I have no idea where this plot is going, so please bear with me! Still trying to figure this whole writing thing out and still discovering Gail and Holly as characters. I've never appreciated just how hard it is to write conversations between people! I did promise 'sunshine' though in this chapter so here it is, quite literally… H.L. x

We decided to not bother with sleeping and after I had stuffed myself content with pancakes we ambled outside onto the balcony. Holly's balcony had a gorgeous view of the morning rays seeping through the buildings. The sun's rays spread luxuriously above us, the pink hues melding effortlessly with the pale oranges that seemed to twist and twirl in spirals. The silhouettes of buildings seemed to paint the sky: the flat tops of some casting deep sweeps of blue while the tips of others merely ghosted the canvas with flecks of red that trailed in thin lines across the endless sky. The cool air was still and as I exhaled I saw my breath in front of me, obscuring vision for a moment before vanishing. With that exhale I felt a tiny lift from my chest, a tiny bit of my darkness fading away into the retreating shadows; the nightmare eased from me in a cloud of grey, ghosting my lips in a lingering morning kiss. The world was granting me a reprieve while the sunlight reigned, until the night returned and its demons were free to exact their toll, until the eclipse – I was free.

I snuggled closer to the beautiful woman to my left under the warm blanket. We were sprawled on an outside bench covered in pillows on Holly's balcony, tucked right into the corner. It was surprisingly comfortable. As beautiful as the morning was, I focused upon the woman next to me. Her brown hair wild, layers barely grazing her full pink lips while the rest cascaded down her shoulders. My arms surrounded her torso in a light embrace. For a tall woman, in this position she felt so small, so delicate within my arms. For a brief moment, I felt as though I was the protector. As if she was the crumbling one plagued by nightmares while I was her strength. I smiled just a tiny bit, I could get used to this feeling of being useful.

Her frame was willowy, yet strong, but in this position I felt as though she could alight out of my arms at any moment with ease. She could disappear into the effervescence, into the morning light without a whisper. I didn't feel threatened by the concept, only comforted as I watched her breathe in and out, every breath taking her further within that delicate fabric of imagination. That place where her eyes now examined, where her fingers now touched, where her lips caressed. I couldn't see her eyes properly; they were hooded against the light. I wanted to see them, to see where her soul resided in immortality; to see it sip the milk of paradise as I stand back in the starless dusk, longing to join her in the sun.

"GAIL!"

I spun around, my head still foggy from my daydream, reliving the events of this morning before I had to go to my shift. Also dubbed: hell. Also dubbed: why-the-hell-was-Traci-getting-herself-worked-up-yelling-at-me.

"What?!" I rolled my eyes and strutted over to the woman waving by her desk, looking like some sort of hyperactive psych patient.

"I've been calling your name for the past five minutes. Wait…" Traci smirked, "Were you daydreaming about someone Peck?" Her eyes widened and her lips formed a pronounced smile as I cursed my pale colouring, "Is it Holly?"

"No," I quipped, it was no one's business anyway. I stood still for a moment; did Holly want it to be people's business? Oh crap. Really? I hate people. I didn't have a problem with being with Holly publically; I just didn't like others sticking their noses into my business. It never goes well.

Traci chuckled to herself, "Okay Gail, whatever you say," Traci wasn't going to pressure Gail because she knew the closed off blonde would come to her sooner or later.

"What do you want anyway?"

"Besides your obvious charm? I need you to help me with one of my new cases, something odd has come up and I could use some advice."

I shrugged and tried to seem in no way complimented, "What do they pay you guys for anyway? Fine, I'll come – if only for the sake of keeping 15's rep out of the gutter."

"Thanks. Meet me in briefing room 6 in around, maybe ten minutes? Give or take?" Traci walked off, a smile playing upon her lips as she thought back to Gail's obvious drooling over the memory of Holly.

I arrived in the briefing room a little over ten minutes later to find Traci sitting in the middle of the floor, dozens of photos jumbled up around her feet in a seemingly random order while she sat cross-legged in the centre, mumbling to herself and rearranging photos.

