A/N: Hey all. Quick note from me to say thanks once more for to everyone who has taken time to send me your comments; particularly the likes of Interp86, JSkippy, Denise, Matik, Trusty9721, Saz and several others who have dropped me reviews numerous times and often really detailed stuff. I really enjoy reading your opinions.

So, without further ado...time to crank things up a notch. Enjoy!

Cheers, Sam

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She knew she shouldn't be surprised about how wrong she was. Gail thought their cosy bubble was safe, but it shattered two days later when everything went to shit.

Overall the day had been pretty innocuous until Holly got called out to a body in an apartment building stairwell late in the afternoon. McNally had gone with her, still playing the role of dutiful liaison officer, shadowing her forensic colleagues. The scene had been a messy one and Holly's work had dragged on long past the usual seven pm changeover time. The body was on Fifteen's patch and Traci Nash had caught the call, so because Gail was still supposed to be undercover, she couldn't pick up the handover. Therefore poor Andy had to put in some overtime whilst Officer Peck twiddled her thumbs back at the safe house, and Chen sat waiting in his pool car, relying on the police cordon to help him keep the doctor safe.

Holly and Andy had finally arrived back home at around ten pm. Both women were exhausted. The brunette's sleep patterns had been horrendous over the weeks she had been under protection; partly due to the upheaval but mainly due to her desire to stay up a little longer than she usually would just so she could spend more time with her sardonic cop. It had all caught up with her and she was in bed within ten minutes of arriving home.

Andy had planned on going home, but was so tired she had accidentally left her bag in Jake's car. With her keys, phone and cash halfway to Jake's motel, she had given up and crashed in one of the spare rooms. Without any company, Gail and Scott had resorted to eating their way through three bags of cheese puffs and hustling each other at poker. Their shift was only an hour or two from being complete, with dawn just beginning to break and they were both stuck in a bit of an energy lull.

So it was a surprise when the computer system started to buzz like a demented bee hive, and the red light they had seen a few days ago started flashing once again.

"I thought you'd sorted out that useless set up?" Gail asked, when she clicked through to the map and saw it was the back fence sensor that had triggered once again.

"I did," Sanderson said as he leant over the blonde's shoulder to check what she was seeing. "I turned off the sensor near the fox run, and set up a new one in front. It's all hooked up to the system though, so it's my own one going off,"

Sanderson nudged Gail's hand off the mouse and flicked the screen to the camera in that area, "I adjusted the camera too," he muttered. "Blind spot should be covered…."

The image popped up onto the screen, and both officers sucked in a sharp breath in shock. They stepped back and unconsciously placed their hands on their weapons. The picture clearly showed a masked man stepping cautiously from the corner of the back yard, making his way out of shot and towards the house.

"Shit!" Sanderson exclaimed as they saw another guy follow the first. They wrenched their gaze from the screen and looked at one another, panic evident for a split second in both of their eyes before they switched over to professional mode.

"There's more of them, Sanderson. This is it," Gail said urgently as she watched the shadowy figures converge.

"Go wake Andy and the doc," Sanderson told her. "We need to get her somewhere safe,"

"Basement or attic?" Gail asked, trying to decide which of the reinforced rooms would be safer for Holly.

"We don't have much time. It'll have to be attic because I'm going to hold them down here. Go!" he answered, giving her a small shove.

She fumbled her phone out her pocket and speed dialled his number as she moved across the surveillance room. "So I can hear!" she told him over her shoulder.

As Sanderson hit the panic button, Gail barrelled out the room and sprinted up the stairs. She banged on Andy's door and yelled at her to wake up before pushing into Holly's room. Her shouts had already stirred the pathologist and Holly looked sleepily up at her.

"Come on Hols," trying to keep her voice normal. "Something's happening, you gotta get up,"

The doctor was slow to react though, "Hmmm? Gail?" she mumbled as she sat up.

"Get up, come with me," the police officer urged as she grabbed the set of clothes that had been cast aside on the chair in the corner of the room.

Even though she was still half asleep, Holly did what she was told and swung her legs out of bed, standing up and stretching her shoulders. Gail grabbed her hand and pulled her out the room, where they bumped into McNally on the landing.

"What's with the yelling? What's wrong?" the other cop asked. Gail was impressed that Andy seemed pretty alert and had clearly had the brains to grab her gun on her way out of the room.

