I.
Holly wraps the towel Gail has thrown at her around her shoulders and steps out of the bathtub. The blonde is watching her every move; shivering, cocooned tightly within her own towel, but with a dazed smile creeping across her lips.
"You should probably take those jeans off." Holly suggests, once her feet are planted on the floor and she is stood in front of the other woman.
Gail raises her eyebrows. "Is that the best you've got? I was sort of expecting some slightly better moves from you, Holly."
"I have moves, Gail. And I just meant because they're dripping wet and you're so cold you're shaking. And you know that."
Gail ignores the second half of the taller woman's statement. "You think you've got moves? Show me your moves, Holly." She says, her voice not faltering as she takes a step closer to the other woman.
"You couldn't handle my moves." Holly tries her hardest to maintain a somewhat serious and confident expression, but she can feel the corners of her mouth pulling slightly, trying to break out into a grin.
Gail doesn't once break eye contact as she runs her tongue across her lips, the sight of which makes Holly shiver slightly. "Try me."
Holly returns the blonde's intense stare, but neither will move to close the gap that remains between them. Holly's finds herself biting down on her bottom lip for a moment, contemplating the idea of taking that step forward, pinning the blonde against the door and ripping that soaking wet jumper from her body, against all her better judgement. She blinks, temporarily shaking the idea from her mind, before pulling the towel off from around her shoulders and dropping it on the blonde's head, lightly rubbing it over her hair.
"Dry your hair officer, I don't want you dropping any remnants of your haircut all over my, oh so lovely, carpets."
Gail shakes the towel off of her face, her arms still cocooned under the other towel, and glares at Holly, pouting. It is the single most adorable thing the forensic pathologist has ever seen, and she can't help but grin.
"I knew you didn't have any moves. You're such a nerd, have you ever actually pulled a woman before, Holly?"
Holly raises an eyebrow at her, smirking. "No, Gail. I'm saving myself until marriage."
Gail sniffs. "Weird kind of morals you have; letting random women touch you up in the shower."
"Lapse of judgement." Holly grins, as she stops drying Gail's hair and moves to dry off her own torso. "Don't worry, I definitely won't be letting it happen again."
Holly enjoys the way Gail's eyes narrow at her jesting. She leans down and starts to pull off her own jeans, a task easier said than done with all that accumulated water making them stick to her legs. As she peels them down her knees she chances a look up at Gail and is pleased to see that she is watching her every move closely, mouth slightly open.
When Gail notices that she has been caught staring, she snaps her mouth shut and looks away, and Holly notices a slight pink tinge appear on her cheeks. It isn't long however, before she rapidly blinks, and recomposes herself, a scowl falling back over her features as she turns to look at the brunette once more.
"Don't feel too bad, it was a lapse of judgement from me too." She says, and Holly glances up at her, but she knows from Gail's tone of voice that she has nothing serious to worry about.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, I mean, I suppose the shock of being so cold and wet just threw me. So I guess we're both classless sinners together."
Holly stands up, now rid of her jeans, which she kicks off to the side. She feels a slight chill but it is worth it to feel Gail eyes not to subtly appraising her from head to toe.
And appraise her she does, but before she has time to run her eyes completely over Holly's body, the brunette is moving past her, ducking to run her lips past her ear as she goes.
"If I showed you my moves you'd be screaming the Lord's name so loud you wouldn't even remember you were sinning. And at least with me you'd be hot and wet. So hot and wet."
Gail's eyes shoot wide open and her arm falls limp at her side. Holly hears her turn around to watch her leave, but no further words come from the smaller woman as she walks out the door, shutting it behind her.
She leans against it, turning pink. Sure she has moves, but that was fairly out of character for the slightly socially awkward doctor. She had definitely never talked like that to someone she wasn't in a stable relationship with before. But she couldn't resist Gail's teasing, it gave her some sort of raw, primal need to prove her wrong, even though she knew that's exactly what the officer had been gunning for. The idea had flashed across her mind, a way to give into Gail like she wanted to without completely losing the upper hand. And Holly's fairly sure it worked. Or it may have caused some sort of major freak out and Gail was about the come bounding out that door, down the stairs and out of Holly's house for good.
God, she really hopes it worked.
II.
