Part 39
Gail watched Holly close her bedroom door and quietly join her by the couch having just settled Emily into her own bed. They'd both changed the sheets while Emily had taken the bath Holly had talked her into.
And now Gail was left wondering how she'd also let Holly get her way.
"Why exactly do we get the couch?" Holly's bed was bigger, they were the adults and hell, it was Holly's apartment.
Holly rolled her eyes as she pulled up the sheet Gail had already spread out. "Because, Emily is the one covered in bruises and could do with a good night's sleep."
Gail gave her a doubtful look. Sleep was probably the last thing Emily wanted after the night she'd had. On the other hand if she did sleep through to morning without nightmares that might just be worse in Gail's opinion. Because what would that say about her experience with violence?
"What are you doing?" Gail asked as Holly ripped up the sheet she'd only just finished laying down.
Holly raised an eyebrow at Gail. "It pulls out." She said then reached down and demonstrated how the leather couch reformed into the size of a double bed with a quick pull.
"Oh."
Holly laughed softly. "Better than the thought of both of us trying to sleep on the coach?"
Gail rocked her head from side to side. "When you put it like that, not really."
That earned the blonde a smile and then a pillow to the gut. "Behave." Holly told her.
"You started it." Gail muttered before grabbing onto the end of the sheet Holly handed to her and they set about making their bed for the night. "Do we at least get to cuddle?"
"Stop pouting."
Gail sighed as she watched Holly then head to the bathroom to change. She pulled out her phone and contemplated what to do. She needed to try and talk to Emily because the information she could get wouldn't tell the whole story. She could take an educated guess but the most important thing to Gail right now was that she had Emily somewhere safe.
And she'd keep her that way no matter what she had to do to achieve that.
She'd told the kid she'd look out for her, but as far as Gail could tell she'd fallen damn short of that so far.
"What's that look for?" Holly asked quietly as she handed over a t-shirt and sweat pants, along with a towel and toothbrush, for Gail to change into.
"Who would do that to a kid?" And more than once from the fading bruises Holly had seen earlier.
Holly shook her head. She couldn't answer that, she, like Gail, didn't understand it. "Go change and let's try and get some sleep." She offered instead. Neither of them could change the past, and dwelling on it wasn't going to do any good either.
"I normally sleep naked."
"You can always sleep on the floor, or if you give me any more of your cheek, you can just go home." Holly warned.
Gail pouted before standing up. "Tough crowd." She muttered as she headed for her turn using the bathroom.
Holly chuckled as she watched her go but her amusement was fleeting. There was nothing funny about her cursory examination of the young woman using her bedroom. Someone the girl knew had beat her, and not just tonight.
It made her think of Gail's x-rays. Old injuries. Broken bones from beatings Gail had sustained, mostly from someone she now considered family to her.
Holly would never understand how that could be. And while she couldn't comprehend Gail's choice on that, Holly could accept Gail's decision because the other woman was an adult.
Emily on the other hand was still a child.
And no child should have to fear for their safety, especially in their own home or from people they thought they could trust.
It broke her heart to see the marks on the girl's body.
As grateful as she was that the girl hadn't suffered more than bruises she did have to wonder why Gail had brought her here in the first place, and not just that, but how was Gail connected to this girl.
xxxxx
Gail's eyes had barely closed as she crawled into her makeshift bed for the night and insisted that she get to cuddle with Holly if they were forgoing sex due to their bed hogging guest, when she felt Holly shift against her for what felt like the tenth time in the space of a minute.
"What?" She asked quietly without opening her eyes.
Holly's jaw clenched. She'd tried to leave it for now, to wait until tomorrow, but she couldn't get the images of Emily's bruised body to completely fade from her mind, in fact they just stirred her memories into a mental slide show of every child autopsy she'd been part of during her career so far. There weren't many thankfully but they had a tendency to stick with her more than any others.
No child's life should be cut short as the result of violence, especially if that act was committed by someone that child thought was supposed to love and protect them.
"Holly?" Her eyes stayed closed but Gail wriggled her face into Holly's shoulder before pressing her teeth into the skin with intent.
"Don't you dare!" Holly warned in a low voice as she automatically found skin with her fingers in order to retaliate if Gail bit down.
With a huff Gail pulled away and stared up into Holly's face. "Then tell me what's on your mind, because it's clearly not the hot blonde in your arms. Otherwise we'd be having sex as quietly as possible right now."
Holly ignored that comment and swallowed against the bile that rose in her throat at her thoughts. "Did her parents do that to her?" She had to ask.
With a sigh Gail tightened her hold on Holly. "No." She replied. She understood that Holly would have questions and wasn't completely surprised it was giving the pathologist troubling thoughts.
"Then why bring her here, why isn't she with her family? Surely her parents would want-"
"She's in the system Holly. She's a foster kid." Gail cut in.
"Oh."
"I don't know a whole lot, but her mom dumped her on her Gran about ten years ago and a couple of years later her Gran passed away." Gail explained some of what Emily had already told her over the months of knowing the girl. "She doesn't know where her mom is, or even who her father is," Gail went on. "She's been bumped around ever since."
With nowhere to call home. "That's awful." Holly pulled Gail closer wishing she could ease some of Emily's hurt, and not just the physical kind. More and more Holly saw Gail in the girl.
For a few moments Holly just held Gail as she tried to order her thoughts. "Do you know who did hurt her?" She eventually had to ask.
"No." Gail replied. "But I will." She promised.
Holly nodded in the darkened room. She knew Gail looked after the people she cared about, in her own case she believed Gail killed someone to protect her. Of course Gail would do similar for Emily, as she would for Romi or Chris.
"Does she need somewhere to stay?" Somewhere safer than where she had been staying, away from whoever had laid hands on the girl. "She could stay here, with us. If she needs to."
