Holly's walking down a hallway to get to her office; she walks by her boss' office. "Dr. Stewart?" he calls out.
Holly stops and steps into his office, "yes?"
"Are you working on anything?"
"No, just some paper work. I finished an autopsy yesterday and-"
He cuts her off, "I need someone to go to the hospital, a police officer was shot and we need the bullet to be catalogued properly," Holly nods her head, "they'll be starting the procedure to remove it, so you can go over there now."
Holly once again nods her head, "I'll just go grab my kit."
Holly drives herself to the hospital, Gail's been gone for over three month now almost four. Traci and Leo have been hanging around their townhouse a lot. It's very nice of them, but in Holly's opinion unnecessary. If Holly wanted someone to hang out with she would just go to Cindy's, but the nice thing with Traci is she doesn't ask questions, Traci knows what it's like to be undercover and to have someone she cares about undercover so she knows how overwhelming it can be. Holly sighs; she's supposed to be going out to the Penny tonight with Gail's friends. Another nice gesture, but sometimes she wishes she could just go home to Charlie. Holly smiles, who knew she would start to think fondly about the cat? Gail was right; the cat is rather reminiscent of the blonde. She pulls up at the hospital parking lot; she grabs her kit out of the back of her car and heads into the building. She walks up to the nurse sitting behind the front desk; she shows her credentials and explains why she's there. The nurse directs her to the proper floor, the officer was pretty hurt when she came in and had to go into the surgery room to get the bullet taken out. Holly feels bad for the officer; she knows firsthand how unpredictable their jobs can be. She gets to the appropriate floor and once again talks to a nurse who directs her to the suite the surgery is taking place in. Holly puts on the appropriate gear before entering the room. Holly notices there are a couple of medical personnel in the room, surrounding a person on the operating table. She gets greeted by the surgeon holding some instruments, "hello…"
"Dr. Stewart," supplies Holly.
"Dr. Stewart, perfect timing, I was just about to take out the bullet form this officer's shoulder, you can step closer if you'd like."
Holly gets the vial ready to receive the bullet. She takes a step closer and stops. She recognizes that back, she's seen this pale naked back on numerous occasions, sure there usually aren't this many people in the room, but this back definitely belongs to Gail. Holly pales. "Doctor, are you okay?"
Holly has to shake herself out of it, she was there to do a job, collect the bullet. She muscles past her fears and walks closer. The bullet makes a clink sound as it lands in the vial. "Thank you doctor, you can leave now," the surgeon dismisses Holly. But Holly can't go; she needs to find out what happened to Gail.
"What else do you have to do to the officer?"
Even with all the protective gear on Holly can see the surgeon frown, "that is none of your business; please doctor, I have asked you to leave."
Holly desperately wants to protest, to stay in this room with Gail longer, but she also wants the doctors and nurses to get back to work and fix up Gail, Holly really has no choice but to leave.
Holly walks back to the nurse at the desk for this floor, "can you tell me what's wrong with the officer in there?"
The nurse looks at her, "sorry, but I can't."
Holly tries but I'm a doctor route, hoping from one professional to another maybe the nurse will talk. But no. "Will I be able to see her after surgery?"
The nurse is confused why this lady from the lab wants to see this police officer, "do you have forensic questions you will want to ask her?"
"No?"
"I'm sorry but I can't just let in anyone to see her."
"I'm her girlfriend," says Holly.
The nurse looks at the list in front of her, she shakes her head from side to side, "it says here her parents and brother are her next of kin, nothing about a girlfriend."
"So I wont even be allowed in to see her when she's done surgery?"
The nurse sort of shrugs her shoulders and shakes her head, "no."
Holly's frustrated; once again she really has no other option but to leave. She takes the bullet back to the lab and passes it off to some co-worker, knowing that with Gail involved Holly can't run the tests. Looking at the clock she realizes it's practically the end of her shift, she gathers her stuff and slowly makes her way to the parking lot her head swimming with thoughts.
