Gail was done her paper work early, Traci still had a stack on her desk, the brunette's phone starts to chime. "Shit," she says, "I need to get Leo from school." She looks at all the papers piled on her desk and sighs.
"I'm done," says Gail, "I can go get him, bring him back to my place, I wanted to decorate my Christmas tree anyways, he can help me."
"Would you?" asks Traci, completely happy to have Gail in her life, over the years Gail has become the sister that Traci never had.
Gail nods her head.
"He would love that," says the mom, Traci has been stressed out lately, between her mom's broken hip and Christmas, the detective feels like she's barely treading above the surface.
"Okay," says the blonde as she starts to clean off her desk, knowing she'll need to leave soon to get Leo. "You can pick him up at my house when you're done."
"Sounds good," says Traci, "you cooking tonight?"
"Oh," says Gail, "I wasn't planning on it…"
"It's okay. Steve and I will bring dinner."
"Perfect. See you tonight."
"Thanks Gail."
Gail heads to her car and drives to Leo's school, as she's waiting in the parking lot for his dismissal she sends a quick text to Holly, 'change of plans, I can't go to the Penny, I'm watching Leo instead, join us if you want.' Gail likes leaving the option up to Holly, sure she would love for the doctor to come over, but she wants Holly to make that decision.
She waits outside her car for Leo, "where's my mom?" he asks, always astute this one, he does live with two cops though.
"She had to stay late at work, so you're coming home with me instead."
"She's okay?" Leo asks, and once he sees the blonde nod her head he asks, "will Holly be there?"
Gail smiles, she's happy the boy likes Holly, she's happy the doctor has Leo's stamp of approval, "I'm not sure, I invited her, but she's also still at work, maybe later."
"Okay," says the little boy. Gail helps him into the back seat and does up the seat belt.
Gail turns on the radio to Christmas music in her car, "did you have a nice day at school?"
"Yep. We are making crafts for mom today."
"Oh, very nice, what is it?"
"I can't tell you, it's supposed to be a surprise."
"Ten-four," says Gail, knowing cop talk makes Leo laugh.
They pull into Gail's driveway and park in the garage; she helps him with the car door and grabs his bag from the seat. "You hungry, you want an after school snack?"
"Yes please."
"Okay, you go wash your hands and meet me in the kitchen."
After both Gail and Leo had their after school snack, Gail got out her Christmas tree and decorations. She quickly assembled the tree while Leo looked through the box of decorations. "What's this?" he asks.
Gail turns to look, "mistletoe." She continues to straighten the tree and put the carpet under it.
"Do we put that on the tree?" Leo asks furrowing his brows, "it's green like the tree, did it fall off the tree?"
Gail stands up and walks over to the boy, "no, we hang it from somewhere." She picks up Leo, "how about into the kitchen?" She carries Leo over and lets him hang the mistletoe from the door jamb; she continues to hold onto him and gives him a kiss.
"What was that for?" he asks, wiping his cheek.
Gail smiles, "when you're under the mistletoe with someone, you have to give them a kiss."
"Oh," he says, he kisses Gail's cheek and giggles. Neither heard the door open, but they heard it close. They turn to face a smiling Holly; she thinks the whole scene is adorable. "Aunt Holly!" Leo wriggles out of Gail's arms to go jump into Holly's arms to give Holly a hug, "did you come to help decorate Aunt Gail's tree?"
"I did," Holly smiles. She sets the boy down to take off her coat.
Gail has moved in front of the tree again, getting ready to start stringing the lights, "okay Leo, I need an extra set of hands."
Holly moves to stand next to Gail, she leans in and kisses the blonde's cheek, "thanks for the invite."
Leo scrunches up his face, "there's no mistletoe over here." Wondering why Holly kissed Gail. Gail and Holly laugh, kids. The three begin to decorate the tree.
A little while later Traci and Steve show up, Gail offers to help bring the food in, is she being helpful or is she just hungry. Gail stops between the kitchen and the family room, watching Leo and Holly decorate her tree. After dropping off her items in the kitchen also, Traci stands next to Gail, "thanks for getting him today, I really appreciate it."
"No problem," says Gail, "we've been having fun."
