Yup."

"I'd believe it." Jenny huffed. "Oh hey, dispatch says the lab is on their way. Wonder what the delay was..."

"Dr. Chundray's running everything this week."

Vivian's parents were still up at the cabin. They'd gone up for a long weekend with, of all people, Chloe. The tiny detective had come back on Monday, but Gail and Holly wouldn't be back until tomorrow. Thursday.

Something was up, but Vivian didn't feel like pressing the matter. At a certain point, a person had to trust their parents knew what to do.

She stared at the alcove and wondered. Why would anyone hide in here? It wasn't very clean, it was a bit smelly, and it overlooked a slightly larger than average stall. But why? Vivian angled her phone to photograph the body, this time using the flash, and was surprised to see a coil of something rope like...

Rope. She looked up again. Then she studied the back wall. "Jenny, hit the lights, would you?"

"You want the lights off?"

Vivian nodded and stood up straight again, fiddling with her phone to adjust the settings. "Only if you want to see me do a magic trick?"

"Okay, now I'm in. Though we need to talk about how half our cases involve bathrooms."

A moment later the lights went off and Vivian toggled the blue light from her phone. It wasn't as good as a UV light, and Vivian didn't have a filter handy, but it would do in a pinch. Vivian aimed the light back into the alcove. "Whatcha see, Aronson?"

Her partner came up close. "A stinky dark cave."

"Look on the back wall."

Jenny was quiet. "Footprints?"

"And why would someone leave footprints?"

"Climbing... Wait. If the idiot was climbing in and out of the alcove, then he slipped and fell?"

Personally, Vivian would have gone ropeless. But there was no accounting for skill. "Looks like Chad here was a regular."

"Ew. Why Chad and ... Why?"

"Hanging Chad?"

"Fuck you, Peck, that's horrible."

Feeling like Gail, Vivian held out her hand to Jenny, "Give me your mini mag from your keychain."

Her partner grumbled but unhooked her mini mag flashlight. "Why are you making me use mine?"

"Because I'm the smart one today," drawled Vivian, and she carefully turned on the light and hung it off a screw on the wall. "Check this out." Closing the access door, there was a pinpoint of light that came through.

"What the hell?" Jenny gaped at her.

"Peeping Tom. He was watching women pee."

There was a pause before Jenny made a face. "Seriously? What the hell is wrong with people?"

"Hell if I know," confessed Vivian. Watching people pee was so far down her list of things to watch, it was non-existent.

The door opened and Dr. Ames spoke. "Do I want to know why you're in the bathroom, in the dark, with a dead body?"

Jenny swore and turned on the lights. "Peck was proving perversion," she explained.

Impishly, Vivian continued. "Pinpointing pricks."

Ananda stared at both of them. "I hate you both." But she quirked a smile. "Is Trujillo here or are you on your own?"

Oh yes, her mothers owed her money now. Marisol and Ananda has been flirting around each other for years. So had Chloe and Frankie, for that matter, but the older couple were a bit more complicated. Vivian held back a smile. She totally shipped Trujillo and Ananda. "I don't know if this qualifies as a major case," was all she said.

In fact, it was their classmate Lara who showed up to handle the case. With Vivian's discovery, the motive was identified and the prints would be run and the case would be solved quickly. About the only cool thing, in her opinion, was the rehydration of the fingers.

Weirdly, if she mentioned that to her mothers, those idiots would laugh.

There was no understanding them.


The room was filled with, mostly, men. And they were all in a state of panic. The three other women looked thoughtful, though they were relatively young. The youngest man was Pete Chundray, and he looked absolutely terrified.

"Ah. When?"

"That's why I'm here," Holly said, flatly. "Not tomorrow. I want to make sure Pete's as comfortable as he can be."

Beside her, Pete squeaked. "I thought I had, like, a decade."

Holly smiled at her second in command. "Less than half that, actually, would be nice."