It takes a solid five minutes of Gail standing aimlessly open mouthed in the middle of Holly's bathroom before she snaps out her stupor.
That was unexpected… but not entirely unwelcome.
She suddenly becomes very aware of how cold she is, and kicks off her clothes, grabbing a fresh towel to wrap around her naked body. A towel slightly too small for the job she is giving it. She looks in the mirror and notices just how small it is. It would be hard for her to have much more leg on show without exposing herself for anyone to see.
It is at that moment that Holly bursts into the room.
"I got you some clothes to ch… oh, I'm sorry." She falters as her eyes land on the younger woman.
She averts her eyes, and Gail smirks slightly.
"I, uh, I'll leave these here." She says, placing the clothes down as she pointedly looks anywhere but at the woman before her. "I think everything should fit. I'll… leave you to get changed."
Gail sniggers as Holly hurries out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
Once she is changed into a pair of her friend's pyjamas, Gail follows Holly out of the door and down the stairs, where the lights are clearly still on. Holly is sat at the kitchen counter drinking a glass of water in a button down flannel shirt and an exceptionally small pair of cotton shorts. Engrossed in a book, she apparently doesn't notice that someone else has entered the room.
"For a moment there you almost had me persuaded you were some sort of cool, confident lesbian seductress." Gail whispers as she creeps up behind her.
Holly jumps slightly, and Gail giggles.
"I was just a bit surprised, you threw my game." Holly tries to argue of her behaviour in the bathroom just moments earlier.
"What game?"
"We're not starting that again."
Gail sighs melodramatically and drops into a seat at the counter. "Fine."
"Did you giggle just now?" Holly asks, closing her book and turning to give the younger woman her full attention.
"What? No." Gail can feel herself turning pink, though.
"You did, you definitely giggled. I broke the ice queen." Holly gives Gail a gentle shove in the shoulder, her smile stretching wide across her face.
Gail narrows her eyes at her companion. "That shirt is really gay, Holly." She says, picking the first thing she can think of to change the topic.
"Strangely that doesn't really bother me."
"I never said it doesn't suit you."
"Well these are looking pretty good on you," Holly says, resting her hand on Gail's knee, indicating the flannel pants separating her hand from the pale skin of the other woman's legs, "Maybe I could start to kit your wardrobe out with some sort of flannel starter pack now you may be one of us?"
Gail's feels her insides squirm, and drops her gaze to the ground. Her heart starts to pound in her ears and she can feel a heat rising up from the round neck of the t-shirt she's wearing.
"Sorry that was a stupid thing to say, you don't have to have some sort of big discussion about that." Holly says, her tone so soft it's almost melodic. Gail feels two fingers under her chin, gently lifting her head up and her gaze away from Holly's marbled floor.
"Does it matter?" Gail murmurs, still unable to make eye contact with the woman in front of her. "I like you, and I'm loyal. Except with Nick but they were… exceptional circumstances. So surely that's all that matters." She shrugs, unsure… unsure, really about everything, about who she is, about what may and may not matter, unsure about everything other than her affection for the forensic pathologist who it was hard to believe had only been in her life a matter of months. "I don't know about the rest, about the woman... man, thing. Whatever that makes me. But I know that I like you, and I'm loyal."
"Of course it is, honey." Holly smiles, but it is in her eyes, when Gail finally meets them, that she finds reassurance.
Holly moves to remove her hand from Gail's chin but the blonde reaches up and holds it in place. "I like you a lot. I really like you."
"I really like you too." Holly smiles, as she closes the gap between them, leaning forward to capture Gail's lips with her own.
Gail pushes back against the kiss, dropping one of her hands to rest on Holly's bare thigh. She isn't conscious of much, but she feels a loss when Holly's hand departs from where it has been resting on her leg, then a comfort as it tangles in the hair at the back of her head, playing with the short hairs at the top of her neck, as her other hand traces her jawline.
As Gail deepens their kiss, her gentle parting of Holly's lips greeted eagerly by other woman, Holly pushes slightly too strongly against the other woman, and Gail, a small but sizable amount of alcohol still running through her veins, starts to overbalance on the stool. Holly apparently feels the movement just in time to grab Gail's shirt and hold her still, stopping her from tumbling backwards, but breaking the kiss.