"Uhhh what is this Nash?" I couldn't deny my curiosity as I attempted to study some upside-down pictures of mutilated bodies, Oooooo cool! A sawed off arm! Wait, is that an arm? Or is that even a saw…

"I can see you like the set up. I'm trying this new technique – apparently if you lay out photos in different orders you can start to establish patterns never seen before. Breaks up the mind from automatically assuming certain scenarios," Traci explained, dusting herself off as she gingerly navigated herself out of the mess.

"So," I started, "What exactly do you need me for then?"

"Well, you know how you applied for detective's rotation and no one was supposed to know about it?"

Shit. How does she know? Does SHE SHE know? I halted my thought process, of course SHE doesn't know or else she would have been down here in a few minutes flat.

"Right, so continuing on," Traci ignored Gail's blanched look, "Frank came up to me and asked if you could work with me for a while. You know, I'll show you the ropes and you help me catch this guy. It'll be like you're a detective sergeant on probation. Frank just wants to test it out because, you know, your suspension…I won't go into that, but essentially if you do this right you're officially a D.S."

My mind was reeling; first of all…Frank thinks because of my suspension I need probation? Fair enough. With Traci? Personally, I couldn't be happier. She was about as awesome as another person could get.

"Yeah sure!" I responded with enthusiasm. Traci laughed as I practically squealed in delight, which was completely mortifying but I couldn't help myself. I actually wanted to be a detective, despite common knowledge. "When and where do we get started?"

"Great! Right, well starting right now and I guess we're here. Frank says we've got everyone's help if we need it and also backup."

Traci leant down behind the desk she was sitting on and pulled out a massive grey folder full of papers, " I guess we'll get started then." I couldn't hide my delight as she began opening the folder.

"So, meet Doctor Andrew West," she laid a small photo of a man out before me. He was clearly tall, with wide cheekbones and a slightly round red face, thin lips etched across in a small line. His hair was thick and wavy with salt and pepper hair colour. Clearly middle to late fifties and an obvious drinker. His eyes were set deep into his skull, creating a hooded effect that emphasised his small beetle eyes,

"Professor of English at Toronto University, age 56, super smart guy. Practically genius," The corner of my mouth lifted as I thought of Holly and her definition of genius, "He disappeared six months ago, no one knew where he went. He has no family, no friends, he's a loner."

"The department basically shut down the case as there were little to no leads. But then," Traci paused before pulling out another photo, "He was seen being dragged from an unmarked vehicle two days ago at a gas station just outside the city." Dr. West was clearly bound and gagged, his body slumped against one of his captors and two others were caught mid frame running to the other side of the black vehicle, "Now usually homicide wouldn't concern themselves with this stuff but new evidence came up at a crime scene end of last week. With the shooting we couldn't examine it any further at the time but..."

Traci reached into her, 'folder of goodies', and laid four more photos out besides the others on the table. The photos were of a young woman: brown hair and brown eyes, slight frame. "Allison Grey. Age 24. Her body was found near Rouge Park. She was drowned, as you can see from the purple marks on her neck made by force – left for dead by the side of a tree." Traci paused again, "what was strange about the body was that it was deliberately left in the open. As if someone wanted for us to find her as soon as possible."

I nodded, it was a common feature in murders, glory killing. The bastard wanted to be recognised but not caught. In his or her arrogance they inevitably were as they made it too easy for cops. I pulled two photos towards me so I could get a better look at the body's positioning. She was resting at an angle beside the tree; her body lay out on the side with care to almost look as if she was sleeping by its roots. I couldn't see a mark on her body besides the neck bruises. Her skin was withered and ghostly grey, unusually so given the freshness of the crime scene. She was dressed in a simple white gown. Someone had obviously taken care of her body.

"Why is her skin like that?"

"Ah, thought you might see that," Traci affirmed, "Her entire body was drained of blood."

"What?" I frowned. The hell is this?

