Part 15

Gail put her hand on the small of Holly's back as she guided her up the stairs to the top level of her bar. It was a relatively small place with seating downstairs for 30 with another 10 at the bar stools. There was also a small area on the ground floor that housed a pool table and a few arcade games. Up on this floor was a further four pool tables and a bigger TV than the flat screens below.

There was even a beer garden out back that the staff sold barbeque out from at the weekends, weather permitting.

"This is nice." Holly muttered eyeing the place as she made her way up the staircase.

Gail shrugged. She made good money from the students during term time and even from locals the year through. It was more for the beer drinkers and those hoping to catch sports games. Definitely not a family place although they did serve a range of bar food, burgers fries and the like.

"It does okay." She replied as they arrived at the top floor.

It wasn't empty, a group of about 8 guys were around the far side pool table.

"Wait here." She told Holly before approaching the group. They quietened as she stood there.

"Can we help you?" One of them asked with a cocky grin as he gave her the once overs and slapped his buddy.

Gail looked away and rubbed her jaw. It would be too easy to take out her lingering temper from the last few hours on these idiots but with Holly stood waiting behind her she was feeling surprisingly generous.

"Actually I'm going to do all you guys a favour." She explained with a smile.

"Oh?"

"I'm going to have to ask you all to leave this level but the pool table downstairs is still open and I'll even pay for the next round of drinks. What'd ya say?" She asked looking from one face to the other. A couple of beers was a small price to pay for some privacy with Holly.

One of the taller guys however didn't seem so eager to take her up on the offer.

"No thanks, we like it here just fine." He said as he lined up his cue and took a shot, sinking a ball into the far left side pocket. He then stood back up and looked over at Gail with a grin. "But if you like, you and that hot thing over there can come join us for the rest of the night." He said offered leering back at Holly.

His friends chuckled.

Gail bit her lip and stepped forward, her temper almost getting the better of her as she watched the way the guys in front of her started to eye Holly. "Yeah, I wasn't asking so much as insisting that you go down stairs or get the fuck out of my bar? That clear enough for you?" She asked him with a hard stare as she took the last few paces that took her to the loudmouth guy's face.

His friends shifted away from them.

"Now, would you like me to forget that you're an asshole and take your friends and go get those beers?" She asked him politely.

"Those beers sound good, right Dave?" One of his friends said as he laid his pool cue down and started to make for the stairs along with the rest of the guys.

"Right." Gail said, watching them leave and making sure nothing was said in passing to Holly. Nothing was as the college students scuttle away. She looked back at the guy in front of her. "Guess that makes you the last man standing." She told him as she felt Holly slowly approach from behind.

Gail then leaned into him to prevent Holly from overhearing. "But just between the two of us, if you don't fuck off any second now I'm going to break that pool cue over your head and thrown you in the trash out back." She finished and smiled at him as she pulled back and slapped his cheek gently.

The guy swallowed nervously, his eyes flitting about for a second before he blinked rapidly and put down his cue. "Guess I'll go get that beer."

"Good boy."

He walked away from Gail making sure not to make any eye contact.

Gail smiled at Holly and put her finger up to indicate she'd be right back. She then headed back to the staircase herself and quickly descended. She chuckled when the guys she'd just sent down here spotted her and all froze as she approached the bar.

"Jonny, get a round in for these guys, on me." She said as she went behind the bar and picked out a couple of beers for herself and Holly. She also swiped a couple of bags of chips.

"Sure thing boss." The bar tender said and went over to the group waiting and asked what they wanted.

"Oh, and Jonny?" Gail said as she was leaving the bar. Her employee looked over at her. "Upstairs is closed off, okay?"

He nodded.

Gail took her spoils and headed back up to Holly, only stopping to quickly pull across the rope with the closed sign at the bottom of the staircase.

When she got back up to the top she was pleasantly surprised that Holly had a game already set up. She handed over a beer and bumped the rest of what she'd brought on the nearest table.

"You didn't have to do that."

"Do what?" Gail asked pleading innocent.

Holly shook her head and held out a pool cue. "You play much?" She asked knowing she hadn't played since undergrad.

Gail winked at the brunette and took the cue before lining up the first shot. "Maybe a little." She muttered before looking at Holly while snapping the cue and sending the cue ball cracking into the rest of the balls at the other end of the table.

Holly watched as three balls ended up in pockets. "So I'm playing with a shark?" She asked although the answer seemed pretty clear.

Gail grinned as she pointed to a solid ball and proceeded to then hit it into the pocket it was in line with. She listened to Holly chuckle as she shifted around the table to pick out her next shot. "That's Gail-shark to you Doc."