Gail grinned unseen by Holly. The practicalities of that suggestion would take work but the idea of it was more than enough for Gail. "We'll sort something out." She told Holly.
"Good."
"Can we get some sleep now, before Emily interrupts us not having sex?"
Rolling her eyes Holly just gathered Gail closer and pressed her lips to her head. They could talk logistics in the morning, and of course, they'd need to talk to Emily.
xxxxx
"Where should I start?" Oliver asked, looking at the faces around the table. It was just after parade and most of the uniform officers were already out on patrol so now was as good a time as any for this discussion.
Getting no reply Oliver slide a back device onto the table in front of everyone. They all stared at it then looked at him. "That would be how Sam got into a resident only parking lot yesterday morning and threaten Gail Peck with his gun." He glared at Traci for a moment not happy that she hadn't tried to stop Sam or at least get out of her car and make sure Sam hadn't done anything stupid.
More than he already had.
"That's Gail's garage remote key in case you were all wondering." Oliver explained for them. "A key he got out of her car which is currently in our lockup."
Someone at the table groaned and it made Oliver smile. "That's right, Sam's put this station so deep in shit over this that I'm not sure how we'll dig ourselves out."
Luke leaned forward and asked, "So what's the deal on Sam?"
Oliver sat back in his chair at the head of the table. "He's suspended. Gave a great story about the trauma of the Dock shootings, and his recent breakup with his pregnant girlfriend and colleague Officer McNally."
"Andy's pregnant?" Traci asked in shock at the news.
Oliver snorted. "You didn't know?" He shook his head. "Sam's gone with that as the reason he's been overly focused on his job and agreed with SIU that he'd handled it wrong, and if he could have a do over he'd obviously approach things differently."
Luke didn't believe that for a second. "He probably meant he'd have shot her instead."
Oliver just shrugged.
"So what have SIU recommended?" Traci asked carefully. While she agreed that Sam's actions were overboard, he wasn't the only one that thought Gail was part of that bust at the Docks and for the morgue break in. He'd just gone about it in his usual strong handed way.
"He's being shipped out of here. They haven't decided where exactly yet." Oliver told them.
"Probably can't find any volunteers." Luke muttered.
"Swarek does have a unique way of doing his job." Jo said.
Luke shook his head. "What you mean is that he breaks the law but hey, that's okay as long as it gets results."
Oliver put his hand out to prevent an argument starting between the pair. "While I don't disagree with either of you, my problem is that he's left me to deal with the fallout. The police Commissioner and I had a lovely chat long into the evening yesterday." And while Oliver relayed this information with a smile, his eyes were hard. "This was not how I want to spend my time, cleaning up Sam's mess for him." And it had ruined his night with Celery and his eldest daughter Izzy who had meant to come over for dinner. Instead he'd been stuck at Headquarters.
"What can we do?" Luke asked.
Now Oliver's eyes lit up. "Well, how good of you to ask Detective Callaghan." He answered before pointing to Traci. "You my dear have that enviable task of going over the last few months of Sam's workload with SIU and filling in any gaps they ask about seeing as you've worked with him the most."
When Traci Nash was looking suitably pale at the news, Oliver moved on to look at his other two detectives. "Both of you need to give me a full run down on where we are with this case, the Docks, the morgue, any leads, gossip or solid links you have. And I want that happening in my office by the end of shift today so get to it."
That Luke could handle, nothing much had changed in the last few days. "What about that?" He asked gesturing to the device on the table.
With a sigh Oliver reached across and picked the object back up. "Besides dealing with losing two officers and Sam, I have the absolute joyful task of inviting Ms Peck into the station here and grovelling about Sam's actions, return this to her, and cross all my fingers and toes in the hopes that she doesn't sue us."
Jo snorted but was pulled up out of her seat by Luke before she could say anything.
"We'll get things up to date for you." He told his boss.
Oliver waved them both away. "Go."
Traci waited for the pair to leave before turning back to Oliver. "Is Andy really pregnant?"
Oliver tilted his head. "You really didn't know?"
"It's news to me." Traci admitted. "I didn't even know they'd broken up."
"Ah Traci." Oliver shook his head from side to side. This wasn't the station he remembered, it had felt like the right time and the right decision to come back when he'd been given the offer but now he wasn't sure if he was too stuck in the past. And in memories of who he thought people were.
Traci almost brought up the fact she'd had dinner with Holly last night but that would only cause her old TO more problems given how the evening had ended. "I guess I should really be talking Andy about this."
Oliver nodded. He'd originally thought he'd been left out of the news deliberately, now he's left wondering if Andy was even pregnant and questioning if Sam had made the whole thing up just to get SIU to go easy on him.
It wasn't like SIU were going to sit Andy down and confirm it.
"You should definitely do that, and if it's true you give her my best," He told Traci with a genuine smile. "Tell her I'm sure Celery will have a potion or two if she should need them."
Traci laughed as she stood. "I'll pass that on."
"You do that darling. Now scoot before SIU come looking for you. They are using the empty conference room on the second floor." Oliver told her as she was leaving.
Now he was just left to make a phone call and have an extremely awkward conversation with Gail to give her back her garage key and explain to her that Sam wasn't going to be fired.
Piece of cake.
"Doughnuts!" Oliver picked up his desk phone and called the front desk. He'd get a rookie to go on a doughnut run for him, and coffee, couldn't forget that. Gail would go easier on him if he had some of her favourite snacks on offer.
xxxxx
AN/
Another bit.
Mistakes will be fixed at some point (it's almost 3am) but thanks for reading, and for the follows and reviews. I'm happy people are still enjoying this even if it is slow going. You guys are awesome.