"They're outside. They're attacking," the blonde told her.

Andy swore, but was instantly on the ball. "Attic?" she asked, and Gail nodded, tugging Holly along the landing towards the door at the end.

"I'll go back Scott up," Andy told her, turning the other way for the main staircase.

Gail felt a momentary pang of guilt; Sanderson was her partner, she should be the one backing him up. But her desire to get Holly somewhere safe was overriding her loyalty to her partner right in that moment. The heavy door at the bottom of the wooden staircase had been propped open for easy access, so as they entered she shoved it closed. She pulled the doctor up the narrow staircase and barged open the top door. They entered the attic and Gail snapped on the light before passing Holly the clothes she had picked up.

"Put these on," she instructed, and Holly dragged them on over her pyjamas.

"What's going on?" she asked, looking far more awake now but also very scared.

The cop pulled her phone back out of her pocket, setting it on a crate nearby. She slipped in her wireless earpiece, but all she could hear was the faint sound of Sanderson and Andy's murmured conversation. As she un-holstered her Glock, she indicated a cardboard box near the corner of the sloping room.

"Will you sit over there, away from the door please?" she asked. Holly did exactly that, so Gail continued. "One of the sensors went off, and we saw some guys approaching the house on the cameras. We're going to hide out here and Sanderson and McNally are going to stop them," She fought the flash of guilt again as she explained the situation.

Holly looked shocked, "On their own? Shouldn't we call McGregor?" she said.

"We hit the panic button. Police will be on their way, so we just need to sit tight for five minutes," Gail tried to reassure her, but the blonde's body language was tense as she stood close to the door, putting herself between Holly and the entry point to the attic. It had only been a minute or two since Gail had rushed out of the surveillance room; she had done well to get Holly up here so quickly but now all she could do was steel herself for the strike that must be coming. How the hell had the gangsters known where to find them? There was no chance they could have been followed here, they had been so careful. Gail's stomach rolled as she was left with only one other possible conclusion, but she shook it off. Now wasn't the time to address that.

As they waited, suddenly the lights went out. Shit. She had hoped the attackers would have taken a while to gather themselves, giving her police colleagues time to get here. She had guessed that was what Sanderson was waiting for too, rather than going outside to confront them. They must have cut the power to stop the security systems working, but little did they know they had already triggered one sensor. Now that the power was off though, the masked men could make their way anywhere around the exterior of the house without being seen, so the attack wasn't constrained to that one corner where they had been spotted.

It was only seconds after the power went down when there was an almighty crash from the rear of the building. It sounded like the kitchen window had been smashed in, which was more bad news. The doors of the house didn't look like much, but they were solid timber with reinforced panels and a multi-point locking system that would hold up to a significant amount of force. If their assailants had recognised that, then they must be professionals.

"Stop! Police!" they heard Sanderson's voice boom down the phone line, but he was immediately drowned out by a volley of gun shots. Gail couldn't distinguish much, but recognised that both Sanderson and the attackers had fired, as there was a handgun and what sounded like some sort of submachine gun involved. She fumbled towards her own phone, following the faint glow and desperately wishing she could go down there herself. As the reverberations from the shots died down, she heard Sanderson mutter to McNally, asking if she was okay. At least that meant they were both still standing. Gail reached the phone and flicked on the flashlight app, shining it towards Holly. In the glow, she saw her own horror mirrored back at her.

"Gail…" croaked the brunette, her voice full of fear.

"It's ok," she replied and moved to grip Holly's shoulder in what she hoped was a reassuring manner. "Have you got your phone, we need the light?"

Holly nodded and switched her own light on. "They've got guns. People live round here and they're firing guns," she mumbled, looking a little vacant.

"I know," the cop answered as she moved back towards the door of their attic room.

Suddenly another tremendous crash sounded, this time from the front of the house and they could hear running footsteps. There was an audible thump and the unmistakable sound of a scuffle before yet another shot was fired; this one sounding loudly through her earpiece which meant it had to be close to Sanderson. A barrage of shots came from the back of the house again, and Gail concluded their attackers were on both sides of the property. Sanderson and McNally must have split up; otherwise the guys from the front would be thundering up the stairs by now. All she could hear was muffled movements. How long had it been? The police should've been here by now but there were no converging sirens wailing through neighbourhood, piercing the quiet morning. She placed a hand on the door handle and turned back to Holly.