The board members exchanged looks. One spoke up. "If this is about the recent on call debacle— "

"It is and it isn't," cut in Holly. Certainly having to be on call again at odd hours was not fun. "And I do plan on cutting that out as soon as you approve my budget requests."

One of the men squirmed in his seat. "We don't have the resources for two additional full time pathologists."

"You'd better. I do the work of four," she said coldly.

Beside her, Pete finally broke and snickered. Good. He was calm again. "I mean," he said by way of apology. "We are really understaffed. I thought the revenue from the new document room run by Drs. Aames and Ury was doing well."

The board men squirmed again.

Excellent.

Holly had briefed Pete slightly on her goals for the meeting. First up, she wanted at least two more full time pathologists. They needed to replace Ben, and she wanted someone to take the load off everyone else. Second, she wanted more staff. Wanda and Ananda's lab was picking up steam and they were making quite a bit of money off it. The Mounties and even the US FBI made use of it.

The third point, though, she'd kept close to her chest.

Holly wanted to retire. And not just part time retire. She wanted to be entirely out the door within five years or less. To do that, she needed to return to being a supervisory pathologist. Pete would lead the lab. She would help teach and solve cases. And then, soon enough, she would go to half time and then, finally, retire.

It was funny. Back when Holly had met Gail, her ten year plan was to get where she was sitting. Holly wanted to be at the table with the old boys club, taking them on and helping science change the world. And she'd done that, admirably well thank you.

Now it was time to begin the undoing. She could have just handed in two weeks notice, but Holly had too much pride for that. No, Holly was going to make sure the lab was in the right place, headed in the proper direction, and all her various schemes played out correctly.

"The Document Lab filed four patents since its inception," said one of the board members. A man older than Elaine. "I recall that being a stipulation to prove it's success."

"A stipulation, yes. One of them," countered another male board member. This was the young one. "But it also costs a considerable amount. And, no offence Dr. Stewart, but under your auspice, costs in the department have increased."

Holly was ready for this one. "So has the successful closure rate." She glanced at the silent man, the only non-white male board member at the table. "In fact, under my watch, we have become the highest rated forensics lab in the nation. In North America, we're just behind Langley, Quantico, Los Angeles, and Annapolis."

The woman across from her chuckled. "She's got you there."

"All that respect will walk out the door with you," said the old man.

"Has it for the Territory services?" Holly leaned back and smiled.

Because under Rodney, it was flourishing. In fact, he was on track to match her achievements. Honestly, Rodney was a better administrator than Holly, and she knew it. She was a better practical scientist, but he could run the ship tighter and better. And to that point, Pete was the same way. He was a good man, an honest man. He would do well here.

Holly saw the future for her lab laid out. Wayne would transfer to field collection and head that up, in lieu of Ben. That put Ananda as the trace lab chief. Wanda had the documents lab, with Ananda's assistance, but she'd need a full time staff. Thankfully there was a young man who was interested in that, and Holly had cherry picked him for Wanda. There was Taylor, who was quickly going to be the lead on autopsy work, and they had a dozen people who were generalists and specialists.

She'd hired a fuck tonne of geniuses and then wrangled them together into a group that respected and protected each other.

The simple answer to all of it was Holly had managed to set up a lab that was self sustaining. They lost people, they gained people, they taught people, and they were well respected across the world.

And yes, some of that would be lost without her. But if they played it right, the respect would carry on as more people realized what Holly had done.

And that, that was a legacy Holly would be delighted to leave behind.

As she and Pete left the building, hours later, he was very quiet. Guilt began to creep up Holly's spine. "I'm sorry," Holly said, unlocking the car.

"Don't be," he shook his head. "I would have given it away." Pete leaned on Holly's car. "I feel lucky."

"What? That I'm dumping this on you?" She couldn't help the laugh.

"No, that I got to... that I get to learn from you. And you trust me enough to do this." Pete's expression was a little overwhelmed and awestruck. "You're ... awesome, Holly. You're my ideal. And now, I'm gonna get the chance to learn how to do all of this?"