Traci smiles, "I see that."
Leo looks up from what he's doing, "ohhh, Mom," he says with a smile on his face, "you're under the mistletoe with Aunt Gail."
Both Traci and Gail laugh, "uh-huh," says the mom, letting her son play out his thoughts.
"Aunt Gail says you have to kiss whoever you're under the mistletoe with."
Traci sighs.
Gail laughs, "the kid's right," Gail closes her eyes and sticks out her lips comically, she hears Leo laugh, being silly with her family like this is worth it to Gail, she's at a point in her life where she finally feels comfortable with herself and doesn't mind getting laughed at in this manner.
Traci laughs too, "you idiot," she kisses the blonde's cheek.
Gail laughs but pretends to be offended, "Steve, did you hear what your future wife just called me?"
"No," answers Steve who was taking off his coat and laughing at Gail and Traci being juvenile for Leo.
"Future wife?" questions Holly, "did you two get engaged?"
"Not exactly," says Traci.
"But we've talked about it," clarifies Steve.
"So you haven't proposed?" asks Holly, looking for some clarification, not wanting to feel left out of the loop.
"Not in the 'will you marry me?' kind of way, but when we talk about our future, we see marriage," Steve says, who has walked over to his sister and gives her a kiss on the cheek since she's still under the mistletoe, Gail really needs to find a new place to stand as she wipes her cheek from where Steve's lips just were, once again making Leo laugh, the boy loves Steve and Gail's antics.
"So she's your future wife because you've talked about it?"
"Exactly," says Traci, "right, future husband?"
Steve smiles, "right." He looks at Gail, "actually…" he shrugs his shoulders at his sister and gives her a look. Gail shrugs her shoulders back.
"What are they doing?" Holly questions.
Traci looks up from hanging an ornament with her son, "who knows, sometimes they communicate like that," she rolls her eyes, "Pecks…"
Gail and Steve have switched over to sign language and then Gail leaves the room.
"While we are on the subject," Steve says, he walks over and grabs Traci's hands, "we have been talking about it, and I know you said you didn't want anything fancy," Gail walks over to her brother and hands him something, she walks off to the side to stand next to Holly and Leo. "I asked Gail for help, so if it's not what you were looking for, blame her."
"Blame her for what?" Traci looks over at Gail and then back at Steve.
"Traci, I love you, and Leo, and I love our life and want you to know I'm not going anywhere, and I know you said you didn't want an engagement ring or an engagement…thing, but I felt this need to at least propose properly, so…" Steve gets down on one knee, "Traci," he opens the box, "will you marry me?"
Holly reaches out for Gail's hand, Gail gives Holly's hand a light squeeze.
"Yes!" says Traci. She throws herself at Steve; Leo goes running over to wrap his arms around his mom and Steve. Gail walks over too bringing Holly with her since they're still holding hands; she wraps her arms around the happy couple too.
"Come on Holly," says Steve, "group hug, family hug."
Holly smiles and joins in too.
"Hooray!" says Leo, "Aunt Gail can be my real aunt now right?"
With tears in her eyes, Traci says, "she is your real aunt but yes, I'm marrying her brother." She pulls Steve in for a kiss, as a bit of a realization hits her, she's marrying Steve.
"Aunt Holly too?"
"Why do you want so many aunts?" asks Gail, hoping to not have to answer the little boy's question. Knowing her and Holly are still in the figuring it all out stage, but maybe one day.
Leo shrugs his shoulders. Everyone lets the subject drop since no one has an answer for the boy.
Gail's the first to leave the hug, "I bought some champagne for New Year's, but I can always get more." She heads into the kitchen and pours four flutes of champagne and a glass of orange juice for Leo. She passes them around to the smiling people.
Steve raises his glass, "a toast to my actual future wife," he says all smiley.
Traci smiles just as big back, "to my actual future husband." They all clink glasses. Traci waits for Gail and Steve to take a sip before she says, "to becoming a Peck."
The two Peck siblings choke on their sip and have to spit their champagne back into their glass. Traci smiles wickedly, she'll fit right in.
Holly smiles at all of it, she kind of feels out of place though, she quickly finishes up her champagne, wishes the happy couple well again and makes her way out the door with her coat in her hand.