"I have to go and help. Shut and lock this after me, and no matter what happens, don't open it" she told her.

"No! Gail!" Holly instantly stood and the blonde felt torn in two. She couldn't leave the pathologist on her own, but she couldn't leave her team to face the mayhem downstairs either. As she hesitated, another gunshot rang out and she heard the scream of agony from Sanderson before another shot followed. Immediately afterwards, Andy yelled out his name and there were more gunshots at the back of the house. That was it, she had to go.

"I'm sorry!" she said, raising her shoulders in a helpless gesture at Holly, before wrenching the door open and disappearing down the narrow staircase. Gail couldn't hold her phone and gun properly at the same time, so she tucked the phone into her jeans and relied on her eyes to adjust to the gloom. Over the open line she could vaguely hear Andy talking quickly, but it was difficult to make anything out over the banging and thumping as well as the ringing of her ears after those gun shots. But just as she reached the bottom door she heard a much clearer sentence, as if someone had lifted the phone directly to their mouth; "Gail! We're coming upstairs! Come cover us!"

It was Andy's voice, and thankfully she sounded clear and strong. But the fact she was using Sanderson's phone was a bad sign. Gail slowly opened the heavy door and kicked the door stop back in place so she could get back in quickly. Holding her weapon close to her body and pointing it downwards, she crept towards the stairs, looking over the bannisters. She could see relatively well now, the dawn casting some light into the house. Another rattle of gunfire meant she had no hope of hearing anything, but she could see a figure staggering upwards. For a split second she began to raise her gun before her brain caught up and she recognised Sanderson's fair hair and profile. She shifted to her right so she could cover the space behind him without putting him in her line of fire and silently urged him to move quicker. As he reached the top she pulled him around the corner, quickly running her eyes over him. The back and left shoulder of Sanderson's royal blue t-shirt were soaked almost black; it was blood and a lot of it. She sucked in a frightened breath and took in the look of pain etched across his face where his skin was pale and taut. "Bastard came through the front window and shot me in the back," he gasped.

She wrenched her eyes back to the stairs to check that nobody else was heading up and waved her hand behind her. "Get up there!" she hissed at him, indicating the attic steps. Sanderson hauled himself across the landing, but she needed to know one more thing before he left; "Where's McNally?"

"Covering the hallway so I could get up here. She said she'd give me two minutes," he answered and so she waved him away again.

Come on, McNally, she urged. Get yourself up here before someone else does. The blonde was seconds away from descending the stairs herself when she heard Andy yelling at the top of her voice and footsteps thundering through the hallway. Andy spun round onto the stairs and sprinted up them towards Gail, who probably would have found the fact McNally was only wearing a tiny pair of shorts and a hooded sweatshirt hilarious if it hadn't had been a life or death situation.

Just before she reached the top, a figure appeared from the living room and started upwards too, pointing his pistol at the cop's back. Gail didn't even have time to think about it as she squeezed off a shot and watched as he fell backwards and out of sight. As soon as Andy reached the landing, both women turned and took the attic stairs three at a time, Gail dragging the bottom door behind them, relying on the automatic locking system to fall into place and shouting for Holly to open the top one. They crashed through the door just as it opened, and burst into the attic which was now more than a little cramped.

Andy grabbed Gail in a fierce hug, which was so quick the blonde didn't have time to complain. When she was released she immediately dropped down to her knees next to Holly who was kneeling alongside a prone Sanderson, checking over his wound. His upper body was covered in blood and as the doctor tore his shirt open he gasped in pain.

"The bullet went straight through," Holly told him, shining the light from her phone at the wound as best she could. "But I can't see what it hit on the way. There's a lot of blood," Gail glanced at the ragged hole placed just below Sanderson's shoulder, and winced when Holly's fingers probed at it. Gail reached over to dig around in Sanderson's pocket and pulled out his phone, cutting off the call and adding more light to the situation.

"I need something to put pressure on this," Holly said, looking up with a worried frown.

Andy whipped off her hoodie and the doctor took it, pressing it tightly into the wound and seemingly ignoring Sanderson's yelp. "Hold this for me," she grabbed Gail's hand and pushed it against the cloth which was already starting to soak through. Holly carefully turned Sanderson to check the entry wound on his back.

"He needs to get to a hospital, and quickly," the brunette said in a low voice, glancing at the two cops.