Holly blushed. It wasn't often people spoke like that about her. Except for Gail. Who didn't count. "It's mostly Ruth," she deflected.

"Figures."


Gail closed her eyes as the sports game droned on.

"If you fall asleep, I'm leaving you here," cautioned Holly.

"I knew you didn't love me anymore." But she opened an eye and was surprised to see Holly on her phone. "You aren't every watching the game."

"It's all over but for the fat lady singing." Holly gestured at the screen, which displayed a remarkably lopsided score. "Also Pete is still freaking out."

Gail smiled. "He thought he had a few more years, huh?"

"He figured seven to ten. That I'd wait until my kid had a kid."

Hah. Gail laughed. "Well maybe he's not as smart as I thought."

Holly shoved her in the shoulder. "Come on, grumpy cat. Bedtime."

It was odd to think that they were at that point of a reality. Retirement. Within four years, less if Gail's guess was right, Holly was going to be working, at most, a couple days a week. She'd write papers, teach at the lab, oversee autopsies, maybe get her hands dirty a now and then. But she was old enough and they were able to.

They were incredibly lucky, and Gail knew that. Not everyone got to retire these days. Most people never really did. Even Elaine did something that resembled work. She volunteered and made phone calls. Likely, Holly wouldn't just sit around the house and do nothing. Not that anyone did nothing. Even people who read and wrote were doing things in the world.

Just soon, soon Holly would do a lot less.

Except if she looked back, Holly had done more in twenty, thirty years than most people did in a lifetime. She'd done more than Gail had. She'd created a whole lab structure. Two. Two whole buildings full of people who had careers and were experts in their fields.

All of that was Holly. She'd changed the landscape of forensics in Toronto. Canada. Hell, the world. Especially with perfecting 3D printing of skulls.

"Hey, you know you're incredible, Holly?"

Her wife laughed. "I do, but what brought that on?"

"Just thinking." Gail smiled. "You should have a lot more awards, you know."

"Misogyny is still strong," Holly pointed out. "A lesbian doctor, brown, was never gonna get shit in the late twenty-teens."

That had been a very dark time. Up until 2020, there had been serious reasons to wonder if the planet was going to destroy itself. Serious wonder if humans were going to destroy themselves. Serious wonder if politicians were going to kill them all. There had been bright spots, but... yeah. A lot of nights, after Vivian went to bed, Holly and Gail studied the news and wondered what was going to happen to everyone. How bad could it get. How bad would it get.

She didn't want to talk about that. Too depressing, even though they'd all survived. "You know, you're not that brown. It's just comparison." Gail held out her arm and Holly giggled. "You ...there just needs to be a lifetime achievement award for you."

"There are a few of them," admitted Holly. "What would I do with an award like that, Gail? One more thing to dust." She kissed Gail's nose and went to shower.

But Gail didn't, couldn't get the idea out of her head. Why the hell not? Holly was smart, she'd given most of her life to Canada. Isn't that the sort of person who deserved that kind of recognition?

She went to the Internet and looked up the various lifetime awards people got. There were ones for the police, of course, and the medical association, but none of them seemed right, none seemed grand enough. Those were for people long retired, after all. Elaine had only gotten hers a few years ago.

There private awards, which were all well and good, but even Gail who had quietly coveted the Connaught Cup (a pistol shooting award from the Mounties), the real thing that mattered, the one that would keep Holly's name known to everyone, like the Leakeys and Salk, Blackwell and Curie, was the big guns.

No. Holly deserved something more.

So she made a list. She winnowed it down. She read and read and researched. And finally she turned to the person with the most connections.

"Mom, how hard is it to get the Pearson Medal of Peace?"

"Did you stop a war of which I'm not aware?" Elaine's dry humour filtered across the phone, fully intact.

"Not me, Holly."

"While that is imminently more likely, sweetheart, that one is a little far fetched."

