Oliver and Celery offered to watch Mia for a while so Sam and Andy could have a little fun together at the reception. They took the offer and shared a couple dances in between socializing. Before it got too late, however, they decided they should probably retire from the reception early and take Mia home. So, Sam went to retrieve her while Andy said goodbye to a few people.
"You sure?", Oliver asked. "We don't mind watching her a little longer. In fact, we've been sharing her with everyone else who came by to visit with her."
"Yeah, she's quite the charmer. Sam looked down at his daughter who was trying to look awake, but he could see the length of the day was getting to her. Thanks for the offer but it's been a long day. All three of us are ready to call it, you know?" Sam said.
"Sure, yeah no problem. Let us know if you need anything."
"Thanks, brother. Since you mentioned it, I'm going to take a personal day tomorrow, so I can get Mia set up with a day care and take care of whatever else comes up."
"Yeah, sure. Just call the desk in the morning and let them know. Good luck."
Sam smiled and carried Mia towards the door out of the ball room and Andy met him there. Together they left the hotel and made their way to the garage that Sam left the truck in.
Inside and on the way home, Sam looked up in the rear-view mirror to find Mia peacefully asleep in her car seat. Andy noticed and said, "Somebody's ready to be home and asleep."
"She's not the only one," Sam said feeling exhaustion creeping up on him.
"So, about tomorrow…", Andy began.
"I told Oliver I'm taking a personal day. I'll take care of everything."
"You sure? I could take it off, or at least take off early and help you."
"I'm not going to tell you I don't want your help, but you don't need to do that. We already have a room for her that's ready. We really just need a day care. Maybe figure out a good pediatrician that's close-by. It shouldn't be too bad. Besides, Epstein's going to Banff and I'm off for the weekend anyway so if I took an extra day its not a big deal. But Price being gone puts Oliver in a jam. He could use you."
Andy considered all of that and felt he was right. "Okay, but you call me if you need anything."
Sam, who had been holding Andy's left and in his right, raised her hand and kissed it. "You know I will."
A little while later at home, Sam and Andy laid Mia down to sleep and shut the door to the spare room that had been dual purposed as an office and a room for Mia when she was staying with them. Andy went upstairs to change while Sam ran Boo outside one more time for the night. When he got back, he found Andy sitting on the edge of their bed, shoes off, but otherwise still in her formal wear. Delayed, she noticed him enter and the curious look on his face.
"Penny for your thoughts?", Sam asked.
"It just dawned on me I think."
"What did? Mia?"
"What? No. Well, not exactly."
"So…," Sam loosened his tie and took his jacket off before sitting down next to her. "Tell me."
"It's just that I know because of our baby, we talked about moving down the road. But nothing had to happen immediately or even before he or she got a little older. But with Mia now, and maybe for a long time, I think we might have to move that timetable up."
Sam looked down for a few moments and nodded. "That's one of the many things I thought about when I was driving down there this morning. Not just the apartment but all the preparations we are going through for this one," Sam laid a hand on Andy's still flat belly, "And now we have Mia to take care of also."
"Sam, don't think I see Mia as a complication. Please-"
"Andy, I know you don't. I know you love her as if she was your own."
"It's just the sudden change," Andy said.
"Yeah, I know. You're not too good with those."
Andy giggled, "But trying to get better."
"Look, we'll be good. If we have to push our future plans up, so be it. We'll make it work. We just have to get to work on it," Sam said. Andy didn't say anything, so Sam said, "Moment of honesty here. I've been wanting to be able to give you and our baby a real nursery to come home to, and I can't give you that here. So, I've been doing a little browsing of the options. Looking at neighborhoods. I didn't want to rush in to anything, so I didn't even think to mention it because it wasn't anything serious. More of just a pass-time for me, really."
"Did you find anything?"
"What?", Sam grinned. "I just said it wasn't serious, I was only looking around.
"Sam…"
"Okay, extra honesty time. I may or may not have a notebook and folder full of information down stairs devoted to this pass-time."
"That should be interesting to browse through. I look forward to you sharing those with me."
"Sure thing." Sam placed his hand on her leg. "But we'll do that tomorrow after shift. Today, we've done enough."
At parade the next morning, Oliver reminded everybody that they'd be an officer short for the next few days with Price being on her honeymoon. Therefore, there would be at least one extra solo. "Today that honor falls to Peck." Oliver looked over at her in the middle of her row. "Peck, don't get too wild and crazy out there by yourself."
Everyone got a good chuckle out of trying to imagine Gail 'letting loose'. Except for those closest to her, nobody really knew any side of Gail that wasn't all business in her uniform.
Oliver wrapped up with telling everyone to keep the peace and parade broke. Some of the platoon went to the assignments board while others that had already checked it moved out. Gail grabbed the keys to 1505 off the board and making her way out the building to the parking lot when she heard a page from the desk officer calling her to the front. It was not entirely unusual getting paged like that, but it was a little strange that early in her shift. The desk officer buzzed her through the door and he pointed over to the chairs along the wall. "Visitor," he said gruffly.
Gail looked over that way and found Holly walking over.
"Holly? What are you doing here?"
"I can't come see my friend at work on occasion?"
"Well, yeah, I guess. I just wasn't expecting it. I thought you had plans for the day."
"I do, I'm going to the Eaton Centre to do a little shopping. But I decided to stop here along the way because," she reached into her pocket and produced Gail's phone, "you left this on the counter this morning."
Gail took it. "Oh, uh, thank you. Really."
"Don't mention it. Honestly, I'm only here because it's on the way from your new place. Otherwise, I would have made you use your investigative talents and figure out where it was."
Gail smiled a little. "To be perfectly honest, I didn't even realize I didn't have it." Gail had been a bit scatterbrained recently. What with just moving in to her new place and with Kali's adoption being official just around the corner.