"Where the hell are the police?" Gail asked, knowing they had pressed the panic button ten minutes ago. The system was high priority which meant that squad units should have been crawling all over the place five minutes ago.

"It can't be working," Sanderson chipped in, his voice strained.

"Shush Scott, keep still," Holly told him.

Gail made eye contact with her partner. Sanderson's assertion that the panic button hadn't worked and the look that passed between them told her that he had come to the same conclusion she had.

"It doesn't matter," she said firmly. "The house has just been shot up; the whole neighbourhood will have woken up and called it in," Sanderson screwed his face up at that and Gail knew why. With the amount of gunfire the neighbours would have heard, dispatch would send ETF as well as the local force. That could take longer.

They all froze as they heard doors slamming below them. "They're searching upstairs," Andy said as they waited for the rattle that would tell them their assailants were trying the door at the bottom of the staircase.

"They can't get up here…" Gail said, in a bid to reassure Holly more than Andy but the doctor was concentrating on her patient. She picked up Sanderson's good arm and placed her fingers against his pulse.

Two more gunshots startled the group, the bullets thudding into the door downstairs and sounding horribly close. "Because they can't blast those locks off," Gail continued her confident defiance, and it seemed she was correct, because there were no sounds of footsteps coming up the attic stairs.

Andy pulled the ammunition clip from her gun and checked it. "Nothing left," she said to Gail.

"I lost mine downstairs," Sanderson coughed, so Gail thumbed off her own clip one handed and tossed it to Andy. She watched the other woman take seven of the fourteen remaining rounds to load into her own gun, before she stepped over and reloaded the clip into Gail's weapon, giving her a grim nod of thanks. Andy took up a position near the door, ready to deal with anything that came their way.

"So all we need to do is wait it out up here," McNally said, out of the cloak of darkness near the door.

"Unless they smoke us out…" suggested Sanderson, trying to smile.

"Scott, seriously, shut up," Holly ordered, still trying to measure his pulse. It had been a while since she had to do this, considering most of her patients didn't have one. Even at med school, it was rare to do it manually.

To her annoyance, Sanderson ignored her and turned his head towards Gail, shifting his bad shoulder and causing another gush of warm blood to soak into the makeshift dressing.

"You can't wait, you know that right?" he told her and she had to lean closer to hear him.

The blonde hesitated, not knowing what to say.

"You can't hang around for the cops," he insisted again. "Gail, this is a safe house and we're getting shot at,"

"I know," she replied.

"But you know what that means?"

"Scott. I know," she said, meeting his gaze and nodding so he could clearly see she meant it.

"Don't," he replied with a frown and a shake of the head, grimacing as another sharp pain hit him.

"What?" Gail asked, flexing her arm as she refolded another piece of McNally's ruined sweater into the pad she had created.

"Don't call me Scott. You never call me that; you always call me Sanderson,"

She rolled her eyes, "The blood loss has made you think too hard," she grunted, but he just looked at her. "Don't read anything into it. It was just because the doc was calling you Scott, it got into my head," she lied. Gail knew exactly why she had called him Scott, and it seemed he had noticed it too. It was because she could see the amount of blood he had lost, feel his clammy, ashen skin, and hear his elevated breathing rate and the crack in his voice. She was terrified that she was watching the best partner she'd ever had slip away before her eyes. Calling him Scott felt more personal. It felt like a proper goodbye. Gail had to blink back the tear that threatened to fall from the corner of her eye.

"Take my car," he whispered, and began fumbling in his pocket with his good arm.

"Please keep still," Holly pleaded, holding his hand to still it, so instead the blonde reached over and fished a set of keys from his pocket.

"You can't keep it long. It's from the pool," he said, as he fought to keep his eyes open.

She nodded, and called over to Andy. "McNally. One of us has got to get the doc out of here," she stated.

Andy came closer. "What?" she asked. "We can just wait it out!"

"We can't," Gail replied with a shake of her head, silently pleading with McNally to trust her. A loud hammering came from downstairs, reminding them both of the urgency. It sounded like they were trying to beat the door in.

"They must know the police are on the way. They're going to have to leave or they'll be caught red handed," McNally said, staring at Gail and trying to read the look in her eyes. All she got was an obstinate shrug and so she caved. "I'm not exactly dressed for an escape bid," Andy said, indicating her shorts and tank top and her friend nodded in agreement. She knew she would have to be the one to go, but wanted to give Andy the option. Gail didn't want to leave Holly's side, but she was also baulking at leaving her partner bleeding on the floor of a dusty attic.

