AN/ Hey all. Thanks for the lovely reviews you sent me on the last couple of chapters. Glad you like the action; there's more to come soon...just not as soon as some of you think! :) Thanks again also to Kravn for beta-ing, and having an almost superhuman insight into the mind of Gail Peck, which is really no easy feat.
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After all the excitement of the tripped sensors in the middle of the night, the rest of Gail and Sanderson's shift passed by without incident. The adrenaline fuelled mayhem of the previous day had finally caught up with Gail by the early hours of the morning, so she really could have done without a seven a.m. team debrief meeting. Luckily McNally and Chen had bought good coffee on their way in; Gail was even grateful enough to smile her thanks at Andy.
McGregor opened with news of the guys who had attacked Holly and Gail yesterday. Apparently a man matching the general description Gail had given her police colleagues had been admitted to Mount Sinai Hospital in the middle of the night, with a wound in his side. The patient had clammed up completely and told the staff he could speak no English when it came to explaining how he got the injury, but the doctors identified it as a certain gunshot wound. Having checked the CCTV, the guy had been dropped at the front entrance by a blue panelled van. McGregor wanted Gail to go down there this morning and make a formal ID so they could interview the man specifically about Holly, and who had employed him for the attack.
Gail felt relieved when she heard the injury wasn't life threatening; a couple of cracked ribs and a slash to the skin which would require a fair amount of stitching. She hadn't realised she was worried about the consequences of firing her weapon until McGregor told her someone had been hospitalised; quite frankly she had been too worried about herself and Holly. Gail knew she had no choice but to fire and she had given the guy plenty of warnings; he could have backed off. Even so, no cop wanted to kill someone in the line of duty and Gail remembered only too well how badly Dov had been affected, even after he had been cleared by Internal Affairs.
Usually anyone who fired their weapon in the line of duty would be suspended whilst the incident was investigated by IA, but as they had no suspect or evidence of an injury until now, Gail had been left on the job. McGregor explained that unless the guy admitted he was involved in the incident and it was a gunshot wound, IA couldn't investigate Gail. She suspected the brass had pulled some strings and although she knew she should be grateful, she was also unhappy with her family name giving her special privileges and worried she may have to face the consequences later on. She had dealt with IA once before, and it had not gone well.
Sanderson noticed her turmoil and moved to reassure her; "Don't worry, Peck. It was a good shoot. You'll be fine even if they do look into it," he said.
She smiled at her partner, grateful for his support in front of the rest of the team. McGregor interjected before she could thank him though; "The detectives in charge of the case will interview this man once you have confirmed he is who we think he is. If he then admits to being there, IA will rubberstamp events. My boss has already spoken to them, and they understand that as there is only two weeks until trial, you need to be kept on duty and on this assignment," McGregor didn't sound too thrilled with that, but Gail didn't push it and simply nodded her understanding. She had a sneaking suspicion the staff sergeant would have fired her if he had his way, even with Holly taking the blame. But it seemed that he had been told to hold off and Gail was relieved that it was the importance of the case and not the Peck name that kept her out of hot water. That was something at least and she was pleased she wasn't going to have to drop out now. For one thing, it meant she would still be seeing Holly every day.
That dealt with, the team did have plenty of questions for Gail about what had happened yesterday and as she talked about it she realised something.
"They didn't want to hurt Holly," she said slowly. "They were going to take her with them. One of them told the other to put her in the van,"
"So it was a kidnap attempt?" Jake asked.
"Yeah," Gail agreed.
"It would seem they were planning on using Dr. Stewart as leverage then," McGregor pointed out. "They know they can no longer get to Kate Stewart, or the parents. They were hoping to flush them out into the open by taking the last member of the family still in the country,"
Gail shuddered. She hated to think about what could have happened to Holly if the gangsters had been successful. She tried to hide her worry from the others, nodding along with them as if she had a purely professional interest.
"So should we expect another attempt?" asked McNally, looking around the team as they sat at the battered table in the back room of the safe house, looking out into the drizzling rain.
"Possibly," mused McGregor. "The good news for us though is even if they are still interested, we can rule out long range attacks – snipers, explosives. If they do want to keep Dr. Stewart alive, they will have to get close - that makes our job easier,"
This time Gail couldn't hide her horror. She had known all along that Holly was under threat, but she had never considered it could be so serious as a murder attempt. The fact that McGregor was pleased somebody would have to get close to Holly in order to hurt her felt sickening.
