It has been a long couple weeks and for it taking so long I am sorry.
I've got my best friends wedding coming up soon so I've been busy with that and I just spend the weekend up in Maine for a cousins graduation. One of the best and definitely most needed vacations in a while. I got to write while having the beach as my best friend. I'm not guaranteeing this to be great, mostly because I might have been drunk a lot of the weekend. Oh and there isn't a beta, so I read it like 13 times and then hope for the best.
Anyways, without further ado, here it is.
"Peck!" Frank calls from behind me, I roll my eyes, turning around to greet him with a smile on my face.
"Good morning, Sir." I say to him taking a drink of coffee.
"After long and hard consideration, Oliver and I have decided Crenshaw is your rookie."
I plaster the fakest smile I can muster up on my face, "Fantastic!"
He gives me a big smile and a head nod then walks off in the opposite direction. I shake my head as I walk into the locker room, tossing my bag on the bench in front of my locker. I take a long pull off my disposable coffee cup and toss the empty container into the trashcan a couple feet away.
Andy and Traci walk in together, gossiping like high school girls about no other than Sam. They set their bags on the bench opposite of mine and finish up their conversation before turning towards me. Both their faces turn from joyous smiles to looks of confusion when I narrow my eyes at them. Traci is the first of the two to speak up.
"So how was your date last night?" Andy almost chokes on her smoothie.
"Gail 'I don't date' Peck, went on a date?" She says almost incredulously.
"It wasn't a date," I huff out, pulling my bag open before unlocking my locker. "But, it went well, we got food and went to the arcade."
"You sure you didn't go out with Chris and Dov?" Traci asks.
"Ha, funny."
"Anyone know who's getting the new rookie? I was gonna tell Frank and Oliver that I could totally handle being a TO. I think it would actually be kind of fun." Andy states changing into her uniform.
"You're lookin' at her." I respond, my voice laced with disgust.
After idle conversation and a mix of clothes the three of us make our way to the parade room Andy and I dressed in uniform. Crenshaw makes herself comfy at the end of the table Andy and I occupied. Frank droned on about increasing numbers for the month and that there were to be checkpoints and speed traps set up at various points around the city.
Quinn eagerly grabs the keys from the hook by the door in a hope to drive the cruiser for the day. I walk past her and snatch them out of her hand, calling over my shoulder, "Like hell you're going to be driving any time soon, rookie". She follows behind quickly mumbling something under her breath. No doubt cursing me.
The day seemed to drag on as all 12 hour shifts seem to do. There was the occasional speeding ticket I'd let Crenshaw write out and a couple DUI's we ended up booking. Overall her first actual street shift was bearable, at least for me. But that's because it was an easy day. Hopefully she'll be able to take it when we're working on a murder or something. Should be totally interesting.
I spent the last couple days showing Quinn the ropes. Not like I wanted too, but it isn't like I even had a choice. She learned quickly, probably because she was so used to being around the police force as it was. At one point she even told me that it was 10% luck and 90% timing, to which I had to take a double take. Clearly my mother had heard that from multiple people around the office and gave me that advice, or she had said it enough to everyone that they all started quoting it.
The last four of my shifts had been long 12 hour ones. I hadn't really spoken to Holly other than the occasional text asking how my day was going or vice versa. Oddly enough she hadn't lost interest in me even though we weren't really talking much. She finally asked me after a couple days if we were ever going to hang out again or if our pending relationship was only going to be based off communication from the phone.
I had agreed to meet up with her for drinks at The Penny after finishing out the final 12 hour shift for the week. She was insanely grateful – and if I'm not totally mistaken, incredibly excited to see me. I hated to admit it, but I was pretty excited to see her also. There was just something about her, maybe her aura that just brightened everything around me. She definitely knew how to make someone – even someone who was as cold hearted and rude as me – a little soft.
Her face lit up the second that I passed through the threshold. I caught her eyes and offered up a smile that didn't quite reach my eyes but still let her know that I was happy to see her. I ordered a jack and coke on my way to the table, dropping my bag on the seat sliding into the booth. Taking a healthy swig of my drink I place the glass rather loudly on the table in front of me.
"Long day?" She asks taking a pull off her beer.
"The longest kind. How was your day?"
"It was good, got to play with some dead bodies. I can't complain much," She sets her bottle down flashing her stupid lopsided grin at me, "I'm in good company now, so my day just got a bit better."
"Oh my god," I tap the side of her leg with the tip of my boot and roll my eyes. "You're so lame."
"Yeah, well you don't seem to have a problem with it."
"Never said I did," I finish off the rest of my jack and coke. "So tell me about your day."
"Well, the pathologist that works with 27 was out sick today so they called me over to do an autopsy on a body they found in a gravel quarry. This body was seriously mangled up, like to the point where it was almost near impossible to put all the pieces together. But, since I'm so great at my job I got most of it put together. Anyways, this poor girl, probably in her early 20's, pregnant, double gun shots to the skull and one the abdomen. Someone was not happy that she got herself into the situation she was in."
"Was it the boyfriend?" I ask twirling the straw around the ice in my glass.
"I don't know, I just did the autopsy on the body," she said with a bit of sarcasm behind her words "Whoever killed her though wanted no one to identify her because all the teeth were extracted from her mouth and both her finger and toe prints had been burned off. It was a pretty righteous autopsy. Made the day fly by a bit."