"Maybe we should get some sleep." Holly suggests.
"I'm not drunk." Gail has that intense look in her eyes again, and Holly, her eyes still not totally focused, takes a moment to reply, in which time Gail has slipped off her stool and is standing between her legs, pulling them back together; lips once again moving against each other. Gail can taste the bourbon on her own breath, but Holly's resistance seems to crumble, and Gail finds bare legs wrapping themselves around her waist, pulling them tighter together, causing a light moan to escape from both their lips.
Gail redirects her attention to the other woman's neck, trailing kisses from her jaw to her collar and back up again.
Holly attempts to speak through the pleasure. "We should… we should stop."
"Why?" Gail's lips and tongue are still working their way up Holly's throat as she speaks.
"You've been drinking… and, I don't want to make you do something you don't feel ready for."
"I'm ready, Holly."
Holly groans. "We have work in a few hours. We should sleep."
Gail finally stops her task and leans back, groaning lightly.
"Fine." She feels slightly deflated, a familiar voice at the back of her head starting to thread doubts into her mind. Until a compromise suddenly appears at the forefront of her thoughts. "But I can sleep in your bed, right?" She asks.
Holly smiles. "Of course Gail, you are always more than welcome to sleep in my bed." She slips off her stool, taking Gail's hand in her own and leading her up the stairs.
Gail has seen the inside of Holly's bedroom only a couple of times before, and only briefly. She has a magnificently large bed; much larger than Gail's. Unlike Gail, Holly makes her bed every day, and her covers match the colour scheme of her room; a pale green and white colour scheme with dark wood furniture.
Holly lets go of Gail's hand as they enter the room, and whilst the blonde is rooted to the spot just inside the closed door, Holly walks over to the side of the bed and starts to pull down the covers, before looking up, confused, at the other woman in the room.
"Is everything okay? Sorry I didn't ask, did you want to sleep on this side of the bed, or do you want something else to wear, I know some people don't like to wear pants to bed? Or if you've changed your mind, that's fine, I can go make up the guest bed or…" Her rambling is cut off by Gail marching over and gently pressing their lips together.
"You need to work on that rambling."
"Why, when I have you here to help me?"
Gail feels her lips curling up into a smile, but before it is fully formed she lets out a large, involuntary yawn, right in Holly's face.
"You have a very attractive set of tonsils." Holly smirks.
"Shut up." Gail murmurs, burying her face into Holly's collar.
"Come on." Holly pulls up the covers so Gail can climb under them, burying herself into the soft mattress.
Holly starts to walk away from the bed when a hand grabs her wrist. "Where are you going?"
"I'm just turning off the light."
Gail settles on her side as the light turns out, facing the bedside table next to her, which is already faintly lit by the early morning sun creeping through the gaps in the drapes. She feels a dip in the mattress behind her as Holly climbs into the bed, and reaches an arm behind her, pulling the brunette closer until a familiar arm wraps around her waist and pulls her back into Holly's front.
"I like the way your boobs feel against my back." Gail murmurs, struggling to stay awake even long enough to finish her sentence.
"I like the way your back feels against my boobs." Holly replies quietly.
One of Gail's arms wraps itself around the one Holly has around her waist.
"Thank you for fixing my hair." Gail murmurs.
"Anytime." Holly whispers back, kissing her lightly on the back of the neck.
III.
It is Gail who is first to wake. In the night, Holly has rolled onto her back and Gail has turned over, onto her other side to bury her face in the other woman's shoulder. It takes Gail a few moments for the initial shock of waking up in bed with some else to pass, and a contentness to wash over her, happy memories of Holly holding her and looking after her flooding back into her conscience.
Lifting her head to glance at the time causes Holly to stir and groan slightly at the lost warmth from the blonde's body. They still have an hour until Gail needs to be at work, and she tries to settle back into Holly's side to fall asleep again, but the other woman opens her eyes and looks down at the blonde.
"Hi." She whispers.
"Morning."
"How are you feeling?"
"Not too bad, considering."
"Considering...?"
"Everything." Gail sighs. "Thank you for looking after me."
"You don't need to thank me for that."
"I do." Gail becomes incapable of lifting her gaze away from her fingers as they play with the hem of Holly's shirt. "I can't quite believe I'm here."