"Yeah I know, weird right? The even stranger thing is that we don't even know how the killer got her blood out of her body. There isn't a single mark. Dr. Herring, when he did the autopsy couldn't see anything besides the fact that she drowned and her body was dumped there."

I nodded, filing away the information before pointing towards a close up of a skin tag. Traci looked over my shoulder at the photo then continued, "Yeah the skin tag, that's the only piece of preserved evidence on her body, everything else was destroyed because of water contamination,"

"That's definitely odd," I picked up the photo, "Where was it found on her body?"

"Her lips, just under her bottom lip – as if she bit her attacker in defence. The skin tag shows up as a match to the missing person, yeah you guessed it – Dr. West."

I ran my hands through my hair deducing what the rest of Traci's speech would entail, "So our only link is Dr. West, who's missing and who's also our main suspect – conveniently showing up on a security camera shot a few miles from the body dumping sight?" I bit my lip, "Is there any way of identifying the other captors?"

Traci shook her head, "They're dressed in all black. They look as though they're male but we won't know for sure. Their faces are also covered up, no eye scans."

I leant back against my chair, thinking, "Well, we have to start at the beginning. Either West is being set up or he's in on it. We should probably head over to the site where the body was dumped. Just to make sure there isn't anything we've missed. Maybe get a second autopsy? Probably pull out the original missing persons report for West and go through that as well…"

Traci caught my eye smiling, clearly pleased that the case grabbed my attention, "Yeah I have the missing persons file here. We can head over to the site this afternoon but there's something I want you to check out first," Traci got up off of the table and went into the middle of 'photo-chaos'. She sat down and pulled out various photos from the wreckage, placing them carefully on the others.

"We found something else as well on the body, something even weirder, and slightly more cryptic. There was a sentence written across her left arm. It was most likely scratched on by the killer post-mortem." Traci Frisbee-tossed a photo towards me, I tried to catch it and failed miserably, much to Traci's glee. Grumbling I shuffled over and snatched it off of the floor. Humiliating, kill me now.

A pale arm was zoomed in upon. Small writing could be deciphered, made by either a knife or calligraphy device. It was clearly designed to look eerily beautiful, the cursive writing moved continuously upon the skin as if it were paper. The ink was not black but gaping red flesh contorted by the words:

Denn die Todten reiten Schnell.

"Like that isn't creepy at all… 'For the dead travel fast'?" I guessed, my German was a little rusty; I hadn't spoken it in months.

"Yup,"

"Does this flag up next to any known killers? Anywhere in the police database?" I asked.

"Nope,"

"Does Dr. West speak German?"

"So far as we know, not at all. It's not mentioned in any studies he did or where he travelled."

"Previous crimes?"

"Nope, nothing in the database regarding previous crimes. That's why I've got this photo thing going on," she pointed behind her dejectedly, "It may be a new psychopath on the loose. Great, my second homicide and already I'm on psychopaths…"

I glanced up, shocked that Traci sounded so nervous, "Hey, stop. You're great. You're about as cool as any person that's not Gail Peck could be. That's the greatest compliment anyone could ever get from me, so take it as gospel. We'll catch him, we just need to start from the beginning."

Traci nodded and smiled again, "Look at me, getting a pep talk from Gail…"

"Shut up,"

"That's better! Let's head out to this scene," she touched the home button on her phone, "yeah forensics are there again to just give everything another one over so we can catch them there."

"I call shotgun," I yelled over my shoulder as I ran out of the room, "Move Epstein, I'm leaving!"

"Wait Gail! You need to change into your home clothes!" Traci trailed off as she watched Gail speed off like some child about to get toys from Santa. She sighed, that girl was crazy but she couldn't have been happier to have Gail agree to help her with the case. Traci bent down to her bag on the floor and fished out her keys before striding after the blonde ponytail.