"They must want her alive. If they kill her, what do they have over Kate? If I was Kate Stewart and they killed my sister to try and shut me up it would make me more determined to give evidence. What would I have left to lose?" Sanderson's theory was a sound one, though Gail could see a hole in it.
"Holly knows some of the details of Robak & Kolarov's business," she told the team. "Kate told her. If they can get to Kate, Holly would still be a loose end,"
Jacob Chen shook his head, "It would be inadmissible in court though, surely?"
Gail shrugged. "I'm no lawyer. And if you were Kolarov, would you want to take that chance?" she asked.
All of the cops around the table looked at one another. Nobody knew exactly what the ramifications were of Holly knowing too much.
"How would they know what Holly knows though?" McNally asked suddenly, and that was another question which stumped the team. There was a long period of silence, before McGregor took charge.
"It doesn't matter," he said firmly. "This doesn't change what we're here to do; protect the doctor. Maybe they want to harm her to frighten her sister, or maybe silence her. Either way it's our job to stop that from happening,"
All the officers around the table agreed immediately with that assessment, and Gail found herself actually liking McGregor a little more. Sure the guy was a pain in the ass, but she had to admit that he was dedicated to doing his job well and that was something Gail always admired. She shared one shift a week with him, when it was Sanderson's rest day and although those shifts were never as good as when the younger cop was partnered with her, she had learned to tolerate McGregor's gruff professionalism.
"So, tell us what's new boss?" asked Jake. "That's the mission; but how are we going to do it now we're here?"
McGregor went on to explain the details of their move to the safe house. He was anticipating that this would be their base for the next two weeks until the trial. Once the trial began, Kate Stewart would be back in Canada and he was expecting Holly to fly to Vancouver to be with her sister and probably parents. That would be the end of this team's role, because court assigned officials would be appointed to protect the family. Gail felt a pang of disappointment and fear at that. Disappointment because Holly would be away for a while after Gail's job had ended, which was when she was hoping the two of them could perhaps become a little more official. And fear because what if some Vancouver idiot didn't do his job properly?
"Can we volunteer for that?" Sanderson enquired. "Jake and I, I mean, when we go home?"
"We'll see," McGregor replied and Gail resolved that she too would try and volunteer. She had no idea how it would work; where she would stay in Vancouver or how she could persuade Frank to let her go for another few weeks. Potentially, it was going to be a long trial. But if it meant she could spend more time with Holly, then she would figure it out.
She tuned back in to what McGregor was saying just in time to hear about the arrangements at the safe house. Shift patterns wouldn't change but the handovers were likely to be a little longer. Transporting Holly from work to the house in particular was going to be harder as they couldn't afford to have anyone follow them and discover where Holly was hiding out. McGregor planned to use some old classics such as decoy cars and anti-tracking manoeuvres, but they would all have to be extra vigilant. McGregor also asked all of them to be careful when travelling to and from their new location and told them that now they had more room, they could stay over whenever they needed to.
With that, McGregor declared the meeting closed and Gail was duly packed off to the hospital to identify the mystery patient. Sure enough, it was the bald headed guy who had attacked them. Gail was given the opportunity to sit in on the interrogation in order to rattle him. They all hoped that if he saw the woman who had shot him, it would prompt him to realize that they were on to him – that they knew what he did and how he had been injured. Unfortunately, he remained resolutely silent. She couldn't help but wonder what sort of boss could instil that level of fear and discipline in his troops; and how he did it.
By the time Gail left the hospital, it was past midday and once again it looked like her rest period was down to a minimal few hours again. She made a mental note to ask if she was getting overtime for all these hours she was putting in lately. Giving up on actually spending some time resting at home, she instead dropped by to pick up some stuff and a change of clothes before heading back to the safe house. She had the luxury of grabbing a shower before crashing out in the same room that she had commandeered as her own yesterday.
When she was gently shaken awake later, it only felt like she had slept for minutes. She swatted groggily at the hand on her shoulder as she tried to burrow back into the bed clothes.
"I'm sorry, honey, but it's time to get up," she heard, and it was the term of endearment that shocked her awake more so than the instruction itself.