Holly shook her head as she watched Gail practically clear the table. Finally with all of her balls still on the table bar one, Gail missed, allowing her onto the table for the first time.

"You're turn." Gail said as she reached for her beer.

"You're so kind." Holly muttered as she passed Gail and stole her beer as she studied the table to determine her shot.

"Hey!" Gail scowled at Holly.

Holly swallowed down a mouthful of Gail's beer. "Head injury? Remember?" She said before she took her shot.

Gail huffed but relented and grabbed for a packet of chips and hopped up to sit on the table to watch Holly play.

Because Gail only had two balls left on the table it was actually easier for Holly to sink a few of her own as the table was less crowded and the pockets were all open.

"So how are you?" Gail asked once Holly was half way done with her beer. Holly eyed her before sinking another of her balls. "After the whole, bang, thing." She clarified, making a gun with her hand just to convey her meaning properly.

Holly rolled her eyes. "Yeah Gail, I got that." She said before lining up another shot which would take her level with the blonde only to have her ball bounce in the mouth of the pocket and spin off to the side. She pouted as Gail cheered and quickly studied the remaining balls to find her best shot.

Holly finished off the beer and leaned back against the next table to watch Gail take her shot.

"So?" Gail prodded before taking aim and sinking her target.

Holly shrugged when Gail looked back over to her as she eased around the table for her next shot.

"I'm not the one that cop was aiming at." Holly said.

Gail straightened and turned narrowed eyes at the pathologist. "What do you mean aiming?"

"The rookie, the guy with the gun? He was waving it at Romi." Holly explained.

Gail felt the air rush out of her lungs. Damn. She should have checked better on how Romi was doing. And she probably shouldn't have sent him to class after all.

"Romi pushed his arm to get the gun out of his face and it went off."

Gail dropped the cue in her hand, she really wished Holly had stopped talking. She walked over to Holly and took the bottle out of her hand and finished it off.

"Not a word." She warned Holly before returning to the table, picking up her cue and sinking the rest of the balls, even Holly's before sinking the last one. She then pulled a set of keys from her pocket and turned a lock on the side of the table, saving Holly another dollar as the balls all rolled out.

"I'll get another round in, you rack them up." She said as she headed back for the staircase.

xxxxxx

A few hours later and Romi was due to finish class and somehow the pool games had tied at 5 games each. Holly suspected Gail might have thrown a few games in her favour.

Not that she minded as she was enjoying teasing Gail over it. She'd even got the blonde to blush when she suggested that maybe the head injury was starting to impair the blonde's hand to eye coordination.

"Last game Doc, feeling lucky?" Gail asks as she sets down a fresh beer for Holly and takes the cue from the brunette as it was her turn to break.

Holly grinned and settled against the nearby table they were using. "Depends, do you feel like getting lucky tonight?" She asked just as Gail took her shot causing Gail to scratch it and barely send the cue ball into the others.

"Man!" Gail grumbled as Holly laughed and pushed her aside to take her turn at the table.

Gail shook her head and picked up her beer. She took a deep drink and tried to figure out if Holly was teasing her just to screw up her focus or if the older woman really was flirting with her.

Holly smashed the cue ball into the pack and potted two stripes. She sent Gail a grin and the blonde rolled her eyes at her. She then lined up another shot and sunk that as well.

Gail sighed and hopped back up onto the table she was leaning against as Holly let out a little cheer at herself. She was starting to wonder if Holly had been holding back earlier or if she just played better with a drink or two in her system.

"I think you've been leading me on Doc." She told Holly as the brunette smiled at her and moved around the table. "This might just be entrapment."

Holly guffed a laughed as she leaned down to take another shot, except a figure at the top of the staircase caught her eye. She straightened and cleared her throat, wondering what was going on now. She gestured to Gail that they weren't alone anymore.

Gail frowned and turned her head, spotting Dieter standing across the room. That wasn't good. Rolling her eyes and took another drink from the beer bottle in her hand before moving to stand by Holly.

"Be back in a minute, do me a favour and don't cheat." She said with a grin before backing away from the taller woman.

"Can't make any promises." Holly said as she watched Gail approach the man. She had a bad feeling in her gut. They were only sticking around to wait on Romi to get out of class and had been planning to grab food somewhere.

Holly had been hoping for a drama free evening and the chance to get to know Gail a bit better, she'd even hoped to get Romi on side after seeing how close the pair were. Even if she was still cautious about his brother.

She took a slow drink of her beer and tried to casually watch the pair without being too obvious.

"What are you doing here?" Gail asked although she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.

