Gail was not big on social gatherings with many people, neither was Frankie for that matter. Maybe that's why they worked okay together. They both had their small group of friends and they were comfortable with that. When Oliver got up to go to the door and everyone turned their heads to look and see who the guests were, Gail shared an uneasy look with Frankie instead. In fact, she didn't even look towards the door until Oliver said, "welcome back", to whoever was walking towards the door.
She thought to herself, Welcome back? Oh, no. It can't be. Can it? She looked that way and saw Juliet walk in, followed by Nick. "Son of a bitch," she muttered to herself.
Frankie placed a hand on Gail's leg, "Are you okay?"
"I'm not really sure yet." She had gotten over her Nick struggles with Holly In fact, it was because of Nick that she got together with Holly. She had nothing against Nick anymore, they had both moved on. But Juliet Ward still left an open wound. She understood that Steve did some bad things and Juliet was only doing her job. But Gail couldn't figure out how to be anything but cold towards her. Then again, Gail had that problem with a lot of people. "Go ahead, I'll be right behind you," she said to Frankie.
Everybody else got up and went to greet the new comers, Chloe arriving first and jumping into Nick for an excited hug. Dov said to Juliet, "Sorry, she's easily excitable." Ward laughed and Chloe gave her a hug next.
Gail slowly made her way towards the door, and approached Nick once the last of the others had greeted him.
"Hey Gail, how are- ?", Nick began to ask.
Gail surprised everybody, herself included, by wrapping Nick in a hug.
Nick returned the hug, and asked "Who are you and what did you do to the real Gail Peck?".
She punched him hard in the gut and said, "That's for leaving, again." It was then that Gail realized, even though her and Nick couldn't hack it as a couple, he still meant a lot to her and she had missed his friendship.
"Well, at least you didn't punch me in the eye again."
It was time to confront the elephant standing in front of her.
"Gail, it's good to see you," Ward knew the best she could hope for was a hand shake and to her relief Gail accepted.
"Of course, it is," Gail replied and returned to her seat next between Frankie and Chris, after a stop to refill her drink. She'd be doing that a lot tonight.
After Dinner had been served and everybody had a chance to get started on the meal, Oliver spoke up. "Nick, Juliet? Why don't you tell the class why you're back here? I think they are all wondering that."
Nick deferred to Juliet but she indicated that he could start. Yeah, um Juliet and I got over what happened between us and are getting serious. Basically, we agreed that she shouldn't do anymore undercover or I.A. work. So, if and when we start a family, she'll be around." Nick looked back to Juliet who spoke next.
"So why are we back on Toronto? I've been all over, I'm used to bouncing around and making a home in new places. Nick has his only relative here. And you guys are like the rest of his family. So, it felt right to come back here. If you'll have us."
Oliver picked it up, "Damn right you should be here. Nick, just because I encouraged you to chase after her didn't mean I was prepared to lose you. Although because you left, temporarily now as it was, it saved us from losing somebody at this table to a different platoon. But, that's a story for another day. Anyway, with McNally moving to road sergeant, there is an opening in the patrol roster. Nick will be taking that spot." More cheers and back slaps followed. When it began to subside, Oliver looked to Juliet. "And as for Ward, she's being detailed to Guns and Gangs as a plain-clothes officer and will be partnered with Nash."
Andy was a bit uneasy about that. Juliet wouldn't be a problem, personally. But her being around Nash everyday could bring up memories of Steve, which Traci didn't need drudged back up.
"Nash," Oliver continued, "you don't have to hold on to this secret anymore."
Traci sighed artificially heavily and said, "That's a relief."
"You knew?", Andy asked across the table. "Since when?"
"Shaw called me a couple days after I got out of the hospital and we talked about it. We agreed she would be a good partner for me. And, best of all, we get Nick back. No offense, Juliet," Traci said smiling at her new partner.
"No, none taken." She wrapped her arm through Nick's and said, "I know he's the real prize."
Andy gushed at the affection. She was thrilled to have Nick back, she missed his great friendship. And even more thrilled that he had someone he loved. Nick always told her they were good after their separation. But, Andy always felt a little guilty about getting involved with him when she had loved Sam all along. Now, seeing Nick and Juliet together, officially and serious, let her dispel any remaining guilt she had buried away.
"So, when Nash gets back after the holidays, Ward will start in Guns and Gangs. Until then, her and Collins will be starting back on patrol after Christmas," Oliver said.
"Well, alright then," Sam declared. "We're getting the band back together."
Everyone raised their glasses in a toast.
Gail stayed silent most of the party, only speaking when directly spoken to, and even then, not saying very much. She was focusing on processing everything that had happened in the last couple of hours. She thanked everyone for the gifts she was given and responded when people thanked her, she wasn't completely tuned out.
Nick and Juliet left the party first citing being tired after the flight from Vancouver and the rest of the busy day. The good thing, they said, is Nick still had his apartment so they didn't have to worry about that and had a place to ship their stuff from Vancouver to.
