Part 34

Steve watched Traci typing up a report as he sat across from her waiting to take them both to lunch. "She's back at work today."

The typing paused then resumed.

"You could try talking to her." He soldiered on, fiddling with the cup of pens within his reach.

"I tried already." Traci bit out as she glared at her computer screen. "I took her coffee this morning. She told me to leave. Would barely even look at me."

Steve sighed. "Trace."

"Don't Steve." Traci warned. "She's got a right to be pissed. I would be too."

"Well if you lie downs with dogs…"

Traci stopped typing and looked over at him, shocked he'd say that. "That's your sister you're talking about."

Steve straightened in his chair and leaned over the desk slightly, lowering his voice after a quick glance around to make sure he wouldn't be overheard. "Yeah, Traci, my sister. Who is part of Wolf's gang, not just by association but an active player now." He reminded the other detective. "A criminal, a murderer…" It wasn't as hard to say those things about Gail now, not when he had to worry about what Gail and Damien Wolf could do in retaliation if Holly had let slip about the wire she wore in the café that day. "She's dangerous Traci. She's a long way from the rookie you remember."

Traci stared at Steve for a long moment then shook her head and leaned back in her seat. "Oh I get it now." Her head was still shaking, she gestured between them. "This isn't about me trying to repair my friendship with Holly, this is you trying to find out how much she's told Gail about what we made, oh I'm sorry, asked her to do."

Steve adjusted his tie and tried not to feel guilty. "No Traci, this is me trying to protect us, protect my family." He replied.

Traci laughed, not believing a word of that. "You know Steve, it's funny, Jerry was my fiancé but as much as I want to know why he died, I've never blamed Gail."

Steve sucked in a breath at the mention of his dead friend.

"Yeah I've got questions for Gail about that day but we all know the risks we take in this job, every day we know we might not make it home. That I might never watch my own son grow up." Traci went on as tears started to gather in her eyes. She didn't talk about Jerry a lot any more but she still thought about him every day. She sometimes wondered if he was up there somewhere watching all of them fall apart.

"Don't you think if Gail was going to come after any of us she would have done it by now?" Traci asked. "After everything Sam, and even Nick have done? They're still here."

"Nick's in the hospital." Steve reminded her.

"He's not dead." Traci retorted quickly. Despite Dov's theory to the contrary, Nick was adamant that Gail had nothing to do with his accident only that she was one of the reason's he'd been drinking so heavily.

Steve took a deep breath before asking, "Is that what it's going to take? One of us dead before Gail has to answer for her actions?"

Traci got up and pulled on her jacket. She was done with this conversation. "Be honest with yourself Steven, you, just like your mother, think Gail is your ticket to taking down Damien Wolf."

Steve sat back and stared at Traci. He couldn't very well deny that Gail was their best chance at bringing down Wolf's organisation. Even though he disagreed with how his mother had gone about it, it hadn't been such a bad idea.

"Maybe if you all stopped concentrating on Gail so much you might figure out how to do your own damn job Detective." Traci said before turning and heading out on her own.

Steve watched through the clear glass partitions as Traci left the station.

"I am trying to do my job Traci." He muttered to himself before reaching over and picking up the receiver of the phone in front of him and punching in a set of numbers. When the ringing stopped Steve's expression turned grim. "Can we talk?"

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Gail could feel eyes on her from the corner of the room but she didn't let up hitting the punching bag until her arms were exhausted. "What?" She asked glaring at Anan as she pulled her gloves free from her hands and tossed them to the floor.

Anan shrugged. "I think I liked it better when you just wanted to get drunk and get laid."

Gail tried to hide her smirk as she crossed over and picked up her water bottle that was sat on the weight bench Anan was on. "Not my fault you're old and can't keep up anymore." She said with a grin before taking a drink.

Rolling his shoulders Anan stood up and bounced on his toes. "We could always go for a rematch." He offered pulling his top off and flexing his muscles.

Gail coughed up the water she inhaled as she watched Anan beckon her over. She cleared her throat and wiped at her mouth as she glared over at him. "Don't make me laugh so hard while I'm drinking." She picked up her towel and tried to remove some of the sweat coating her body.

What she really needed was a hot shower but she hadn't decided if she was done working out or if she was going to get back to it. It wasn't like she had much else to be doing with her day but they'd been going at it all morning.

