Disclaimer: I do not own Rookie Blue or any of their characters etc…
Author's note: Thanks for the reviews, favs and follows. I have never written a fanfic before, and I wasn't even sure whether there were many of us left in this fandom, so it was really great to hear from you. And because this is my first fanfic, I think I got the rating wrong so I have changed it. I don't have a beta and I'm not from Canada so apologies for any mistakes.
Debby, I'm really glad you saw Frankie as the jerky friend – that's exactly how I read her – although as we'll see she is not all bad, otherwise Gail wouldn't bother with her.
...
'Holly', croaked Gail 'hey'.
'Hi', replied Holly a little awkwardly.
'Hey', Gail responded, equally awkward.
'You said that already'. Holly gave one of her lop-sided smiles.
'You know, I thought it sounded familiar', Gail said, the slight huff in her voice belied by the smile breaking out across her face.
Frankie watched in wonderment. So this was Holly. It was no surprise Peck was hung up on her. She was gorgeous. But this dorky exchange; Frankie had thought Peck was cooler than this.
'What are you doing here?' asked Gail.
'Same as you, I'm giving a presentation'.
'But I didn't see you on the conference program'.
'It was last minute. My boss had a family emergency, so I'm filling in for him', explained Holly.
Holly hadn't a changed at all since Gail had last seen her. Her hair was slightly shorter and she was more tan but that was California for you. Gail noticed a tiredness around her eyes that she put down to overwork. Holly always put in long hours and squeezing in an unexpected conference would take its toll. Suddenly conscious that Frankie was watching the two of them keenly, Gail hastily made introductions.
'Holly, this is Detective Frankie Anderson, and Frankie, Dr Holly Stewart'.
'We bumped into each other at the breakfast bar', Holly said with an amused smirk as she regarded Frankie.
Frankie decided she needed to change the subject fast. She didn't want Gail to know she'd hit on Holly and unsuccessfully if she were really honest. 'So Holly, are you coming to Gail's presentation?' she asked somewhat wickedly, knowing (even if Gail hadn't admitted it) that she loathed public speaking.
She watched as Gail face became ashen. Gail groaned inwardly. It was bad enough having to speak in front of strangers (she'd made Frankie promise to go to the weapon's talk) but if Holly was there as well she wasn't sure she could hold it together. The tension that had been with her all morning started to morph into a full-blown headache. She felt like someone had put a bag of wet cement in her head and she couldn't focus on Holly and Frankie's conversation. Getting up abruptly, she muttered that she needed to get ready for the talk, before hurrying to the coffee shop exit.
'She hates public speaking', Frankie explained as she watched Gail go.
Holly was struck by the familiarity in the detective's tone. This wasn't something she knew about Gail, although she should have guessed given Gail dragged her into the coat closet at Frank and Noelle's wedding to hide from the guests. Was Frankie just a colleague, a friend or more?
Frankie turned back to Holly with narrowed eyes. 'Don't break her heart', she said before following Gail.
...
Frankie was wrong. The conference room was packed to capacity. After all the case had created something of a sensation, although Gail wondered if people were there out of curiosity to see the Peck who ratted out her brother and father. Some of her colleagues admired her for it, but she knew others balked at working with her, not trusting she'd have their backs or, worse still, believing she was covering up her own involvement in the corruption scandal. There was no escaping the Peck legacy, good or bad. At least now people couldn't say she was bumped to detective because of the Peck name.
Looking out over the faces Gail felt a familiar wave of nausea. She needed something to calm her. Frankie had advised her to imagine the audience naked, or at least the women, as if that would help. She caught sight of Holly seated towards the back. Now she didn't need to imagine her naked - she felt like she'd memorised every inch of Holly's body. Not helping Gail, she chided herself but then had a thought. She always felt calm talking to Holly. What if she imagined Holly was the only person in the room and she was speaking just to her.
Gail walked to the podium as the facilitator made the introductions. She and Rodney had agreed she would speak first. She knew she'd be too nervous to sit through his part of the presentation before delivering her own. Coughing slightly, she leant towards the microphone.
'Before I begin I should warn you that public speaking usually makes me puke so forgive me if I need to bolt suddenly and Rodney has to take over'. Her words were met with a ripple of laughter. Okay, that wasn't too bad, she thought. Somehow admitting her anxiety made it easier. She still focused on Holly as she began to detail the case.
It had been hard at first to convince their superiors to spend money on reconstructing the scene and to run new tests on old evidence samples but it had paid off. When they first started working together, Gail had been slightly embarrassed that she had once tried to cajole Rodney, then very much a junior in the morgue, into getting the print off a thumb so she could avoid Holly. She was relieved that Rodney didn't bring it up and the two settled into what Gail considered a comfortable working relationship, although if you asked Rodney he was sometimes still a little unsettled by Gail's quirks. Rodney had proved to be very good at his job, which Gail suspected had a lot to do with Holly's mentoring. For his part, Rodney appreciated Gail's sharp intellect, which she had tended to downplay before the fall of the Pecks.
Before Gail knew it, the presentation was over and she had even coped with the q and a session that followed. At least most of the questions were reasonably intelligent - there was only one middle-age cop who decided to use the open mic to draw parallels with what seemed to Gail like every obscure case he'd ever worked. As people began to file out, she noticed Frankie walking towards her.
'Awesome Peck. Knew you could do it', said Frankie in a tone that suggested she was at least partially responsible for the success of the session.
'What are you even doing here Anderson. I told you to go to the weapons talk', grumbled Gail.
'Well, hard as it is to believe, I find watching you more entertaining than talking about weapons'.
Gail scrunched her face in disbelief. 'Anderson, you are full of shit'. She looked around to see if she could spy Holly. Maybe she'd left already. Maybe the talk hadn't been that good and she wanted to spare Gail's feelings by not having to make lukewarm comments about the session. Maybe all Holly had wanted at breakfast was to say a quick hello to an ex and then leave. After all it was Gail who said she couldn't keep in contact with Holly once she left for San Francisco. Gail knew she'd been too consumed by anxiety this morning to read Holly's intentions. She shook her head. Like everyone else, Holly had moved on. She was pathetic for getting her hopes up.
Just as Gail began to really berate herself for her stupidity, Holly appeared at her side. Leaning in to touch Gail's arm, she said 'That was amazing. You were amazing'.
Gail blushed. Holly's compliments and the warm feeling of her hand on her arm left her momentarily speechless.
'But, I have to go,' Holly continued in a rush. 'My session is next and then I have some meetings, not meeting meetings but some informal catch-ups with colleagues and then I thought we could meet up for a drink at the hotel bar at 6. I mean if you're free or not busy or want to or not'.
Holly's rambling was adorable and Gail found herself wishing she could stop it like she used to with a kiss. She realized Holly had stopped talking and was now looking at her nervously.
'No, I mean yes, six 'o'clock. I'll be there'.
'Okay', Holly gave her a huge smile as she left.
'Smooth Peck, really smooth', said Frankie shaking her head.
'Oh please Frankie. I bet Holly turned you down at the breakfast bar this morning', snarked Gail.