Traci wanted to get back home so she could pick up Leo from her mother's. Chris offered to give her a ride back with Dov, Chloe and him if Andy and Sam wanted to stay behind a little longer. She accepted that offer and the four said goodbye to everyone and got on their way.
A little while later Gail and Frankie decided to retire for the evening as well and said good bye to everyone, thanked Oliver and Celery for cooking and hosting before heading out to Frankie's car.
On the road, Frankie asked, "Do you want to talk?
"What's there to talk about?"
"Anything, whatever's on your mind.
After a long silence when it became apparent Gail wasn't going to say anything, Frankie said, "Fine. You don't talk to me. I just wanted to give you the opening to. But if you don't want to, that's okay too." She turned on the radio and flipped around until she found a station that came in okay out in the woods. She landed on a somewhat audible OneRepublic coming up on the bridge of "Counting Stars" and stopped there, waiting for Gail to open up, or not.
Oliver grabbed Celery and his two remaining guests a new drink and the four settled around the fire place.
"Quite the day, huh?", Oliver said after settling in.
"Yeah, brother. You really pulled one off this time," Sam said.
"You, Celery, and Traci knew. Anyone else?", Andy asked.
Oliver shook his head, "Nobody in the division. Just some H.R. people and Jarvis."
"You really out did yourself on this one," Andy said.
"How are you gonna back it up next Christmas?", Sam asked sarcastically.
Everyone laughed and Oliver said, "If we all stick together, then I'll never have to do anything like this again."
"You mean the surprise guests part. Not the hosting part. We will definitely be doing that again," Celery clarified.
"I'll drink to that," Sam said.
Everyone raised their glasses and Andy toasted, "To sticking together and many more parties here."
Somewhere on the way back Gail realized that she did want to talk about the night. But she wasn't sure where to start. Frankie and her had never talked like this before. They had fun together but didn't have the connection Gail had felt with Holly. One that let her open up, talk about feelings and emotions. Nevertheless, Gail recognized that Frankie was trying and she appreciated that. Now that they had reached the outskirts of the city Gail realized that she was running out of time to talk and decided to go for it. She reached to turn off the radio which had moved on to Maroon 5 working through "Maps". How fitting for her reminiscence of her time with Holly.
"I'm sorry," Gail began. "You're trying to let me open up and I'm shutting you out. That's not fair of me, I know. But you know that I'm not good at this."
"I do, Gail. I just don't want you to think you can't talk to me. If you don't want to talk that's one thing. But don't say nothing because you feel you can't."
"Right, okay, so here it goes. I'm afraid seeing Juliet every day is going to bring back to the forefront all of the stuff my brother did. Everything I've tried to put behind me. Everything you've tried to move past, your cases.
Frankie nodded. When Steve got convicted, every case they worked together got reopened. Almost, if not all of those cases were solid and done right. There was no corruption involved. But a defense attorney didn't need much to assert reasonable doubt when the lead detective was in jail, convicted of multiple counts of corruption.
"And as for me, my family has been driven apart. I've virtually been disowned by my father. My family has hit a ceiling now, my parents won't rise up any farther. Maybe that's a good thing for me, because I never wanted a white shirt or anything, but still… My point is, we have both tried to move on from that and put it behind us, out of our heads."
"I understand that, but Juliet didn't do any of this to us. That was Steve."
"I know that, that's part of the problem. I want to view Juliet as who she is. But every time I look at her, I just can't help but think of anything else. I don't hold Steve's arrest against her. Hell, Nick and I arrested him for Christ's sake."
"But, Steve was the only member of your family you were close to and now he's gone, and you're even further away from the rest of the family. Even if you don't blame her for the investigation and all that happened, you associate her with it. That's natural. In time, hopefully you'll be able to see Juliet for Juliet."
"Finger's crossed," Gail muttered
"Don't forget, she thumbed Oliver, not Steve."
"How can I? We risked our careers to prove him innocent."
"So maybe there is a bit more to the issue. You blame her for fingering Oliver, almost ruining him and the division, and setting everyone down this road."
"I don't know, she had to implicate somebody and the evidence said Oliver."
"Both of us probably would have done the same thing in her position."
Gail went silent, not wanting to admit that that was most likely true. She didn't speak again until they arrived at Frankie's place and had gotten out of the car. "What about you? You got me to open up and talk about my feelings. Do you want to talk about yours?"
Frankie arranged her thoughts and replied, "Gail, I'm not sure about any of this either. Maybe this is something we don't need to figure out right now. Just talking about it is a big step. We just need to be there for each other. And down the road, eventually everyone will be past this. Okay?"
"Yeah."
"We'll take each day as it comes. Deal?"
"Deal. What about tonight?"
They shared a kiss and then walked up to the door. "I don't know, shall we see what happens?"
Gail smiled for the first time in a while and kissed Frankie again.