She rolled over and opened her eyes to see Holly perched on the side of the bed, peering down at her.
"What did you say?" Gail asked
Holly opened her mouth to repeat herself but as she did so she replayed her words in her head, and Gail could see the moment she realised what she had said when she blushed and broke eye contact.
"It's time to get up?" she answered, glossing over the rest of her sentence.
Gail gave her a suspicious look. She knew what she had heard. Honestly, she kind of liked it which was a surprise. She had never really been one for pet names; Chris insisted on calling her babe and it made her want to punch him. But 'honey' had fallen easily from Holly's lips and settled over her like a gentle embrace.
"I thought I heard something else," she said, teasing the doctor.
"No, don't think so," Holly hastily told her, her blush not diminishing. She couldn't believe she had let that one slip, and she knew from the look on Gail's face that she had definitely heard it. Oh well. She tried to turn the tables; "You're cute when you're asleep," she grinned, knowing the cop wouldn't appreciate that description, even if she didn't seem to mind being called honey.
Sure enough, Gail glared back at her. "Yeah, well. So are grizzly bears. And then they wake up and rip your head off," she sassed back.
Holly laughed. "Ok, Grizzly!" she replied. "But Scott sent me to get you up. He thought you were less likely to rip my head off than his,"
"True," Gail reflected. "What time is it?" she asked, but grabbed her phone to check without waiting for an answer. "Shit, it's past nine! Why didn't you wake me earlier?" Her shift was supposed to start at seven. She was surprised Sanderson hadn't already dragged her out of bed.
"Andy said she'd cover a couple of hours for you, don't worry," Holly reassured her. "But she's just heading home now, so Scott sent me up,"
"Ok, give me five and I'll be ready," Gail said, shaking herself into action. She threw back the covers and noticed Holly glance down at her bare legs with more than a passing interest. She grinned. "Are you planning on letting me get changed, or are you going to watch me like that for all those five minutes?" she asked.
Holly snapped her eyes back to Gail's with a guilty shrug. She knew she had been busted, but if Gail went to bed in shorts that short, then what did she expect? She got up to go and give Gail some privacy, but suddenly remembered the package in her hand.
"Oh! I picked this up at the lab earlier for you!" she said, offering it Gail.
The cop took it and pulled open the paper bag to find her gun nestled inside. Clearly forensics had finished doing their standard tests. She pulled it out and examined the weapon carefully, making sure they had taken it apart properly and there was no damage.
"Thanks," she said with a genuine smile, as she clicked the chamber and looked down the barrel.
"No problem. Ballistics are all done with their testing. But you can put it away now," Holly said and Gail could detect a little nervousness in her tone.
"Are you afraid of guns, Holly?" she asked.
"No. I'm not afraid. Just wary,"
"Hmm," Gail hummed in surprise. It was unusual for someone in law enforcement to be nervous around guns. Although she guessed Holly was forensics, so would never really have to be around them that much. That gave her a thought; "You know, you should learn to shoot one, with all this going on," she told her. If Holly could fire a gun, it would allow her to protect herself should the worst happen.
"I'm not sure about that, Gail," Holly demurred, with a shake of her head.
"Think about it. I could talk to McGregor, and maybe take you to the range?"
"Maybe," said Holly, and Gail nodded in response. "Anyway, I'll let you get ready,"
Holly turned away to go, but was stopped by Gail's hand on her arm.
"Aren't you forgetting something else?" Gail asked, as Holly twisted back round to face her. Gail's smile was wide. She knelt on the bed so that she was level with Holly and leant in to softly kiss her lips.
"Hi," she said, as they pulled apart.
"Hi," Holly replied with an equally big smile before she cupped Gail's face with her hands and made sure she gave her a proper kiss; deepening it by moving her tongue into the other woman's mouth and lightly touching it against Gail's own tongue. Both of them sighed as they pulled apart.
"Just so you know, that would have been a better way to wake me up," Gail told her.
"I'll remember that next time," Holly agreed, playing with Gail's hair a little before backing off. "Get ready then, or Scott will think we're up to something,"
Gail raised her eyebrows, "I think the fact he sent you up here probably says it all anyway," she told her, as she climbed out of bed and rustled through her duffle bag for some clean clothes.
"You think he knows?" Holly asked, surprised.