"Here?"
"With you. In your bed. After everything that went down yesterday."
"In a way, neither can I. I'm glad you are though."
Gail finally meets Holly's eyes, a faint smile materialising at the corners of her lips.
"When do you need to be at work?" Holly asks.
"In an hour." Gail lifts her head up to kiss Holly lightly on the lips.
"I'm so comfy." Holly says, as their lips part.
"Mmm, let's just stay here all day."
"That would be nice."
"Can we?"
"Sadly not."
"I hate you." Gail nuzzles Holly's collar.
Holly smiles. "No you don't."
Gail looks back up at the older woman, and Holly leans back down and recaptures her lips.
Gail slowly runs her hands up Holly's side. Although she lacks some of the boldness that the tiredness and alcohol had provided her a few hours earlier, there is still a great need behind her kisses, a desperation and desire to her explorations of Holly's lips and mouth with her own. Her hands however, roam only slowly and tentatively up the other woman's body.
Holly loses one hand in Gail's hair and the other creeps down to Gail's posterior, where it firmly rests. It is intimate, but not quite so adventurous, Gail notes, as the other woman had been the previous night.
Gail can feel Holly's hand move up onto her lower back, pushing up her t-shirt slightly as she does so. She enjoys it; the gentle but firm touch of Holly's fingers on her bare skin. She's already noticed that Holly likes to cup her cheek when they kiss, something her other hand is slowly working its way around to do, and she likes that; there is an affection to it she can't quite pinpoint, but is starting to love nonetheless. But this feeling of cool digits on skin yet to be explored by the brunette simultaneously fills her with warmth and sends shivers of anticipation across her body.
Their slow but passionate kiss ends as Gail's hand falters as it reaches Holly's breast. Holly opens her eyes, waiting for Gail to meet her gaze. When Gail stays frozen with her hand just ghosting the underside of her breast, Holly gently and smoothly rolls them over so that Gail is underneath her.
She lowers herself so her lips are millimetres from Gail's ear. "You can touch me there, Gail. I want you to feel comfortable touching me." She whispers before trailing kisses along her jaw and returning to her lips once again, kissing her deeply.
As Holly plants one arm to the side of Gail's head to lean on, she uses the other to stroke at Gail's hairline, whilst Gail's hands return to her hips, and once again begin to work up her stomach over her shirt.
This time they make it to her breast, cupping her lightly, causing Holly to moan into their kiss. When Gail feels her nipples harden against her thumbs through the shirt, she too can't help but let out a moan as she feels a slight throb between her legs.
"I'm sorry. I want to touch you. I like touching you. It's just new and I'm worried I'm going to do it wrong, because you're so wonderful and I don't want to be bad." Gail gushes as they break apart.
"Gail, don't worry; there isn't really a bad way to touch a boob." Holly says, laughing slightly.
"I was once with a guy who bit mine. Not like, gently or nibbling or anything, he bit down on it, really hard. He drew blood."
Holly flinches at the thought, and both women grimace.
"Okay, yeah; that would be bad. But I figure that as you're also a woman, with boobs, you would probably know that would not be good."
"But what about other stuff… more complicated stuff."
"We don't need to do any more complicated stuff until you're ready. And when… if, we do, it's not just experience that makes someone good at those things. Every woman likes different things and you don't know what they like until you're doing it, so who knows, I may be terrible for you the first time…"
"You're really selling this whole 'sex with women' thing." Gail's mouth twitches into a smile, and Holly rolls her eyes.
"Well if you'll let me finish." She ducks down and kisses Gail briefly on the lips. "But you learn what they like and then it gets really, really amazing. And when you're with someone you care about, who cares about you, it's always special. So with you… it's going to be incredible. And everything you've done so far has been really, really good, so you really have nothing to worry about, believe me."
"I've barely done anything."
Holly sighs gently. "Gail, when you were touching me in the shower earlier, that was… I really struggled to not jump you right then and there. It was good."
"I didn't even touch your boob without you helping me."
"And that's how I know you're going to be great. It was really, unbelievably hot."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Holly smiles and drops her head, meeting Gail's lips once more. One of Gail's hands rises to tangle itself in Holly's hair, whilst the other kneads her breast unashamedly for a few moments, before sliding down to find purchase on her buttock, pulling them tightly together.
