Part 21

"Yes Sir, I'll be there in about thirty minutes." Holly spoke into her cell phone much to Gail's annoyance as the watched the doctor pace back and forth from the kitchen.

Holly sighed and nodded along to what she was told and eventually disconnected but the damage had been done. The good mood that she and Gail had managed to recover with Romi's quick departure was gone now, especially after that phone call.

She bit her lip and pondered what it meant for her boss wanting to see her ASAP. Whatever the reason it couldn't be good.

"Sorry about that." She told Gail as she turned to see the blonde watching her. She tried to cover her worry with a smile but she couldn't help but wonder at being asked to come in when she was supposed to be on leave due to the trauma she'd experienced. Until she felt comfortable enough to return, or at least that was what she'd been told.

Now she wasn't sure about anything. She knew there was an internal investigation going on into the incident but she didn't think she was under any suspicion, her account had been mostly accurate and she had evidence to support what she had said.

So she couldn't be in trouble, could she?

Gail shrugged but didn't comment, her mind still working over the one-sided conversation as she studied Holly's reaction to it. It was something to be concerned about apparently, and Gail could think of several reasons why Holly could be called in to see her boss, and none of them made her feel happy.

"I'm surprised you picked up, aren't you supposed to be on medical leave? You weren't even meant to be here." Gail eventually said, trying hard to keep her tone merely curious.

Tucking her phone away Holly sighed then went over and stood in front of the blonde, her hands going to Gail's hips as she ducked her head to make eye contact. "It's not like I want to go," She grinned and tilted her head, pressing her lips softly to Gail's in some sort of apology. "But with the investigation still ongoing I guess I don't really have much of a choice." She continued. "They might even be asking me back to work."

Gail eyed the brunette carefully and saw the touch of fear in her eyes that she was trying to keep hidden. She threaded her hand through Holly's hair and gave her a smile before leaning in for a proper kiss that was accepted with a chuckle from Holly.

To lighten the mood further Gail let her hands drift down Holly's body before pinching her butt.

"Hey!" Holly pulled out of the kiss and slapped lightly at the blonde for that. "Watch it." She warned with a shake of her head before moving away to retrieve her bag.

Gail tried not to pout as she watched Holly gather her things pensively. This wasn't how she'd planned to spend the day with the other woman. She understood going when called, she did, if Wolf or Anan asked her to go see them she'd drop whatever she was doing and go, even if it meant leaving Holly. So she got where Holly was coming from by going so readily but that didn't mean this sat well with her, because it didn't.

From a work load side of it Gail was sure Holly's absence was being felt by the rest of the staff, and she wouldn't put it past someone to try and play that to get Holly back quicker but something still didn't feel right about this.

She could see Sam trying to go after Holly, especially from that last look outside the station, but he'd never be able to do it directly. And Holly was too smart not to take a lawyer with her if she ever was called into 15 for any further interviews.

But hearing that damn firearm discharging into her car with Holly and Romi still inside was still taunting Gail along with that damn smirk on Swarek's face as he spoke to her in the holding cell.

Gail hated the idea of letting this woman, who looked right at home in her apartment, out of her sight even for just a few hours.

Holly turned and gave Gail a warm smile as she pulled her bag over her shoulder. "Guess that's me." She said hesitantly, glancing around for anything she might have left not sure if she'd be coming back here again.

Gail tried to brush her suspicions away, of course it was likely that Holly's boss simply hoped to talk the pathologist into coming back to work if she wasn't leaving the city. An opportunist taking advantage of hearing Holly was still in town. That was all that this was.

Still, that feeling of unease was nagging at her even as Holly made her way back over to her with a grin on her face.

Gail finally let out a deep sigh, accepting that her time with the doctor was over for now and crossed to the side table located in the small space by the door that was about as much of a hallway as she had. All one square foot of it. And grabbed her set of keys.

"I guess I should drop you off at your car then." She offered with a huff as Holly reached her and took hold of her hand. Gail felt a smile touch her lips and she squeezed the hand before passing over her spare leather jacket to Holly.

Holly took the leather, dropping her bag to the floor and quirking an eyebrow at Gail as she held it loosely in her hand.

"You're gonna need it." Gail watched the doctor reluctantly slip into the jacket before pulling on her own.

Holly shrugged her shoulders to settle the unfamiliar weight, pleased with the warmth it was creating and the smell of the leather. She grinned at the blonde. "You just might not get this back."