Holly interjected, "We can't leave him, Gail,"

The police officer placed her hand on Holly's where she was carefully checking Sanderson's left arm, making sure blood flow was still running through the limb.

"We have to," she said firmly.

"I'm a doctor; I can help him!" Holly argued.

"Andy has got it," Gail replied, and beckoned Andy over. McNally looked at her with wide eyes, not understanding why her fellow cop wanted to make a run for it. The police would be there soon, surely they could hold out until then? She didn't think they were truly in danger up here, but Peck was clearly worried enough to have decided the best way of protecting the doctor was to leave.

"This shouldn't be happening here, McNally. They shouldn't have been able to find us…" Gail stopped when she saw the dawning of understanding in Andy's eyes.

McNally nodded, then did what she was asked and knelt next to Gail, who shifted to give her enough space to take over holding their makeshift bandage. Andy placed her hands over the blonde's and started applying pressure, allowing the other woman to slip out.

"What happened? What are we up against?" Gail asked her colleague, wanting to know the facts before she went to face them.

Andy began her explanation without taking her eyes away from Sanderson. "I got downstairs and Scott was in the kitchen. We stationed ourselves behind the counter so we could cover the door. Bricks came through the window and one of them rolled straight through. Scott shot him, and they returned fire. They've all got Uzis, Gail…"

"I warned him first," Sanderson interjected, his voice now sounding even more dazed.

"Shhhhh, no talking," Holly scolded again, packing a dust sheet she had found under the wound at his back.

"I know you did," Andy reassured him. "We had it covered, nobody could get through the window without being taken out. But then the front window was smashed in too, they must have come from both angles. I stayed to cover the back, and Scott ran out to look…"

"Bumped into him in the hall! We struggled and his gun went off, then he got away from me. I followed him to the living room, and then boom in the back. Must have been two of them," Sanderson added in his part of the story, but the strain left him gasping for breath and Gail watched the beads of sweat gather on his upper lip.

"Shut up, Scott!" both Holly and Andy told him together this time.

"When I heard him yell, I ran out from my hiding spot and nearly got my head blown off," McNally continued, "I found him in the hallway in this state, so I knew we had to get out. I sent Scott upstairs and just kept firing blindly to keep them back. The rest you know,"

"How many of them are there?" Gail asked.

"Two through the front, and there were three or four out back. Two of them are definitely down though, as you pegged one on the stairs. We might have hit some of the others, but I can't be sure," Andy shook her head, disappointed the information she had wasn't clearer. It had just all happened so quickly.

"And they're all armed?"

"I think so. I saw the Uzis and I think I heard a couple of handguns in there too," Andy replied.

Gail nodded her understanding and stood up. It sounded like the gang had planned their attack well. If they hadn't tripped that wire early on, they could have gotten in the house without any warning, and it would have been a simple task to take out the police officers and get to Holly. She shuddered.

"We've got to get out of here, Nerd," Gail said and she pulled the brunette gently to her feet. Holly stood inches from her, her eyes searching Gail's face but the determination she saw there must have convinced her and she didn't ask any more questions this time.

"Try to pinch the sides of the wound together under there, Andy," she instructed. "I'm sorry Scott; it's going to hurt."

Holly supervised Andy's care of Sanderson whilst Gail moved to the far corner of the attic space, shifting the boxes she found stacked there. She found some more sheeting and tossed it to McNally to replace the ruined sweater, before pulling aside two plywood boards and revealing the space behind them.

"Come on, Doc. We're out of here," she said, pulling Holly over.

"How? Where do we go?" Holly asked dubiously as she shone her makeshift torch into the hole.

"It's a crawl space. It goes through the whole block of adjoining town houses so we can get out through one of the other units. McGregor showed us when we first moved here," Gail explained, and looked over to the other officers for confirmation.

Andy gave Holly a reassuring nod, "The house on the end is empty, it's only three doors over. You can climb down through there," she suggested.

Holly swallowed hard, but Gail's hand on the small of her back reminded her that she had already trusted these cops with her life.

"You first," the cop told her, thinking that any danger would likely come from behind them. "Just keep crawling, right through to the end," she instructed.