Later that night Holly's laying on her back on the couch, Charlie jumps up and makes herself comfortable on Holly's stomach, Holly instinctively reaches her hand out to pet the cat. Steve called her to tell her Gail was shot and done with her UC. Holly already knew that, and figures Steve will find that out eventually when he sees her name on the evidence log.
Holly's been laying low, avoiding Gail's friends because they all want to give her a hug, but they're hugs that Holly doesn't want. She's also been trying to avoid Steve. He keeps apologizing to her, but Holly doesn't know what to say to that. Steve finally does find Holly a couple of days later. Holly's in her office and has nowhere to escape to. Steve's talking to Holly, he's trying to be casual, they do have a case overlapping, but as soon as they are done discussing it he says, "we need to talk, how come you haven't gone to see Gail yet?"
"I can't."
"What do you mean you can't, is it too painful to see her?"
"No…well…I don't think so, I'm not sure, but I'm not allowed to see her," says Holly.
"Oh. You're not her next of kin," Steve smacks his forehead. "She keeps asking me about you, but you literally can't see her." Steve thinks for a second, "well, I'm heading up there today, come with me, see if they even notice two of us going in to see her."
Holly pushes her lips to the side, "you think that'll work?"
"It's worth a shot," Steve smiles, "I can be very charming."
"You're going to try charming your way into seeing your sister?"
"Or distract. It's going to be one of the two."
"Distraction may be your better choice," Holly agrees to go.
Gail recognizes Steve's footsteps as he walks into her hospital room, "oh good, you're here," says Gail. She's facing the window, her back to the door, "could you help me lay on my back?"
Steve shoves Holly to go help Gail. Gail furrows her brow as familiar hands help her rearrange her position, "Holly?" says the blonde as she finally sees her girlfriend.
"Hi," says Holly.
"What are you doing here?"
Steve smiles over at the two, "I snuck her in. You're welcome."
Gail glares at her big brother, not wanting to talk to him. She's been stuck talking to him too much already.
Holly cups Gail's cheek, "I came to see you."
Gail smiles at her girlfriend, "took you long enough."
Holly rolls her eyes, "they wouldn't let me come in to see you, Steve was talking to the nurse while I slipped past them," she smiles a wry smile.
"Oh, well thanks then," Gail says to Steve.
"What are big brothers good for?" Steve sits on the couch and pulls out some noise cancelling headphones from his pocket. "I thought about leaving to give you two some time to talk, but I figured if I left and the staff could still hear voices coming from here it might look suspicious and they would come check. So I'll just sit here and you two can catch up."
"Are you always this prepared?"
"It's how we were raised," the Peck siblings say as one.
Steve adjusts the headphones on his head, "we only have an hour," he reminds the ladies.
Holly pulls a chair close to the bed, "what are you doing?" asks Gail.
"Grabbing a chair?"
"No," says Gail, "move me closer to the edge, please. Then you can lie next to me, please." Gail has the most vulnerable look on her face that Holly has ever seen, Holly can't say 'no' to that. Holly wants to protest, she doesn't want to hurt Gail, but she too wants to be as close to Gail as possible. She pauses for a second; Gail reaches out to touch Holly's hand, "we'll be careful."
"Okay," Holly says somewhat reluctantly.
They get all settled, Gail resting next to Holly.
"Our couch is too big without you," says Holly.
Gail laughs lightly, "that was the most needy thing I think you've ever said."
Holly pouts.
Gail rolls her eyes; she smiles and leans in to kiss Holly's lips. "I missed you."
"I missed you too," Holly smiles, tears coming to her eyes.
"What's wrong?"
"I really missed you; I didn't think it would be this difficult, knowing you're here in the city but not being able to talk to you…"
"It's okay," says Gail, "they wont make me go undercover for a while now, one of the pleasures of being shot," Gail trying to make a joke.
Holly furrows her brow. "I got to see you during your surgery," this time the blonde furrows her brow, needing more of an explanation, "I was sent to collect the bullet."