Traci looks over at Gail, "why did Holly just leave?"
Gail shakes her head, "I'm not sure…" Gail quickly exits her house to catch up to Holly.
The brunette is standing outside her car in Gail's driveway, just about to enter it. "Hey," says Gail as she approaches the taller woman, "why'd you leave?"
Holly sighs and slumps against her car, "I just didn't feel right being there."
"What do you mean? I invited you over…"
Holly leans her head against the car window, "they're your family, I have no family, I'm alone again." She takes in a sharp breath, coming to a realization, "maybe that's why I couldn't officially break things off with Trish, why I was having such a hard time, because I'm alone… again…" a few tears escape Holly's eyes.
"Come here," Gail opens her arms, but Holly's not moving, so Gail goes there. "You're not alone." Gail wraps her arms around Holly and Holly tucks her face into Gail's neck, looking for comfort.
"Yes I am, the past several years I've spent Christmas with Trish and her family, and this year I don't know what I'm going to do. The last time I had to spend Christmas alone was when I found out my parents had died in that car crash," more tears fall from Holly's eyes; Gail can feel the hem of her shirt getting damp.
"Holly, I will always hold a space for you, you can spend Christmas with my family and I."
Holy scrunches up her face, "with your parents? That doesn't sound like fun; I have heard how you and Steve talk about them."
Gail laughs, "no, I wont make you spend Christmas with my parents, they like to do brunch with us and then they go to the country club with their friends for Christmas dinner. The past several years it's just been Steve, Traci, Leo and I. If you want you can join us…"
"You don't spend Christmas with your parents?"
"Believe me," says Gail, "the two hours with them for brunch is enough." Gail can feel Holly laugh.
"Rachel asked if I would spend Christmas with her and her family, she said I could come over in the morning and then they were all headed to her in-laws for dinner with her husband's siblings. But I don't know if I want to go to the in-laws. Chloe also said I could go with her to her family's house, now that she knows Trish and I are officially broken up she's being even more annoyingly nice. She said Chris usually joins them, I'm assuming Dov goes too, so I'll know plenty of people, but I don't know if I have the strength to spend a happy Christmas with happy Chloe, I feel like that would be a lot." This time Gail laughs, Gail's not sure she would survive Christmas with Chloe either. "I think Lisa went off south to some island or did she say out west skiing? I stopped paying attention, but she said I could join her, but she left yesterday, I don't think she meant it."
"Wow," says Gail, "I didn't realize you had gotten all the offers," Gail jokes.
"It wasn't the offer that I wanted though," Holly whispers, she hugs Gail tighter.
"Ah," says Gail, "you know you're always welcome here, I didn't know I had to formally invite you," Gail tries to joke to bring some levity to the conversation. "How about this, you go spend Christmas morning with Rachel, and then meet me back here and we will drive to Steve and Traci's together. It's never a late night, Leo crashes pretty early and I leave to let them spend some alone time together. We can come back here and watch cheesey Christmas movies."
"Are you sure?" Holly asks. "I don't want to intrude."
"You wont be, come back inside, help us celebrate Steve and Traci's engagement and I'll let them know you'll be joining us for Christmas."
Holly asks one more time, "you sure?"
"Of course," Gail kisses Holly's head, "they love you, you've become a part of our little family."
That makes Holly smile; she always wanted a family like Gail's. "Okay."
Gail and Holly release their hold on one another; Gail takes the older woman's hand and leads her inside. Leo, Traci and Steve are still decorating the tree for Gail. "You guys didn't drink all the champagne did you?"
"No, Gail, we saved some for you guys."
"Thanks, you're the best."
"I know," says Steve.
Gail rolls her eyes. "Peck and future Peck, Holly is joining us for Christmas."
Traci kind of scrunches up her face, "we already thought she was."
Gail gives Holly a look and whispers, "see." Holly laughs at Gail. "They probably like you more than me at this point," she continues to whisper.
"It's true," says Steve, who has his back to the ladies as he continues to decorate the tree, damn his detective hearing.
Holly laughs again. She gives Gail's hand a tiny squeeze. Christmas is a time to be grateful, Holly is grateful for the Pecks this year.