"I'm not surprised," Holly said. "It's not like you're a slave to it, anyway."
"Right." Gail gave her a quick hug and said, "I better get on the road."
"Oh, yeah. Sure. Stay safe and I'll see ya later."
Gail nodded and watched Holly disappear out the front door before popping her phone on to find a missed call, voicemail, and a text from Lauralee. She read the text first.
'Hey, you can disregard the call from earlier if you get this. Just wanted to let you know that I got the final documents in today. You can swing by and sign them any time or I could meet you somewhere. Hit me back.'
Gail sent a reply, 'Lunch?' Then she re-entered the bullpen of the station and went out the back door to the parking lot. When she as going through her prep check she head her phone ding. Lauralee replied back.
'Got a place in mind?'
'There's a sushi place downtown I've been wanting to try,' Gail offered.
'Sounds great! Shoot me the address and a time.'
Gail looked up the address and sent it to her along with a suggestion of noon and got an affirmative back from Lauralee.
She was happy. Once she signed these papers, the adoption was all but official. Given that it wasn't the weekend, the process wouldn't be officially complete for a couple more days, but this was the last thing to do. With that peace of mind, she radioed her prep check was complete and that she was 10-8.
At about that time, Dov and Chloe were just clear of security at the airport and were making their way to their assigned gate for a flight to Calgary. From there, they'd rent a car and make the short drive west to Banff. Once there, they would do any number of the almost limitless tings to do in a resort destination like Banff was. Aside from arranging a place to stay on Airbnb, they had decided to fully wing the rest of their stay, doing whatever they felt like, whenever they felt like it.
Dov wasn't as comfortable with that approach as Chloe was, but she did let him arrange the flight and the Airbnb, so he took what he could get and knew that as long as he was Chloe, he'd be happy. Even, if he had to leave his comfort zone a few times. Or many times.
On the plane, Dov was in the middle seat while Chloe got the window. Now was the first wild card of the trip. Who'd have the aisle. Somebody that would sleep the whole flight, maybe listen to music or read. Or would it be somebody that would want to strike up a conversation or ask it you were going to eat our peanuts when you were unsure about that yourself.
As it would later turn out, Dov and Chloe couldn't have very well drawn up a better person to share a row with. Initially the man, whose name was Roy, only said "Hi" when he sat down. But as the flight went on, he must have noticed the wedding bands both Dov and Chloe had on because he asked the obvious question. From there their conversation discussed them being on their honeymoon and revealed that Roy was actually flying back home to Calgary after attending his daughter's wedding that also happened yesterday. They all made and acknowledged the "small world" cliché and Dov thought the conversation might have been over.
But before Roy indicated his own wedding band. However, instead of having a wife to sit next to at the wedding, he related to them that she died from a cancer, three years earlier. And while they had been married nearly 40 years, it wasn't nearly enough.
Roy made it clear, though, that he wasn't trying to depress Dov or Chloe or trying to evoke any sympathy from them. He simply wanted to provide what little wisdom he could. That being to never take a moment or an opportunity for granted with each other. Not to waste time or say you'll do anything later. Because you'll never know when you won't have a later.
To Dov and Chloe, that carried a lot of meaning. First of all, because of the time they wasted broken up over the Wes situation. Secondly, and quite importantly, was their profession, which Roy didn't even know about. When they both show up to work, there is never a guarantee that they will make it home. This was also personally exemplified by Chloe's near-death scare.
Sure, it's easy to say Dov and Chloe already should have known all of this and had been told similar nuggets of wisdom many times. But something about a man just passing through, whom they'd never see again, passing on his life lessons to them meant a lot to them.
When the flight landed in Calgary, Roy wished them both a happy honeymoon and a happy life together as a couple. They thanked him, and he let them out in front of him as they de-planed. As they walked down the aisle, Roy laid a hand on Dov's shoulder. He turned his head back and Roy whispered just loud enough for Dov to hear, "And maybe the most important thing I can pass on is this. It never hurts to keep the wife happy."
"With all of that in mind, Dov left his uneasiness about the lack of a plan at the door of the plane. From the second he entered the jet way, he was completely comfortable and happy to be approaching this adventure Chloe-style.
Meanwhile, back in the City, Gail was sitting down for lunch over sushi and adoption paperwork with Lauralee. As she talked Gail through each of the documents, she was getting happier and more relieved with each signature. And when Gail signed the last one, it was as if a massive weight had been removed.
"And we're done. I'll go ahead and get the processing on these started," Lauralee said. "It's bad timing with the weekend and all but hey, at least it's over. Basically."
Gail tried to find the words but couldn't. She was overflowing with many emotions. Some she was pretty sure she'd never felt before and didn't know how to process that. Eventually, she allowed a couple tears to come. After all, she'd let herself be vulnerable in front of Lauralee before so there was no tough girl persona to maintain.
After Gail composed herself enough to talk, she opened her mouth to say something. She was hoping for something more profound than "wow", but that's what came out.
Lauralee smiled, "Wow, indeed."
Gail was still feeling a rush of emotions all positive when dispatch came over the radio on her shoulder and changed that.
'All units in 15 and city-wide. Active shooter at 220 Yonge street. No further information. All unites code 1.'
Gail spring up and said, "I got to go."
"Yeah, of course, be safe," Lauralee had obviously heard the call-out from across the table and knew where Gail was running off to abruptly.
What she didn't know as she watched Gail through the window of the restaurant jump in her squad and tear off with lights and sirens was that 220 Yonge street wasn't just another place to Gail. Not today.
220 Yonge Street is the address for the Eaton Centre. And today not only was that a sure to be super busy shopping mall, it was also, as far as Gail knew, where Holly still was.