Dieter eyed the woman Gail had left at the table. "That's going to bite you in the ass."

"Watch your mouth." Gail warned as she narrowed her eyes at him.

Dieter shook his head then looked Gail over closely. "Today is going to be taken care of so why don't you take Wolf's advice and disappear for a few days?"

Gail snorted. "Yeah, sure."

"They'll both be suspended and it would be better if you just let my boss handle it." Dieter continued when it seemed like Gail wasn't interested in what he had to say.

Gail folded her arms across her chest. "Like he sorted it last time?" She asked him with a raised eyebrow. "Seems to me your boss can't make any promises, so don't expect me to."

Dieter put his hand on Gail's arm and leaned closer. "Don't do anything stupid Gail, you know how this works."

Gail pulled her arm free and glared at her friend. "Don't tell me what to do Diet, we both know I'll do what I want in the end." She answered him, not liking his tone or the veiled threat.

"Do you want arrested, and tossed in jail?" He asked her, keeping his voice low. "Because that's how this'll end if you do something stupid."

Gail clenched her jaw and glared.

"They'll back off after this, I promise, even Swarek." Dieter insisted as he tried to talk the blonde down from taking things into her own hands. "But you need to listen to me here and do what you're told."

Oh, wasn't that just the wrong thing to say.

Gail got into Dieter's face and jabbed her index finger quickly into the healing gunshot wound at his shoulder. "Don't ever try and tell me what to do Dieter, I'm not your CI and you aren't my boss. You got that?" She asked him as he winced and tried to back off from her. "So take your advice and shove it!" She told him before turning and heading back to Holly.

"Everything okay?" Holly asked as Gail took her cue back and went to take a shot.

Gail looked back and was happy to see Dieter had took off. "Yup." She replied before snapping off her shot and sinking her ball.

"You sure?" Holly asked again as Gail seemed tense as she took her next shot. This time it rattle off a cushion and spun away.

Gail sighed and stood back from the table. She wasn't okay.

"Who was that guy?" Holly tried to ask casually as she took her turn at the table. The guy was big and pretty scary looking, if Holly had to guess she'd wager he was one of Gail's criminal friends.

Gail picked up her beer again and took a drink from the bottle. "Word's gotten out about earlier." She told Holly with a resigned tone.

Holly blinked before taking her shot and sinking her ball. "That was quick." Holly had a few missed calls from Traci on her cell, even one from Gail's brother, but she wasn't surprised given that they both worked out of 15.

Still, she had no idea what she was supposed to say to either of them. She'd already explained to Gail the story she had given to the cops that she had been out at breakfast when she met Gail and Romi and had noticed Gail's injury and offered to pull some strings to get the blonde seen to quickly.

In return they'd offered to take her to lunch which is what they were in the middle of doing when they had been pulled over.

Gail thought for a moment then shrugged. "He's a cop so I guess his boss let him know so he would warn me off payback."

Holly coughed up the beer she'd just started to swallow. "He's a what?"

"Bravo!" Romi shouted as he came up the stairs and spotted the pair.

Gail grinned as Holly struggled to recover from that bit of information. She left the doctor to that and hugged Romi when he reached them.

"Winner stays on?" Romi asked after Gail released him and he tipped his beer at Holly. "Hey." He said smiling at her.

Holly managed a grin and shook her head as he started eyeing up the table, wanting to know who had what balls.

"You're losing Bravo!" Romi said with a laugh, not expecting that. Then Gail socked him on the shoulder and he caught a clue. "Oh." His grinned widened as he eyed them knowingly.

Gail rolled her eyes and pushed at him. "Shut up." She told him.

Holly shook her head and moved to the table to take her shot.

"You can take her Holly!" Romi cheered as he sat with Gail and watched Holly line up her shot. He grinned as he saw the way his friend was eyeing the other woman. Then he took in Holly. "You're lucky I'm gay." He muttered to Gail as he took a drink of his beer.

Gail smacked him hard in the stomach.

Holly looked over at them as Romi yelped. She raised her eyebrow at Gail but the blonde just grinned at her.

Gail watched Holly go back to concentrating on her shot before bumping into Romi with her shoulder and replying, "I'm lucky she's gay."

They both laughed and then cheered as Holly sank her ball.

"You're losing bad." Romi teased when what he wanted to say was that he'd never seen his friend look at someone they way she was staring at Holly. And the nice thing was that Holly seemed to be looking at his friend the same way. He shook his head and wondered how long before Holly was a regular figure around Gail.

Gail just smiled as Holly smirked at her and made another shot.

She might be losing the game but it sure felt like she was winning something.