Gail sighed. "I know getting the UN to pay attention sucks, but ... look, it says 'contribution to international service' and that's Holly. Jesus, she's protected King and Country, invented science and set up an internationally renown lab."

Her mother was silent for a moment. "Do you have a COM, dear?"

It still hurt to have her mother forget things. Gail closed her eyes and swallowed that for a moment. "No, I capped out at OOM." There was a possibility, when she got near retiring, that the crown would do something silly and push it. But it was unlikely. Gail didn't want it either.

"Why not the Order then?"

"Uh, Mom. Holly isn't a cop."

She could actually hear her mother roll her eyes. "Honestly, Gail. You're a horrible child. Canadian Order of Merit."

And just like that, the description jumped into her head. "Oh. For ... lifelong contributions in every field of endeavour. That could work. She has the RVO from Wills."

"I doubt she would appreciate you being so cavalier with the King's name."

"Holly or Kate?"

"Both." Elaine did laugh though. "An RVO would allow her to possibly jump over the membership and right into Officer with you."

"Awesome. So who do we bribe?"

"Funny," drawled Elaine. "I have some connections. Shall I?"

Gail nodded. "Yeah, Mom, that would be great."

Her mother made a happy noise. Elaine loved being relied on for the family, and Gail tried to make sure to include her as much as possible. Especially when it was something in her wheelhouse. "Alright, give me till Friday to have a plan."

Of course, Elaine did work fast. "Thank you, Mom."

Her next call was to Vivian.

"My intelligent computer child, I need you to make a digital album for Elaine."

"Hello to you too," said Vivian, sounding like she just woke up.

"It's four in the afternoon."

"I worked the night shift all week, including my end of shift guy in a wall." Vivian yawned loudly and then made a noise. "Digital album. What theme?"

"Her own history. The good stuff. Her MOM, her lifetime achievements. The shooting awards."

Vivian snorted. "Mom, I don't mean to be a dick, but doesn't Elaine have some non police awards?"

Did she? Gail blinked. "She was deans list in high school and college," offered Gail. "Oh and I think she had a cotillion thing?"

"You're useless, Mom. Gimmie the pics, I'll do what I can."

"I'll box them up and leave them in the living room for you."

Keeping things up and proper for her family was a trial, but Gail did her best. Thankfully, it was a team effort.


"Hey, I don't mean to be a pervert on your moms, but why is there a collection of questionable photos in this box?"

Vivian blinked and put the second box down on the floor. "Jamie, the only pervy photos I have of my moms is Holly the pinup girl."

To her surprise, Jamie fanned out a series of black and white photos of her mothers. There was Gail in her uniform with a lacy bra and nothing else apparently. There was Holly in sunglasses, Gail's leather jacket, and again with nothing else on. There was one that Vivian was sure was taken at the cabin before they'd installed the hot tub, so that predated her...

"There's a theme going on," drawled Jamie.

"I think Mom gave me the wrong box," muttered Vivian. She walked over and poked around inside. "Yeah. These are absolutely not Elaine..."

Jamie made a relieved noise. "Jesus, you scared me. I was terrified there was something Oedipal going on."

"One, ew. Two, I'm supposed to make Elaine a digital photo album of her life. Which... yeah, not so much, huh?" Vivian opened the second box and was relieved to see it contained photos of Elaine in uniform. Thank god.

Her mothers' kinks were one thing. Her grandmother's were another. Especially because that probably involved her grandfather. Vivian's brain derailed for a moment, wondering if Elaine even had kinks. Of course Vivian had speculated, privately, that Elaine would probably enjoy s&m, but ... ew. Bill Peck?

Her girlfriend put the photos back in the case and held it out. "Your moms are hot, though."

"Don't tell Gail. I'll never hear the end of it."

"No kidding," said Jamie and she laughed.

Vivian pulled out her camera, took a discrete photo of the Holly picture, and sent it to Gail with no comment. "Do normal people keep shit like this around?"