X

Holly felt the cork underneath her fingers give with a satisfied pop as she eased it out of the bottle. Tonight was prosecco night because as much as she loved wine, she decided something light and bubbly was on the menu after that morning's 'heavy' drinking. She got out two glasses but only poured one glass; it didn't make sense to pour two if the other might go flat. Holly eyed the two glasses, surprising herself that she even brought out two glasses. Gail was under no obligation to join her tonight but she couldn't help hoping that the blonde would. Sure, things were stressful but Holly presumed after such a great morning it was understood Gail would return. Frowning at her insecurity, Holly took out her phone to text Gail when she heard excited knocking at her door.

Heart racing Holly leaped from her chair and ran to the door, flinging it wide open to see a breathless and beautiful blonde leaning against the doorframe,

"Why hellooo –" Holly was cut off as Gail's lips careened into her. They were warm, they were full and they were forceful. God she loved it when Gail tried to take control. Holly let out a soft moan as Gail's hand gripped her lower back pushing them even closer together. Gail strode forward and kicked Holly's door closed behind her, frantically pushing her towards the couch.

Holly could barely breathe; Gail was intoxicating as she pressed her body against Holly's, nipping her bottom lip in a playful tug that caused Holly to lean even further in. The kiss was electrifying. Sparks shot from mouth to mouth, lightning struck under fingertips and thunderclouds rolled in the form of soft groans and unstoppable shudders. They fell backwards onto the couch and Holly twisted so she was on top of Gail. She grinded down on the thigh Gail wedged between her legs while Gail mimicked her movement. She then traced the contours of Gail's soft neck with her teeth and lips, sucking gently on Gail's pulse. Gail arched her back into Holly in response, her breath quickening as she put her hands underneath Holly's loose top, and ghosting over her breasts in teasing circles.

Then abruptly Gail stopped her ministrations and pulled back from Holly, "Evening Doctor," she cheekily whispered before sitting up, "Thought you may like that good evening kiss."

Holly groaned, she was so turned on, "You might just kill me officer."

"That's the plan," and with that Gail hopped off the couch and poured her own glass of prosecco. She then carried both glasses and handed one to a rather breathless Holly.

Holly couldn't believe it, she was being left high and dry by this infuriatingly sexy cop. Holly had never come undone so quickly under someone's grasp before. Usually she was the level-headed one.

Gail's eyes scanned over Holly hungrily as she sipped her prosecco,"Mmm, tastes delicious,"

Holly's mouth went dry. Again. She flushed briefly as she imagined tasting…Nope, she told herself, too soon for Gail. So she opted to play Gail's little game, "Hmm," she took a sip, "I've tasted better,"

Gail's mouth almost dropped open. Holly saw her mind trying to come up with a response but couldn't find one so she settled with a stare.

Holly laughed, "So how was your day?"

"Eh, was fine. I've been assigned a detective's case, but I'm on probation. If I do this right I'll be officially a D.S." Gail said it so offhandedly Holly found herself nodding absentmindedly before starting,

"What? That's fantastic Gail! Amazing! Congratulations!" She leant over and gave Gail a slow peck on the lips.

"Thanks," Gail stuttered, blushing and fidgeting under the attention and losing her cool after the small kiss, "Still a ways to go but we'll see what happens. Seems like a tricky case so you may be called for a second autopsy,"

"Who did the first one?"

"A fish," said Gail deadpan.

"What? That's impossible – oh wait…Herring. Oh ha ha ha you witty one," sniggered Holly, "he is pretty useless but still, technically he's a just one of the clupea family so can't expect much,"

Gail sighed with a grin on her face and Holly could tell she was amused by her little dalliance with scientific phrasing, "Nerd."

"Caught! So, you hungry?"

"Stop it."

"Okay, okay," Holly chortled, tears brimming in her eyes, "But come on, that one was good!"

Gail sat up and inched ever so slightly towards Holly. She slowly ran her fingers in her free hand past Holly's cheek into her hair, softly holding her head in place. Holly's breath hitched as Gail leaned in and grazed her lips against Holly before breathing,

"Starving,"

Righto, there we are! Next one will be heavily focused on the murder. Please leave reviews/offer advice/criticism they make my day!