"I think he suspects something, rather than knows anything," Gail replied as she whipped her t-shirt off.
Holly gulped at the sight of so much skin on show. She quickly turned her face away; "I'll just leave you to that," she murmured, moving towards the door.
"Oh sit down you prude!" Gail said, exasperated. She wasn't shy about her body; never had been. "I'll be done in thirty seconds,"
That was all very well, thought Holly, but she might just spontaneously combust in thirty seconds. She risked sneaking another peak at Gail's bra clad torso, before firmly turning her head away and focussing on a plaster patch in the wall.
"So, your team meeting sounded pretty intense this morning?" she asked, desperately searching for a topic to keep her mind off the half-naked blonde standing not six feet away from her, in a room which had a bed in it.
"You heard us?" Gail asked, her voice slightly muffled and Holly hoped that meant she was pulling a shirt on over her head.
"Little bit, before I jumped in the shower," she admitted.
"The guy I shot yesterday has turned up in hospital," Gail informed her, "But he's clammed up and giving us nothing,"
"Are you ok?"
"What do you mean?" Gail asked, confused at why Holly would be enquiring about her at that news. She finished pulling her clothes on and went to sit next to Holly on the bed.
"It can't be easy, having to hurt someone," Holly mused, and she absentmindedly lifted her hand and traced her fingertips across the cut on Gail's cheek before moving them to the bruise on her forehead.
Gail shrugged, "I didn't have a choice,"
"No, I know. He would have shot us, Gail," she agreed, shuddering at the thought.
"We spoke about it in the meeting this morning. I think they wanted to kidnap you, not hurt you," Gail said. She didn't want to scare Holly, but she thought the other woman deserved to know the details of what was going on. It couldn't hurt if it made Holly a little more careful either.
Sure enough, Holly looked horrified at that information, "Kidnap me? Like, for blackmail or something?" she asked and Gail nodded. Holly shuffled closer so that her body was touching Gail, and she placed her hand on the other woman's thigh, gripping it lightly. "I'm so glad you were there, Gail," she said.
Gail looked down and placed her own hand over Holly's. She was glad too. The thought of Holly being snatched by some gangster made her sick to the stomach and she had a sudden flash back to being bound by the tight leather straps in Perik's cellar, and the click of his shoes approaching across the stone floor. It was so vivid that she gasped and tightened her grip on Holly's hand.
"Are you alright?" Holly asked curiously, noticing the whiteness of Gail's knuckles.
The blonde made a conscious effort to relax her grip. Holly wouldn't realise that particular memory had been triggered because she didn't know about her ordeal. It wasn't something Gail liked to share, usually relying on her friends to fill in anyone new. She was still ashamed about what had happened, and she certainly didn't want the brunette to think of her as weak. Holly was supposed to be able to trust Gail to protect her, and how could she do that once she knew the cop couldn't even protect herself? On the other hand, it might not do any harm to let Holly know how important it was to be extra vigilant, and the possible consequences of something happening. Holly did seem to have this strange power to make her drop her guard and share her inner thoughts anyway. When she really thought about it, Gail somehow knew she would tell Holly all about Perik herself one day anyway. She wanted the brunette to know the full story, how terrified and helpless she had been, rather than the dry official account. Before she could stop herself, she blurted it out; "I was kidnapped once."
Holly stilled, and turned her body towards Gail without letting go of her hand. She studied the side profile of Gail's face, looking for any indication that she might have misheard that statement. Gail's tone had been conversational, and yet her words had dropped a bombshell.
"What did you say?" Holly asked.
"I went on an undercover op. I was supposed to be an escort and I had to pick this guy up in a hotel bar. I was woefully underprepared, but somehow pulled it off. Then I got a taxi home. And the driver shoved through my door, beat me up and tied me up in his basement," Gail recited the bare bones of her story in a monotone voice and Holly felt an icy finger of dread creep up her spine. She swallowed hard, wanting to wrap her arms round the woman in front of her but knew somehow that the affection wouldn't be appreciated. Instead, she kept her voice soft and steady and simply rubbed her thumb across the back of Gail's hand.
"What happened, Gail?"
Gail shrugged and shook her head. How did you explain about being abducted by a serial killer? "It was bad," she started, before tailing off. She shrugged again. "It was over a year ago. Feels like a long time and feels like yesterday. That's weird isn't it?"