"You're asking me? Who the fuck uses film anymore."

That was true. "I'm not cool with pictures of semi-naked me flying around the Internet, by the way."

"Noted." Jamie sat on the bed. "Photos of Elaine. So she can be reminded of the past?"

"Mom worries she'll forget things."

Gail worried a lot. It was really endearing. Annoying sometimes, but endearing. Elaine's memory had been mostly alright, too. There hadn't been further deterioration, but the damage couldn't be undone. The gaps that were there remained, and the neural pathways didn't heal.

On the other hand, her uncle Steve was doing okay. His memory hadn't shown any problems, though his blood pressure and cholesterol were another story. With stroke and heart attack running through his family, Steve was at great risk for those diseases. His lack of physical conditioning didn't help.

Poor Gail was dragged, by Holly, to exercise more often. She was still, thank god, annoyingly healthy for someone her age and general behaviour. Well. That was part of life, Vivian supposed. At some point a person shifted over to being more in care of ones parents.

"Think Elaine would laugh at these? This one is tame, especially for Gail."

Tame? Vivian looked over and saw Jamie holding up another photo. This one was of a woman on a motorcycle with short hair and a leather jacket. And she laughed. "That's Elaine."

Jamie almost dropped the photo, she startled so much. "What?"

"That is Elaine before she got married."

"No way! She looks like Gail!" Jamie turned the photo a few ways, trying to see it better. It was old and fuzzy but Vivian was certain it was Elaine.

"Yes way. Those legs are not Gail. In fact... that is from her second year on the force. She was undercover with a biker gang."

"Oh my god. I need to hear this story!"

So Vivian told the sanitized story of Elaine's two months undercover in a biker gang, with Gail Santana of all people. Which led to Vivian explaining about how Gail was named. Which led to the story of Gail's birth and the miscarriage and a tonne of other stories.

In turn, Jamie told her about her dad's boxing career. Which Vivian really did think was cool. They even found some clips online of the man, though that was surprising.

"He's really different," said Vivian, watching a young Jason McGann waggle his tongue out at the camera following a win.

"He was an asshole back then," said Jamie. Her tone wasn't quite cheerful, but it was clear she'd long since accepted her father's past.

"I would not be okay with this Jason." She pointed at the screen, where a ref was pulling Jason off his competition.

"Me neither." Jamie shook her head. "Okay. Do you need to make this photo thing now?"

"Nah, Gail didn't say when, so she just wants it as soon as convenient. Plus I have to take the box back."

Jamie nodded. "Did you haul these on your bike?"

She had. "Strapped 'em to the back. They're not that big."

"Please take the top box," said Jamie, and she kissed Vivian's forehead. "I'm going to grocery store."

Vivian watched Jamie grab her shoes and head to the living room. It was odd, having a totally normal relationship. Like, she was like her parents. They did normal stuff. They coordinated errands and chores. They made lists and organized. They took care of each other.

It was ... cool.

As Vivian pulled her bike's top box out of the closet, and made sure the pervy photos of her parents fit, there was a knock at the front door.

"I got it," said Jamie. And the door opened. A brief conversation happened, and the door closed.

"Who was it?"

Bewildered, Jamie held out a large envelope, stamped from the government. "The courier said it was to prep for your interview?"

"My what?" Vivian took the envelope and opened it. And laughed. "Someone nominated Holly for a CM. Canadian Merit Award..." Vivian stopped and re-read. No, they'd nominated her for an officer of the award.

"That smells like Gail," said Jamie, knowingly. "Make a photo thing for your grandmother, help your mom win an award. Watch out. They'll sneak in something for you."

Vivian made a face. "Is now the time to tell you I'm on the short list for the MOM after saving the Princess?"


No, Vivian won't get the award. She's way too young for it, but it amuses her to be nominated.

And yes, Gail and Elaine are going to move heaven and earth for Holly. Like they should.

Jamie may never get the image of Holly in the jacket fully out of her head.