Gail snorted and opened the front door of her apartment. "Okay James Dean, out before your head gets too big for the doorway."

Holly pulled her satchel back over her shoulder and turned, flicking the collar up on the leather jacket before swaggering up to Gail and roughing up her hair as she made her way out. "Dye that hair and you could be the Fonz, James is way cooler but you gotta start somewhere."

Gail scoffed and sorted her hair back into some sort of semblance before locking up her apartment.

Holly leaned on the wall beside the elevator as Gail approached mumbling to herself with a cute scowl on her face that made her smile.

Gail pushed the call button then narrowed her eyes at Holly as she mirrored her stance on the opposite side of the elevator doorway. "You don't think I'm cool?" She asked softly, her arms cross over her chest.

Holly chewed on her lip. She didn't really want to admit just how sexy and cool she thought Gail was, or how much she wanted to be heading into Gail's apartment not out of it.

She shrugged nonchalantly as the elevator arrived and stepped into the car. "Maybe a little." She confessed reluctantly, showing Gail her thumb and forefinger about an inch or so apart.

Grinning Gail leaned back against the car wall after pressing the button for the garage in the basement. She reached out with a hand and snagged the strap of Holly's bag, giving it a tug to draw the other woman closer. "Only a little?"

Holly let herself go with the motion as she gave a nod in answer. "Small."

Gail pouted giving a final tug that ended with Holly flush against her body, only then did she drop the strap in favour of wrapping her arms around Holly's waist instead to trap her close.

"Tiny." Holly continued even as her eyes drifted to Gail's lips.

Gail let out a sigh, her breath brushing against the skin of Holly's face she was that close. They were quiet for a moment, and Gail used the time to study the doctor properly. Holly was beautiful, not in an overly obnoxious way that some women used for attention, but in an understated way that could so easily be overlooked.

The blonde wondered about the Holly she didn't know, the one beyond what was in her file. The one staring back at her openly and curiously, but with a soft smile on her lips as if she knew what Gail was thinking.

Gail wanted to know everything that was going on behind those glasses, behind those bright eyes and knowing look.

Bringing her hand up Gail cupped Holly's jaw, smirking as her touch caused Holly's eyes to flicker closed as she leant into the touch. She let out another sigh and as brown eyes met hers again she closed the distance and pulled Holly to her lips, her hand drifting around to the base of Holly's neck.

That's all the kiss was, a press of lips, but it was enough for one or both of them to moan and shift further into each other as their mouths gently started to dance together.

Holly kept her eyes closed as she pulled back and tried her best to gather herself, her hands shifting restlessly along Gail's back, itching to feel skin instead of leather. But she had a meeting to go to with her boss, and there was no way she was going to be able to look him in the face with her mind stuck in this moment.

She wasn't going to be thinking about sex in the same room as her boss.

Just no. No way, no how was that going to happen.

So she took a deep breath, kept her eyes closed and focused on the movement of the car down to the basement. And tried her best to ignore the hands squeezing her ass.

When she finally opened her eye she found dark blue staring back at her full of something that made her mouth grow dry and a groan slip past her lips.

Gail chuckled and pulled Holly back to her again. Watching her fight with herself after such a small kiss stroked her ego, and she wasn't ashamed to admit that. Before last night it had been quite a while since she last had someone in her bed, longer still someone she actually cared about.

As dangerous as this could be for both of them, there was just no way Gail was going to let Holly go, not for Sam, not for Dieter, or for anyone else.

And with that thought in mind she kissed Holly with a promise that this was far from goodbye.

xxxxxx

Steve could hear the shouting long before he turned the last corner on his floor as he headed towards the office he'd be using for this meeting, a meeting he'd only just been informed of himself.

He paused outside the door, Jo's voice bellowing through the thick wood as his hand hovered at the door handle.

"This is bullshit!" Came the blonde's voice. "This is my case. MINE!"

Another voice mumbled and Steve guessed it was Callaghan doing his best to placate his partner.

Clenching the file he'd been handed moments ago in Jarvis' office, Steve took a deep breath and closed down every emotional attachment he had over what he was about to do. This was his duty, his job, and he would step up and carry out every instruction he'd been given.

His mother had been very clear that this was all on him and that failure would bring his own position into question with internal affairs, who were already investigating the dock shooting to see if there were any leaks or inside information about the raid that got good officers killed.