Holly gave the others a worried smile, and ducked down into the small space. It looked tight, as it ran right under the eaves and was a throwback to when the row had shared loft space. Although the supporting walls ran right up to the roof, the pitched style of the rooftops meant the builders had only used wooden supports at the end of the rafters and then left the space for maintenance purposes. When the police force had taken over the safe house, they had figured it could be a useful escape route so had done some work to inconspicuously remove the panels some of the neighbours had used to block off the gaps. Even though McGregor had told his team that most of the householders didn't even realise the space was there, Gail was worried that with all the commotion that the neighbours must have heard already that morning, any movement they heard above them would be terrifying. The last thing they needed was a resident with a hero complex coming up to investigate and finding the pair of them crawling through the dust.

Gail tried to ignore the fact that the hammering below had stopped, thinking it would be typical if they tried to make their escape at the exact moment the gangsters did. She stepped quickly over to where Sanderson lay, and bent down to squeeze his hand. "See you later, partner," she said, trying not to worry when he barely grunted in response. She nodded at McNally and handed over her phone to provide more light for Sanderson.

Without glancing back, Gail followed the pathologist through the tight space, moving as quickly as they dared. Holly had to stop repeatedly to move various boarding and items out of the way, making the crawl tiring, but they made it to the end of the row without too much trouble. As they took a few moments in the attic of the last townhouse to stretch, Gail gave Holly quick hug. "You're doing fantastic," she murmured in the brunette's ear.

Holly shook her head. "This feels a bit surreal," she admitted and the cop nodded her agreement. She was surprised at how calm Holly seemed, but she wasn't going to question it. Not whilst they were still in the middle of this nightmare. As they stood there, they heard a siren approach. Gail led them downstairs, not wanting to flee the neighbourhood whilst the cops and their attackers were out there.

They made their way cautiously down both levels of the empty house, which was covered in a thick layer of dust and full of abandoned renovation materials. Once they reached the hallway, Gail peered through the old sheets that hung in front of the windows. She could see no signs of the masked men. Time to go. She turned the deadbolt, but before she opened the door she turned to Holly.

"Up for another run?" she asked.

"Well the last one went so well, why not?" Holly answered, putting a brave face on over her fear.

The blonde smiled at her and squeezed her hand. "Out of here and turn right, then right again. Blue Ford Taurus," she said, directing Holly to where Sanderson had left the car when he drove them both to work that morning. Holly nodded her understanding and they both took a deep breath before Gail pulled the front door open. She poked her head out, scanning the street for any trouble but all seemed clear, although there were a lot of lights on. She suspected a lot of terrified neighbours were peeking out from behind their curtains and so they would be spotted, but there was nothing she could do about that. "Okay, let's go!"

It took all of twenty seconds to make it to the car Sanderson had borrowed from the pool, but it felt like the longest twenty seconds of Gail's life. She unlocked the car and dropped into the driver's seat with a sigh of relief, pulling away from the curb as soon as they were both settled.

As they drove away, Gail was pleased to notice two police cruisers travelling in the opposite direction passing them, knowing that either the men who had invaded the safe house would either have abandoned their attempt after the first siren or were about to be collared by the cops. The cars weren't from Fifteen though, so she hoped the officers recognised McNally or she would have a lot of fast talking to do when they found her with her fingers in a gun shot wound amidst a smashed up house.

Gail turned the car onto the main road and picked up speed. She aimed to get as far as way as she could in the first ten minutes, then come up with a decent plan after that.

"Can I ask questions now?" Holly's voice broke the silence in the car, and Gail glanced over at her. The other woman looked steady enough, but there was a tremor in her voice. The blonde knew the other woman would be in a daze; she didn't have a clue what was going on and would be desperate to find out. This wasn't a normal day at the office for Gail, let alone Holly.

"Yeah. Sorry. Thanks for not asking them earlier," she replied.

"I didn't think bombarding you would have helped. I trust you, Gail," Holly said simply, and this time there was no quake. The cop's gratitude was obvious, and she nodded at the brunette to continue.

"Where are we going?" the pathologist asked first, looking out of the windows in the morning light.

"I'm heading across the city so we can put some distance between us and them. Once we're somewhere quiet, we'll have to dump this car and think of something else," Gail answered.

"Why?"

"This is a pool car; Sanderson borrowed it from the police service. It has a tracker, and the details will be all over the system. They could find us pretty quickly if we stuck with it," the cop told her.