"Oh," is all Gail says, really all she can say. Somebody messed up and Holly shouldn't have been sent to collect a bullet out of her girlfriend's back, but sadly it's in the past now and it can't be undone. "Well, on the plus side, we were able to use the bullet against Lex and he's currently being charged for assaulting a police officer, which is allowing Steve and Luke some much needed time to get everything ready to charge him with everything else."
"Can I ask what happened?" Holly slips her hand into Gail's.
Gail shrugs her shoulders, then winces, realizing shoulder shrugs are not for her just yet, knowing Holly wont be able to work the case and knowing Holly is very good at keeping things between them, "Zander got spooked, he thought the cops were following him, and in all honestly, they might have been, for whatever reason he thought Jim was talking to the police, he went to fire his gun at Jim, I pushed Jim out of the way and got a bullet shot into my shoulder." Holly gasps even though she's aware Gail got shot, hearing it can be a whole other story. "They, I don't know, felt bad for shooting me so they loaded me into the truck and drove me to the hospital. Luckily one of the ER nurses recognized me from some other job related incident, she probably remembered my charming personality," Holly rolls her eyes, "she noticed that the bullet was still lodged in me, she was able to get me to a doctor right away, and she directed Zander and Jim to a private sitting room where I think Dov and Chris arrested them. It was nice of them to bring me to the hospital but also kind of stupid."
Holly sighs, "yeah." It's a lot to take in, "how do you feel?"
"Fine, the doctor's got me doing various exercises to strengthen my arm and shoulder. I want to be able to go back to work, to go back into the field, not just work behind a desk." Gail's a cop and will always want to be a cop, she's good at it and she likes it.
The two are quiet for a minute, lost in their thoughts, but truly happy to be with each other. Happy to finally see each other after what's felt like forever even though it's only been a handful of months.
"When can you come home?" asks Holly, finally breaking the silence.
Gail shrugs her shoulders, and once again winces.
"They haven't told you," Holly furrows her brow.
"They have," Gail says, evading the question.
"So? When?"
"Ah, come on Holly, I don't want to be a burden to you."
"Seriously? That's what you're worried about, burdening me?"
Gail looks away.
"Gail," Holly says, "Gail look at me," the blonde finally turns her head to face her girlfriend, "I love you and would rather have you at home with me helping you than not being able to visit you here."
That is true, Gail would rather see Holly than not. "Ummm…"
"Oh come on, I'm a doctor, I can help you if your wound needs changing."
"A dead people's doctor," Gail helpfully points out.
Holly rolls her eyes. "Gail…" she says again, "I can help you with your exercises.
"Fine, I was able to go home three days ago."
"Three days ago!" Holly says slightly loudly.
"Shhh! Keep it down, we don't want to get caught."
"Why didn't you tell me, I would have come to collect you…"
Steve stands up and stretches, he takes off his headphones, "it's been an hour," he informs his sister, "we have to go Holly."
"Just a second," says Holly, "Gail, I would rather you come home than stay here, I can keep an eye on you, you can heal at our house, Charlie is there." Holly tries to think of different reasons for Gail to entice her to come home, "I'm there."
Gail sighs and rolls her eyes with a smile on her face, "Holly I already moved in with you what more of a commitment do you want?"
Holly shoves her.
"Ow!"
"Oh, I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking," says Holly, quickly surveying the blonde, making sure she didn't actually hurt her.
"It's okay; I'm just a little sore, what kind of doctor are you, aren't you supposed to make people feel better not worse? And you want me to go home with you-"
"Actually, you deserved it, three days ago…sometimes Gail, I-" Holly shakes her head.
Gail looks at the clock, "ugh, it's almost dinner time, they wont give me a cheese burger," she pouts.
Holly's figured it out, "if you come home with me, I'll let you have a cheese burger."
"And cheese puffs?" Gail looks extremely hopeful.
"And cheese puffs."
"Steve, go get the papers, Holly's taking me home!"
Holly shakes her head, of course the reason to get Gail out of the hospital was food, should have tried that first. Holly will keep a note of that for future reference, hopefully she wont have to use it, but just to be on the safe side.