"No," Holly said, watching the other woman carefully. She could sense the pain radiating off her and wondered if this incident was the source of some of the guarded circumspection Gail carried with her like a shield. "I barely know anything about you," she murmured, wondering how that could be true when she felt so close to this spiky cop.
"You know more than a lot of people," Gail replied, frowning. She and Holly had spent hours talking over the past few weeks. Gail Peck didn't have that sort of relationship with anyone.
"You don't have to tell me about this, if you don't want to," Holly said, offering her a way out.
But Gail looked up to meet gentle brown eyes full of concern, and the story tumbled out of her. She explained how Perik had grabbed her, and the terrifying moment she knew she was being drugged. She told her how helpless she had felt, strapped down in the cellar and listening to the crazed man's monologues. She relived the conversation when Perik had found out she was a cop and described the cold, hard certainty of the moment she knew she was going to die. And she told Holly about Jerry.
"I read his wedding speech out at The Penny. When Traci couldn't. He should have been there to read it himself, but we had to," she finished, and a tear slid down her face.
Holly caught it with her thumb, and then tenderly kissed the spot on Gail's cheek, tasting the salty remnants on her lips.
"Oh honey. I'm so sorry you had to go through that," she said and she couldn't help tugging Gail in for a hug.
Gail allowed herself a moment to sigh into Holly's shoulder before pulling back and giving her a small smile.
"That's twice you've called me honey," she stated. Even with Perik on her mind, she had noticed that and held onto it, forcing thoughts of the killer out of her brain.
Holly smiled back, a little bashful. She tried to brazen it out; "Well you call me lots of nicknames. Nerd, Doc, Lunchbox…"
"Honey isn't a nickname," Gail told her.
"No. It isn't," Holly replied, shrugging.
"Honey is something you call someone you're having a thing with,"
"I suppose it could be,"
"But we're not having a thing. We agreed,"
"Not yet," Holly quickly retorted, wanting to make that clear. "We're not having a thing yet,"
"So is honey something that you could call someone that maybe you might be having a future thing with, sometime soon?" Gail asked, smiling at the other woman's confusion.
"I would say that would depend on whether that someone minded being called honey," replied Holly, wanting to gain a foothold in the conversation. Was Gail saying she didn't like the term of endearment?
Gail ran her hand up Holly's arm and fiddled with the collar of her shirt, the half-smile on her face not diminishing. She didn't answer, instead tipping her head to meet Holly's lips with her own, kissing her slowly.
As they pulled apart, Holly saw mischief dance in Gail's blue eyes and understood she was being teased. "I like calling you honey," she announced firmly.
"And I like it when you call me honey," she finally admitted, deciding to let her off the hook
They grinned at each other, still and silent for a beat before a yell from downstairs broke the spell.
"Come on you," Holly said, standing up and offering her hand to pull Gail up. "Scott's thinking that we've abandoned him,"
Gail rolled her eyes. "He can wait a little longer. He's lucky it was you who came to wake me. It usually takes me much longer than this to get up,"
Holly nodded, "Because you're a grizzly bear, right?" she asked, as she opened the bedroom door.
Gail wrinkled her nose. "Ok, I can cope with honey. But you're going to have to drop the grizzly bear thing," she told the other woman.
Holly laughed, "You started it. You have quite the penchant for animal analogies, don't you?" she said, thinking back to Gail's cat story.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," the cop replied with a completely blank expression, and Holly couldn't help but tease her a little more.
"Anyway. I can ditch Grizzly, no problem. I've already picked out your nickname, my little Hedgehog," she declared.
Gail's gaze narrowed and she suspiciously eyed the woman stood by her bedroom door. "Hedgehog?" she growled.
"Yep. Because you're very prickly. But very cute!" Holly told her and giggled delightedly at her own wit. She just about managed to shut the door in time to block the pillow Gail launched at her. "See you downstairs!" she called, skipping towards the stairs and leaving Gail to growl at the closed door. Hedgehog? That was definitely not a nickname that was going to stick around, she decided.
Holly slowed on the stairs to try and school her expression into a normal every day look, instead of one of a giddy schoolgirl. But she had finally found a nickname to counter Lunchbox. Hedgehog. She decided she liked it; definitely a keeper!