"Hm, I'll have to ask what came of that. It was probably a boyfriend, usually in those situations. Man, men are so crazy sometimes."
"I've had my fair share of crazy boyfriends. But not nearly anywhere near the crazy girlfriends I've had." Holly starts picking at the label on her bottle.
"Oh god, you can say that again. Sometime I think 'How the hell am I gay? Women are crazy.' But then I remember how much better they are. Even though I can't stand people."
Holly laughs tipping her bottle towards me asking if I would like another drink. I nod eagerly. She slips out of the booth and I can't help but to let my eyes linger over her jean clad hips. She catches my eyes and winks at me grabbing the glass off the table and turning towards the bar. I peek around the edge of the booth and continue to watch her.
She leans so gracefully against the bar. Her long tanned arms resting on the shiny wood while her fingers tap along to the music playing overhead. My eyes graze slowly up her arms to her jet black hair, loosely curled and resting over her shoulders. God that hair. It's so long and beautiful and shiny and the way it felt between my fingers when her head was between my thighs.
I shake my head chiding myself for letting my mind go there. Seconds later though my eyes fall directly on her ass. And god, what a perfect ass she has. I mean like, I remember it vaguely from the first night we spent together, but in jeans. Wow in jeans it could cure cancer. I can only imagine what it looks like in dress slacks. God, I love a woman in dress slacks.
The glass clinks on the table top in front of me and she slides in the opposite side of the booth with a smug grin on her face. She takes a pull off her beer and places it in front of her with her eye brow raised. I grab my drink taking a much needed sip.
"Didja enjoy the view?" Holly quips a couple seconds later.
"It wasn't anything special. Just thought I saw Traci," I give as a poor excuse.
"I know that I have a nice ass, Gail. You don't have to act like I don't."
"I wasn't even thinking about your ass," she raises her eyebrows at me in question. "I was admiring your hair." I answer pathetically. Not like it wasn't true.
"You'd rather look at my hair than my toned body? What is wrong with you, Peck?"
"Okay, fine. Your hair and your ass. Both are nice." I finish off the rest of my drink.
"Yeah they are," Holly says taking a drink off her bottle. "How was your day?"
"Oh you know, a day."
"How's being a T.O?"
"I both hate and love it. I have a feeling Crenshaw is gonna fall flat on her face whenever we have an actual case under our belts. It's been slow lately, no actual crimes, so I'm hoping she'll be able to experience it sometime soon. I mean my first day as a Rookie we had a drug bust. I wasn't lucky enough to get to sit at a desk and annoy the piss out of someone."
"I'm sure she'll be fine, her dad is a white shirt, right?"
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean police runs in your blood. My godfathers is Chief of Police and his daughter is going to school for advertisement and his son is going to be a lawyer. However, he didn't raise them the way my mother raised me, so that might be a main reason they didn't become officers."
She nods knowingly seeming a bit hesitant to ask her next question, "So was Superintendent Peck one of those harsh mothers or?" She trails off not quite sure where to take her question.
"I'd rather not talk about my mother right now, or ever for that."
"Fair enough. What were you like as a kid?"
"Happy until she ruined everything fun. Now you've got me now. Can we just not talk about my childhood?" I swirl the ice in my glass with the straw again, "If you wanna know about it, that's something I'll probably have to be pretty drunk for. What were you like as a kid?"
"I was a total nerd," she says taking another drink off her beer. "I played with science kits and bugs. I grew up out in Alberta in like the middle of nowhere so there wasn't like there was much to do anyways. And my sister and brother are significantly older than me, so it isn't like they were around a lot."
"How old are they?"
"Tim just turned 40 and Diane is going to be 45 in a couple months."
"So how old are you? That wasn't something we covered on our drunken endeavors that first night."
"I'll be 32 next month," she states inspecting the label of her beer before she starts picking at it.
"No way are you going to be 32. You look like you could be younger than me. Congrats to you and your genetics. I'm sure both your brother and sister look younger than they are too."
"Not at all, you can tell how old they are. Kids will do that to you." Holly laughs and I can't help but to smile along with her. Her happiness is so genuine and she just has that kind of personality that makes you want to be around her all the time.
"Is it assholey of me to ask if you were like an oops baby?"
"Honestly, that's a question I would definitely expect you to ask. My parents say that I wasn't an oops baby, but who just plans to have a baby when their kids are 13 and 8? Regardless, they both love me and when I finally got old enough Tim and Diane came around. We're all really close, and Aunt Holly is the coolest aunt you could ever ask for."
"I'm terrible with kids."
"I doubt that, you're probably great," she says tilting her head to the side looking at me.
"I'm great with Traci's kid, because he's old enough to play video games with me and not get mad when I beat him. I'm sick of this place, wanna come over and watch a movie or something?" I ask puffing my cheeks out. She looks down at the silver watch on her wrist and thinks for a minute.
"Yeah sure. It's not too late."
"Awesome! Well you get to drive because I let Chris take my car up north to visit his girlfriend and Dov dropped me off here before he went home."
There should be another chapter up within a couple days!
Hope it wasn't too bad.
-K.