Marcus Chzov had been Steve's informant and with his body pulled from the lake, questions were being asked. Hard questions that Steve didn't have answers to. He'd taken shots to the vest, so had Nash and Collins.

Even SWAT hadn't known everything about that bust until that last hour before they left 15. He was clean and so was everyone he'd worked with. But it didn't look good, not on 15 or on Steve himself, so the fallout was this, a last chance to get something against Wolf and his gang.

Even if that meant taking down his little sister.

He didn't have a choice anymore, he had to make this work. And now he had to go into this room, where his friends, his colleagues, not to mention his girlfriend sat, and present this in a way that gave them no option but to carry out all of his instructions to the letter.

Traci was going to have to use her friendship with Holly to get the pathologist on board as well, using whatever means necessary to get the job done.

He wasn't looking forward to the backlash that would no doubt cause to his relationship with the woman, the same woman whose engagement ring sat in his bedroom dresser drawer as he waited for just the right moment to propose.

He didn't even want to contemplate what his life would be like without her and Leo.

With an exhale he steeled himself for the job at hand, opened the door and walked through it with his head high, ignoring everyone until he had taken a seat at the head of the table and placed his file down, opening it casually before glancing over to where Jo and Luke were facing off.

"Sorry, am I interrupting, I thought I called this meeting?" Technically it had been his mother, but he doubted anyone wanted to hear who was really running the show. They all knew anyway. It was part of being a Peck after all.

Jo glared at Steve, refusing to sit back down even as Luke went back over to his seat.

"What is this bullshit?" She demanded as she kept her eyes on the younger detective. She'd spent years working through the units at 15 and at 27. Homicide was tough and only the best detectives stayed there long. This case was a career changer, federal agents had been sniffing around and she had a meeting scheduled tomorrow with one of them as a curtesy. If they wanted a joint operation then she could handle that, but not Steve thinking this was his case. She wasn't going to let anyone just waltz in and take over just because their name was Peck.

Steve looked over his file, pulling a picture out of it and sliding it across the table.

Traci and Luke both leaned forward to get a look before Jo picked it up.

"The other Peck." Jo scoffed before tossing the photo back down onto the table where it was pulled over by Traci to have a better look.

"Who is the guy?" Traci asked, seeing the male figure beside Gail.

Steve cleared his throat and leant his elbows onto the table. "SIU are going over this case, they're in with Jarvis and the brass right now. 15 need to get moving on this before it goes elsewhere." He used his most serious voice, and gave all three detectives looks to let them know that this wasn't a joke. "15 are one more incident from an all-out internal audit that will end with people either out of their jobs or facing criminal charges."

That made an impact as Jo slumped into her seat and the room went silent.

"Yeah." Steve said after a long moment to let those words sink in. "So, let's all get on the same page and get a result on this."

He waited for some sort of comeback but Jo was silent this time.

"Good." It was agreed, he was running this and they'd all have to pull out all the stops and just get the job done. He pulled out a few more pictures this time all of the same guy that had been with Gail.

"This is our target right now, we have intel that he is Damien Wolf's right hand man, goes by Dieter Schmidt but from what we can tell that's just an alias." He then pulled out more pictures and passed them around the table.

Traci gasped and looked at Steve in shock.

Steve kept his look hard even as fear gripped his insides.

Jo snorted and leaned back in her seat with a pleased look on her face. "About fucking time."

Steve narrowed his eyes at the blonde before glancing at Traci and Luke then down at his own copy. His sister actually looked happy. It had been taken last night as Gail entered her apartment building. They had long known where Gail lived but had never been able to get a warrant to get inside but that didn't mean they weren't watching the comings and goings.

He looked back to Traci who was still giving him a look of disbelief. "We need to have Gail work with us to get Schmidt, Wolf and every other lowlife that played a part in the murder of our officers at the Docks."

Luke swallowed hard and closed his eyes briefly before taking another look at the picture. It had been a long time since he'd seen Gail look truly happy. He guessed that was down to the other person in the picture.

Traci shifted in her seat. "I'm afraid to ask, but how exactly do you plan on getting her to agree?" She asked incredulously. With Gail's history with 15 the way it was that was just never going to happen.

"Easy." Steve said confidently. "We put her in a position where it's her only option, and you're going to use your friend Holly to do it."

xxxxx

AN/

BOOM!

Poor Holly though right?

Thanks for reading, until next time!