Chapter 7

5 days after

"You have reached Gail Peck. I'm sorry, very busy right now. Please leave a message and I will try to get back at yah"

*BEEP*

Holly almost threw her phone on the opposite side of the cliff. She is really starting to feel infuriated. She hated how things turned out to be. How on a single moment everything just blew out of proportions. She recalled the weeks that had gone by trying to decipher what the hell happened. What has she done wrong?

She laid down on the hood of her car.

She is parked on her favorite hilltop where she likes to go whenever there are days like this, on days where she doesn't really know where to go anymore. City lights from all over Toronto are grazing her moistened eyes.

Tears that were collected on each side of her eyes slowly slid down her face.

Everything was going alright. Their relationship was already known to Gail's circle. Holly was even accepted and welcomed as the new member of the group which for all of them is their second family. She just waltz in and out of 15 like she has the VIP pass-well she actually does. They hangout with each other more often and she loved how they really treated her as someone close to them. She has become one of the person they come to for things like life's advices, work related stuff like an extra forensic help that she could let slide or even just for food, etc.

And as for Gail and her, well she cannot describe how ecstatic days go by with her woman. They'd sneak into interrogation rooms adding best make out sessions to their pile of best make out sessions. Every day off is a wonderful break and they'd visit a random exhibit but if they find it boring, they'd go crazy idiots mode and make fun of whatever the subject of attention was. They would banter about cheese puffs, or how Gail is better than Aristotle, or how Gail finds Holly smelly but still pulls her in closest to her like she never wanted to let go. They loved their cuddles on Holly's couch as they share away information not a living soul knew but themselves such as how Holly went through the death of her parents when she was 17. She had a bittersweet smile on her face as she recalled crying on the feet of her parent's tombstones for days without leaving (Gail never cried as much in her entire life while Holly relates the story. She had cursed the cosmos and questioned why on earth she hasn't met Holly that time)

"I could've at least given you a tight hug." she said with a throaty voice for crying.

"That would've been really nice" Holly smiled and licked her lips to rehydrate the dry surface.

Gail captured her face and traced it with each thumb on each side.

"You're so strong and brave to have survived that."

Holly closed her eyes.

"No. I needed to. I had no one left after that… But I'm fine now. I have been healing myself years ago. And now, I have you" the smile that registered on the brunettes perfect lips alleviated the hurt Gail felt for Holly. Gail then tried filling in anecdotes of the Peck family she never shared with other than her brother to hopefully ease the painful memory Holly had opened after the mood had shifted to a lighter tone.

They'd go to bookshops and libraries and Gail would make Holly read her books- from Shakespeare, to Stephen King, to J.D. Robb, to Jane Austen, to Nicholas Sparks, to Confucius-and (when Holly busted her with copies of her works) her favorite author- Holly Stewart.

"Gail, you know you could have just asked the author herself for a copy right? You can even have it autographed" Holly smirked as she traced the stack of mixed hardbound and softbound materials she found at Gail's room (Gail attempted to hide it from Holly but just gave up when she realized she's busted no matter what and walked away to the bathroom) as she waited for her girlfriend to get dressed.

"Well the author can be pretty arrogant and I know she'll forever harbor that arrogant but beautiful smile on her so I figured to keep it discreet. FYI, I did not read them because of you, I read them because of science."

Gail came out and propped an arm on the door, mimicking a model on a magazine as she released the last word.

The emphasis made Holly smile even widely.

"Ahh…" Holly said with a crooked eyebrow and a smile saying I don't believe a word you say.

"And did you learn anything?" Holly added.

Gail slowly walked to the edge of the bed where Holly is planted and bent forward to the brunette.

"Nothing. The author is pretty dumb, but she is my favorite as she can make the words like myocardial infarction or sternocleidomastoid sound really sexy" Gail whispered the last word on her girlfriend's ear as she placed a soft but warm kiss on it. The woman's brown eyes turned dark at the sensation only Gail could elicit.

Faster even than superman, Holly pinned the gorgeous woman down on her bed, reached for her porcelain neck and kissed it like a feather would do.

"Well do you want an autograph from her?"

Gail's sudden pulsating need emanated as she uttered,

"YES"

With that, Holly let her tongue escape her mouth and allowed it to trail the soft smooth surface of the shea-butter-smelled-skin before she sip and dig into it.

Gail searched for air as the overwhelming buzz of the woman on top of her left her breathless.

"Holly…"

"Gail?..."

"Make love to me…" Gail pleaded almost inaudible.

Holly pulled back so that she can see the dark blue orbs. There was nothing needed to be said. And as they stripped every bit of clothing they had, they had stripped and tore down any walls of inhibition they had created around other people, submitting every bit of their being to one another.

So to her side of the lines, she and Gail were going steady, 'till 5 days ago.

"I can't do this anymore." The pang of pain is still very fresh to Holly as she recalls some of the parts of the painful speech Gail has given that night.

"What do you mean you can't do it anymore?" Holly's heart thud heavily at those words.

"Haven't you been listening Holly? Please pay attention." Gail said wryly.

Holly couldn't breathe. Maybe she wasn't paying attention. It was all slurred from her end.

They were supposed to meet each other in the Penny for welcoming the weekend ahead of them with no work and just the two of them curling up in bed-maybe more (hot and erratic kind of more).

But Gail texted her an hour before their meet up at the Penny and asked to meet up at a park instead, just a couple of hundred meters away from Holly's place. She was so excited waiting for Gail and then she finally showed up with that icy cold persona and it all went downhill from there.

She went on about wanting to stop seeing each other, stop whatever this is/was, stop EVERYTHING.

"I'm sorry." Were the last words that came out from the blonde and she walked away.

Holly took a step forward to go after her but the sudden death of her system hindered her to. She might have stood on that one place for hours- numb on the pain, numb of the coldness of the late afternoon, numb with the empty hole Gail has left her. She wasn't really able to talk and say more than a word.

Gail didn't give her a chance.

Holly wiped the tears rolling from the source. She remembered having the need to breathe as she reached out her for her phone she totally would've thrown away if not for one of the modes of communication she can use and scrolled to her message she sent Gail on that night after hours of being painfully dazed.

"Gail, I hope you give me a chance to have a say on this matter. Can we please talk at least? I have no idea what happened but whatever it is please know that you can talk to me about it. Let's sort this out okay? I'm here whenever you're ready"

That was 5 days ago and still no reply from Gail.

And she hasn't even seen her. Gail was able to pull off this hide-and-seek thing so nothing, not even her shadow was captured. It has been 5 painful days.

She dialed the officer's number again for-god-knows-how-many-times already.

No answer. Nothing.