"Don't we want the police to find us?" Holly asked, confused.

"Not really, no. That's why we left before they got there," said Gail, as she made a turn.

Holly stared at Gail's profile, noting the set jaw and narrowed eyes. The cop was worried, and more than a little angry.

"Why did we leave the safe house, Gail?" she asked, knowing she was missing something. She was relieved when all three cops burst into the attic, thinking that they could just hole out up there until back up arrived. Gail telling her they had to leave had completely flummoxed her, but after the argument they'd had a couple of weeks ago, she wasn't going to ignore her protection officer's orders again – at least not when she was in her professional capacity.

Gail ignored the question initially, "Can you turn off your phone please? And take the battery out?" she asked. It had occurred to her that if the police could track the car, they could also track Holly's phone. Especially given that it had been modified by McGregor's tech people.

Holly frowned, but did what she was asked before going back to her unanswered question. "Why are we running away?"

"It was a safe house. They're called that for a reason; not many people know where they are and it's not easy to find out. But we got attacked there," Gail said.

"So what happened? Did we get followed there?"

"I don't think so, Holly," replied the blonde, in a serious tone. "I think someone sold us out,"

Holly gaped at that, suddenly putting the pieces together and realising what Sanderson and Gail's conversation in the attic had been about. "Who?" she asked.

"I don't know," Gail told her, before amending that slightly; "Yet."

"One of the team?" Holly wondered, running through them in her mind. She had known these people for over a month; they had become friends. Surely none of them would just coldly give her up her like that, put her life in danger for the sake of making a quick buck?

"Most likely. But maybe not," Gail suggested. "I don't know. And that means we can't trust anyone, Holly," she said, taking advantage of a red light to turn and look at the woman in the passenger seat.

Holly's shock was plain to see, though it was tinged with another emotion. Betrayal. Gail felt it too; the thought that one of her colleagues was crooked made her sick to the stomach. One of the reasons Gail loved being a police officer was that sense of loyalty…to the badge and to your fellow officers. She had been let down by that before of course, when she had taken the fall for not properly searching the prisoner who had pulled a gun in booking. Her fellow rookies had just let her do it and in the weeks that followed, she disconnected from them as a result. But this felt much worse. She could have been killed. Holly could have been killed. And they weren't safe now either. Gail felt a flicker of fury light within her, under the shock and disbelief. She was going to find out who had sold them out. And they were going to pay for it. The light turned green and the blonde took one last look at Holly's frightened brown eyes. First though, it was Holly that mattered. She had to get this woman somewhere safe, and keep her that way.

As the car pulled away, Holly asked the obvious question. "So what are we going to do?"

"We're going to drop off the grid and hide out until the trial," Gail declared, making it sound like it was easy. "No more protection detail, no more back up. But I will keep you safe, I promise," she said, steeling herself to be the only thing that stood between Holly and the maniacs from Kolarov's gang of thugs.

"I'm not even wearing shoes," the pathologist said, sounding somewhat dazed about the prospect of going on the run.

Gail took a quick look down at Holly's feet and realised she was indeed correct. She hadn't even noticed that earlier. "We'll have to stop at a mall or something," she mused.

"We're going to go shopping, then go on the run?" Holly asked, with a laugh that she cut off almost immediately.

"I know it sounds crazy,"

The brunette nodded. Yeah, it did. But she knew she would follow the police officer wherever she took her, no matter how crazy it seemed. "I trust you," she said, repeating her words from earlier.

Gail was glad about that, but she hoped that trust wasn't misplaced. She didn't even have a plan yet. It was all down to her. She hoped she wasn't going to screw this up; it was far too important. Holly was far too important. She checked the mirrors, making sure they weren't being followed. Time to start stepping up.

"There's a corrupt cop out there, Holly. Unless we can figure out who it is, you're not safe even under protective custody. It's just you and me now," Gail announced.

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A/N 2: Just a little info on the construction of the safe house attic. The idea for Gail & Holly's escape route comes from a property in London I visited with work a while back. This was an old Victorian terrace that had this exact same set up; you could crawl through the eaves of the loft and get into next door's loft (attic!). It freaked me out, but the surveyor I was with said it's suprisingly common! So, check your roof space people! Who knows if that annoying neighbour could be poking round your boxes of Christmas decs and long abandoned childhood toys!?