Holly slips her hand up over Gail's own t-shirt, and the blonde feels herself explode as her thumbs ghost over an erect nipple. She shudders, and Holly responds by tightening her hold on the flesh, rubbing against the sensitive teat through the thin fabric.
But then a loud ringing stops them from progressing any further, as a phone starts buzzing from another room.
"Is that yours?" Holly says, pulling back.
"Urgh, yes. It's in the bathroom." Gail says. "Ignore it, I'll speak to whoever it is at work." She pulls Holly back down and their lips interlock, but it is not long before it starts ringing again. Holly rolls off the other woman and collapses on her back.
"Fuck sake." Gail says as she pushes herself off the bed and stalks out of the room, glancing at the clock as she goes. Maybe the phone ringing was a good thing. They needed to stop at some point soon if either of them are going to make it to work on time.
When Gail returns, Holly is stood at her open wardrobe.
"It was Steve, he wanted to know if I need a lift to work, but I told him you could drop me off. Is that okay?" She asks, throwing herself back onto the bed.
"Yeah, no problem." Holly turns to her and smiles, and Gail feels her heart beat a little bit faster.
"Maybe you should have slept with me last night when I wasn't being all ridiculous and nervous and slow. Got it over and done with."
Holly turns around and sits next to Gail on the bed. The blonde pushes herself upright to join her.
"Gail, I don't want sex with you to be a case of 'getting it over and done with'. I'd rather wait than know that you were only comfortable doing it because you were drunk."
"And in the middle of an emotional breakdown, don't forget that."
Holly places a kiss on her cheek. "You're worth waiting for." She stands up and walks towards the bedroom door, grabbing her clothes on the way.
"Well that's just piling on the pressure, Stewart. I'm going to be a nervous wreck before we even get to third base." Gail shouts after her.
"You'll be fine, Peck. Don't overthink it." Holly's voice shouts in return.
When Holly returns, fully dressed, the police officer is lying, eyes closed on the bed where she left her. She chucks a pair of jeans at her, and they land on her face, causing Gail to release a muffled cry.
She pulls them off to see Holly brushing her hair in the mirror.
"Get up Officer, we need to leave in fifteen minutes if you're not going to be late for work."
"That was unnecessary." Gail grumbles as she sits up. "Can I borrow a shirt, I don't really want to be doing a walk of shame into the station."
"I wouldn't worry Gail, I think your hair will probably distract all attention away from what you're wearing."
"Crap." Gail lifts her hands to run through her hair. For a brief moment there she had forgotten quite how drastically out of hand last night had gotten. "Urgh, I'm never going to be able to avoid questions about this."
"If it makes you feel any better, you probably chose a reasonably good night to make such a major change to your appearance. At least you know they all have bigger things preoccupying them."
"Like my emerging lesbianism?"
"Like their colleagues in the hospital." Holly takes a black t-shirt from her wardrobe and throws it on top of the jeans that Gail has pushed onto the bed beside her. "Get dressed, I'll make you coffee."
IV.
Holly pulls her car up into the parking lot at Fifteen ten minutes before Gail is due at parade.
"Why couldn't we just call in sick? We could've been getting to the good stuff by now." Gail groans, making no moves to exit the vehicle.
"I don't think the day that three of your fellow officers are off work in the hospital is a good day to be playing hooky. Hurry up or you'll be late."
"How are you always so sensible about things? We're going to clash over that, you know."
"I'm looking forward to it, now go." Holly gives Gail a light push and the blonde turns to glare lightly at her.
"You should be begging me to stay in bed with you, you're the worst hook-up ever." She says, as she opens the door, before leaning over to give her a chaste, but slightly lingering, kiss.
Holly blinks in surprise. Whilst they hadn't been completely discrete with their handholding in the hospital, she has no expectation that Gail would kiss her openly in her workplace car park, at least without looking around first to check there was no one else around. Which, granted, there wasn't, but still.
"Call me later!?" Holly calls after her as she climbs out of the car.
"Don't be clingy Holly, it's deeply unattractive." Gail retorts but she can't quite help but flash a smile at the other woman as she does so, closing the door behind her and heading into the precinct.