"Besides, your wife is still pissed at me for last time." Or at least that was the impression Gail got having been woken up yesterday morning on her friends couch by a glass of water being poured over her head. "Maybe you should go home." She replied with another smirk. "I think she misses getting laid too."

Anan grinned back at her having walked into that with his first comment. "What are you going to do if I leave you alone?" He should be at home with his wife and kids given he'd only gotten back to Toronto a few days ago but he was trying to keep Gail occupied. "The boss still doesn't want you working." He reminded her.

With the good doctor, Dieter and the Russians all giving Wolf a headache the last thing he wanted to worry about was Bravo.

Gail shrugged as she finished off the water. "Go to the bar, work a shift or just annoy my employees." She replied. "Kinda do what you're doing right now."

Laughing Anan picked up his t-shirt and pulled it back on. His wife would be happy to see him back, especially if Gail wasn't with him. "I don't know, maybe I should go see that brother of mine if I'm done babysitting you. See how things are with him. Maybe have a chat with any of his new friends."

"Oooh." Gail grinned fully wondering how Chris would cope with that. "Take pictures." She told him knowing how easily it would be for Anan to scare the crap out of Romi and Chris without saying a word. "Second thought, can I come watch?"

They both shared a laugh then started to collect their things. Before they could go anywhere they both definitely needed to freshen up.

By the time Gail was done showering Anan had already packed away his training gear and was ready to leave.

"Hey seriously though, you'll go easy on both of them right?" She asked wondering if she should maybe send Chris a warning text or not. Romi was on his own, payback for sending her a copy of her home security film. She'd deleted it as soon as she realised what it was in her inbox, not that she needed a copy, that night was permanently ingrained in her memories. She could replay it any time she wanted.

Anan tried to give her an innocent look. "Hey, I just want to check in and see what the kid's been up to while I was gone. Not my fault if he's feeling guilty about something." He told her adding a smirk as they walked out of the building towards his car in the lot at the back of the building. "You going to be okay? Need me to come back tonight?"

Gail shook her head quickly. "Nah, I'm a big girl I can look after myself." And if Romi mentioned she'd taken him along on a job she was likely to have Anan paying her another visit whether she wanted him to or not.

"You sure?" He asked one more time as he tossed his bag onto the passenger seat and got in.

Holding the door open Gail nodded. "Yeah. I'm good."

He gave her a long look then accepted her decision. "Okay but you know where I am if you need me."

Gail closed the door over as the engine started up reminding her that she needed to sort out getting her own car replaced soon.

She watched him drive off for a moment before heading back into her gym. She was having second thoughts about going to the bar, the last thing she wanted to think about right now was alcohol, like Anan said she'd indulged enough.

But she didn't want to head back to her apartment either, too many memories of Holly to be comfortable back there just yet.

And Dieter she had to leave to Wolf to deal with, not that smashing his face in wasn't still tempting but she also wouldn't be too upset if the guy 'disappeared' and she never saw him again. Cop or not she'd never forgive him for handing that file over to their boss. She knew there was no way an undercover's handler would have agreed to that or helped with it in any way. Which either meant Dieter was more organised than she'd previously given him credit for, or he wasn't working alone and he had help from other people.

Gail briefly considered the possibility of Sam and Dieter working together. But Sam liked to be in her face when he harassed her. He wanted her to know it was him, he wanted to enjoy his moments when he thought he had the upper hand with her, like making it seem like Romi had died in her car when Duncan had fired his gun into it.

No. She couldn't see them working together. And Dieter had been undercover for years, he'd already have a handler so dealing with another cop would be tricky. Maybe not now while he was still under but unless he planned for this to be his life now he eventually had to be pulled out. Three years was a long time to be on a job, twelve months was a tough assignment but lasting this long?

Gail could understand a lot of Dieters frustration in not having enough yet to bring down Damien Wolf. His team had to be close to pulling the plug on the whole thing, but a three year plus however long the planning took, that was a hell of a commitment.

But then Wolf wasn't just any criminal.

She still wasn't going to forget what he did. If he somehow survived long enough to get his uniform back, she'd be there to remind him that he couldn't just walk away like that.

Wolf might think Dieter was willing to have her killed because she was a problem for him and she could get that, criminals killed each other all the time for a larger share of the pie. But Holly was off limits, she was a civilian for one and for another she was Gail's partner. They might be criminals but even Wolf and his gang had a code they lived by, and hurting the family or lovers of someone they had a problem with went against that.

Unless Wolf had given his okay for it. Which is exactly what Dieter had tried to get to happen with that file on Holly.

And for that, there was consequences.

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"Overkill." Holly muttered to herself as she stared at the broken toes of the body on the table in front of her. It was her first shift back and she was doing her best to avoid the mountain of paperwork that needed her attention.

"I know right?" Callum, the junior pathologist agreed with a shake of his head. "But that's only the start of it." He hadn't even started the autopsy proper just marking down the external injuries and those were piling up. Every finger and toe had been broken or smashed with something heavy, two thumbs were missing as were the big toes of both feet. The forensic team at the scene were still looking for them but so far no luck.

"Someone wanted to torture this man for something he had." Holly said as she straightened from her cursory examination of the body and pushed her glasses back into place.

Callum hummed in agreement. Wondering if it was over love or money. So far those seemed to be the central themes to the bodies that found their way to them down here. Accidental deaths were high up there too but the rare ones were the naturals. They were normally only called in when there was something to question about the nature of death to begin with so those were few and far between.

But there was nothing accidental or natural about this man's death. The poor man had suffered a great deal with the injuries to his extremities only the start of the man's bad day.

The inside of his mouth had been burnt.

And he'd been alive through all of it.

"Do you have a name?" Holly asked, still curious as to why the missing digits hadn't been found yet. This seemed entirely too personal for it to be a ransom with a finger sent as warning for not paying.

Not that Holly had ever come across a case like that besides from watching a tv show.

"Actually we do, cop recognised him at the scene." Callum informed Holly as he reached for his notes.

"His name is Joseph Bennett." A voice answered from the doorway.

"Detective Callaghan, I didn't know this was your case?" Holly said as she recalled the location of the body being part of another division. Definitely not 15's area of the city.

"It's not, well it was," Luke muttered quickly. "I think it's connected to some other deaths so I'm handing it off to 27."

Holly scowled because with her deal not to take cases from 15 Division her boss had agreed to it only on the condition she did most of 27's cases. As interesting as this death looked to be Holly didn't want to have to deal with any follow up that might be required with the officers or detectives from 15.

"Okay?" Holly replied slowly, still trying to work out if she wanted to be part of this case or not. Callum had really only called her in for back up and to get her reading of what might have happened to the deceased.

It was going to be a long list and it could be easy to slip and miss something. Not see the trees for the forest sort of thing.

"He worked for Anton Hill, a pretty high up on the food chain drug dealing low life." Luke went on. "With the ID confirmed on the two burnt bodies we can assume someone either has beef with Hill and is targeting his people, or Hill's cleaning house."

"What burnt victims?" Holly asked not knowing anything about that case.

Callum's eyes lit up as he turned to Holly. "Alice was lead on that, had to get dental records, they were so burnt you couldn't distinguish hair, skin tone, eye colour- none of it."

Luke nodded. "Got a lead from abandoned cars first, then rumours on the street before the dental records got a hit. Now this one, they aren't trying to hide his identity at all."

"It's a message." Holly answered. As fascinating to Holly as these cases might be they now sounded like something a man by the name of Damien Wolf might be responsible for.

"Yeah." Luke agreed. "And it might not stop here."

Holly blew out a breath, frustrated, annoyed, and a lot concerned. She shook her head and pulled her gloves off and binned them.

"Where are you going?" Luke asked. He knew the case wasn't his although he was going to try and stay with it given who it was connected to. It'd be a career booster if he managed to help catch the person behind these deaths.

But someone that enjoyed torturing their victims this much clearly needed to be caught and caught quickly, which meant they needed the best working on it. And Holly Stewart was that as far as Luke was concerned.

"You said someone might be targeting the Hill gang, right?" Holly answered waiting for the detective to nod before explaining. "Then it could connect back to the Wolf gang, couldn't it?"

Luke scowled not liking where this conversation was headed. "We don't know that for certain yet, but it can't be ruled out at this stage."

"Then I can't work it." Holly replied. She wasn't going to compromise the outcome of a case like this. No matter who this victim was, there still had to be justice. Holly hated it when her boss was right.

"Why?" Callum asked quietly as Holly and the detective stared at each other.

Holly turned to her colleague but still caught the wince on Luke's face as he made the connection himself. "I'm personally involved with someone that could be connected to the case, I can't work any part of it."

Callum looked stunned at that.

Luke watched Holly leave the room. He wondered if the woman would come to regret that connection or if she already did, but there was no way to reverse knowledge of it now. The big building was fully aware that Holly Stewart and Gail Peck were together.

If Holly was going to step away from every case that might link back to Damien Wolf and his gang then it's very possible that the doctor was in the wrong job in this city.

He had no idea if Gail was involved in these deaths or not, and he wasn't going to ask. What he was going to do was his job and so was this department. He eyed the pathologist still left in the room with him.

"Well, do you have a cause of death yet?" He demanded to know.

Callum swallowed hard and eyed the naked body on the table between himself and the detective. There were so many marks and injuries to the body he hardly knew where to start looking, that had been why he'd sought out Holly's opinion in the first place.

Luke took the silence as answer enough. "Well let me know when you do." And with that he marched out too.

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Holly was seething by the time she called it a night and packed her things up and headed for her car.

It was one thing to take herself out of any involvement with 15 Division cases it was quite another to have to remove herself on what ifs, was that really all that was needed for her to lose a case? Just the possibility that Wolf's gang, and therefore Gail Peck by association, could be part of the crime then she was done working it.

She was one of the most senior pathologists in the laboratory and she often got asked her opinion on cases by other colleagues, especially when they were out of the ordinary. Holly was known for her problem solving skills and being able to connect things that might get overlooked.

But it seemed like her solution to keeping her job had been ill thought out. She wasn't sure she could deal with getting case after case taken away from her. Sure it would lighten her workload considerably and maybe even allow her to turn more of her attention towards her research interests.

It still hurt. To have her professional integrity called into question on a what if.

"I'm really hoping you're not thinking of me when you're making a face like that."

Holly snapped her head a round in the direction of the voice calling out in the quiet of the parking area. The secure, underground, parking area that was supposed to be for employees only.

"Gail what are you doing here?" Holly couldn't help but look around to see if there was anyone else in the parking area. There wasn't given how late it was, but there were security cameras dotted about.

Gail walked her way over to Holly slowly as she answered. "See that's the thing Holly, I don't want to give you space to figure out I'm not a good person to be around. Space is for losers Holly. And I'm too awesome to be a loser."

Holly leaned back against her SUV and tried her best not to laugh as the blonde pouted at her. "Stalking. Where does that fall on your scale?" She asked Gail, slowly overcoming her shock at seeing the other woman here.

Gail quickly shook her head to disagree. "This is not stalking, this is a meeting between two individuals that need to talk."

"I have a cell phone. Make an appointment." Holly replied with a grin thinking that had been a good answer on her part.

Gail sighed and shrugged. "You wouldn't pick up."

Now Holly grinned more as she folded her arms across her chest. "I couldn't have recognised the number. You should never talk to strangers." She explained. "You never know where that could lead."

Gail considered that. "True." She conceded. "I guess I should leave you to it then, if we're strangers I mean."

Holly bit her lip, she hadn't seen Gail for days, and just in a few moments the blonde had chased away all the frustrations she'd been feeling just beforehand.

She couldn't explaining it, as much as she thought she needed to, this desire to see past what everyone else in her life was telling her, that Gail Peck was not someone to let into her life.

Logically she understood that. She did.

But logic wasn't the reason for the smile on her face or the dread in her stomach at the thought of watching this woman walk away from her now.

"Gail." She pleaded softly.

The blonde stopped mid turn then waited before facing back around. And waiting.

"Space." Holly made a face a little lost between her head and her heart to be completely coherent right now. "Who needs it?"

Gail chuckled and looked to the concrete floor. Cheesy, but it made her smile and step closer to Holly.

"I mean if it's not working?"

Gail shook her head and took another step towards Holly. "It's really not."

"Then maybe you shouldn't, give me space I mean." Holly added quickly as she straightened with Gail's nearness and her heart started racing in excitement.

Gail took the final steps to Holly and they wrapped their arms around each other, but just as they get close enough to kissing Gail pulled back slightly.

Holly frowned and waited.

"Where are we on the stalking thing?" Gail asked.

Holly rapidly shook her head. "Just shut up and kiss me." She ordered.

And then they were kissing.

This was what Holly needed.

What she wanted.

And if her career suffered as a result then that was just going to have to be the price Holly was willing to pay.

Because this moment right here, was the best part of her day. And Holly wasn't willing to give this up. Not yet, not over what ifs, maybe not ever.

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AN/ Thanks for reading!