A/N: Hey guys! Make sure you don't skip a chapter, I updated yesterday morning. Happy reading.
"Helloooo."
"Heyy," Holly smiled looking up from her desk, "what are you doing here?" She asked, delightfully surprised.
"Obviously I'm looking for a breakfast date," Gail said with a smile, approaching Holly at her desk.
"Wellll," Holly laughed, standing, "speaking from this side of the day, I think it's dinner time," Holly countered, smiling.
"I just woke up, so, for me, it's breakfast time," Gail cocked her head to the side.
"What do you want to get? I can leave in a few, I just have to finish proofing this report."
Gail narrowed her eyes and pretending to think before looping her arms around Holly's neck and pulling her down in a searing kiss. Gail had been walking around in a haze all night and all day, but this was like coming up for air. The way Holly was surprised at first, but then moaned into the kiss, the way Holly's tongue danced against her's, the way Holly's hands went to her hips and pulled them into her, the way Holly's eyes slowly fluttered open when Gail finally pulled away. Gail could breathe again. She got up on her tip toes and whispered in Holly's ear, "I'm absolutely positive you're what I want."
Holly's knees went weak, "I um, can, ah, finish this report later."
"That's what I thought," Gail said with a wicked smile, and headed for the door.
"Hol, someone stole all your t-shirts," Gail said, confused, standing naked in front of Holly's open dresser drawer. Holly's empty, open dresser drawer.
"Huh?" Holly rolled over in bed to face Gail.
"Your t-shirt drawer is empty," Gail said again.
"Oh, well," Holly sat up, covering herself with the sheet, "actually they're in the next one down now," Holly said, biting her bottom lip, this wasn't exactly how she had wanted to tell Gail that she had cleared out a drawer for her, but, she'd gotten a little distracted.
"Ohhh kayyyyy," Gail answered, not really knowing what to say. Was what she thought was happening, happening? Play it cool, Peck.
"So if you wanted to, you know, put some of your t-shirts in there-" Holly was cutoff by the sound of her apartment's buzzer. Gail finished throwing on the recently relocated sweatpants and t-shirt and dashed off to the door to collect their delivered dinner. She came back into the bedroom a minute later carrying the bag of takeout containers, plopped herself down in the middle of the bed and got work on the food. Be cool Peck, be cool.
"You're not trying to steal my clothes are you?" Gail asked, sounding skeptical.
"I'll never tell," Holly smirked.
Be cool Peck, be cool. "And if I say, left some worn clothes here...do you think they'd, I don't know, find a way to launder themselves?"
"It's quite possible, but never guaranteed," Gail never did fail to surprise Holly.
Be cool Peck, be cool. "Is that so? I'll have to talk to them about that then." Holly just smiled her takeout container as the blonde stuffed herself with more noodles.
The next morning Gail was enjoying a deep, dreamless sleep when her phone's overly obnoxious ring shattered her peace. She groaned loudly, keeping her face buried in the pillow and groped the surface of the nightstand for her phone. She silenced it before bringing it up to her face, peeking one eye out from the pillow to see who the caller was. It was Holly. And it was 9:15. 'Why was Holly calling?' Gail wondered as she swiped to accept the call.
"You're mean," was Gail's greeting, her voice like gravel.
"Morning to you too, sleepyhead." If her phone's ring was like a jackhammer to her skull Holly's voice was like being enveloped in a cloud.
"I'm mad at you," a half truth.
"You love it, but you're about to not..." Holly sounded nervous.
"Huh?" Gail struggled to wake up, and keep up.
"Look, your mom just called my office?" Holly was still struggling to accept that as a fact, "and she asked us to dinner? She said that you hadn't returned her calls? And then she said something about you needing to think about applying for promotions? I just wanted to tell you. I don't even know how she got my number."
"Well it's not that hard to just call the morgue and ask to be transferred," Gail laughed despite the knot that had formed in her stomach. Gail hadn't talked to her mom since she went to dinner with Steve, and she had ignored quite a few phone calls. "I'm a police officer but she's The Police. What'd you tell her?" Gail was worried.
"I don't know, I told her I'd have to talk to you, played dumb, pretended I had another call?"
"Ugh," Gail groaned, she hadn't even had her coffee yet, "well thanks for the heads up, I'll handle it. Know any good hit men?" Gail joked.
"Like I'd tell you," Holly quipped, "look, I gotta get back to work but I'll see you tonight?"
"If my mother lets me survive," Gail joked.
"Enjoy your day off," Holly laughed.
"Thanksss, bye."
"Oh, Gail, there's a key on your keychain, and you should, ah, use it. Gotta go!"
Her phone beeped, signaling the call had ended. Gail brought it away from her face and stared at the screen as it flashed that her call had ended. Eventually it went back to the lock screen, informing her that her mother had called twice. Great. There was definitely no going back to sleep now. Gail swung her legs over the side of the bed and sat up. Today was definitely a day to head to the range. She deleted her mother's voicemails without listening to them. It was probably better for everyone involved; she reasoned. Gail stood up and then quickly padded through the apartment to the small bowl Holly kept on the kitchen counter. She stared into it, afraid to make a sudden movement. The chain of collected metal stared back, unfazed. 'How long have I been standing here? A minute? An hour?' Gail didn't know. It felt like forever. 'Bite the bullet.' Gail slowly reached into the bowl, and pulled out her keys. She held them up in front of her face to examine them, spinning them around slowly to see them from all sides. Key to her apartment: check. Key to her parents' front door: check. Key to her parents' side door: check. Key to Steve's apartment that he didn't know she still had: check. Car key: check. Bottle opener: check. Whistle: check. Everyone was present and accounted for. Gail's focus moved to the new kid on the block. Nestled between the secret key to Steve's and the bottle opener hung a foreign key chain featuring what looked like two different kinds of atoms. 'What a NERD.' There was also a strange key attached to the nerdy key chain and encased in a pink post-it note. Gail unfolded the post-it and removed it from the key.
'Don't freak out. It's just a piece of metal shaped like the inside of my deadbolt
-xoxo H
p.s. you're cute when you freak out
x'
Gail looked from the note back to the keys, to the note again, and then back to the keys. She'd been awake for maybe twenty minutes. She looked down at her phone in her left hand and then decided to send Holly a text;
'NERD'
Feeling slightly pleased with herself Gail returned her keys to the bowl, tucked the post-it into her phone case, and sauntered off to the bathroom. Coffee, doughnuts, and guns. Coffee, donuts, and guns.
When she emerged from the shower she had a text from Holly:
'?'
Really? Was that the best she had? Oh great, a missed call from an "unknown" number. Superintendent mom, no doubt, trying to trick her into answering the phone. Gail grabbed her coat and keys on her way out. In the elevator she snapped a picture of the new keychain and sent it to Holly. 'Nerd' should have been self explanatory. Her phone buzzed again when she was getting into her car.
'It's Hydrogen and Sulfur'
Wow, even nerdier. Gail responded as such.
Her phone buzzed again as he was perusing the display case at her favorite doughnut shop.
'They're H and S on the periodic table. As in Holly Stewart. My dad gave it to me'
A quick search on Google and Gail typed back;
'Hydrogen Sulfur Thorium Sodium Copper'
'HSThNaCu ? I don't get it...'
'As in, Holy Shit That's Nauseatingly Cute. Keep up nerd'
A/N: The next chapter shouldn't be too much of a wait. But while you're waiting, why not leave a review?
To the guest who mentioned a Gail/Summer chapter; you called it! But don't hold your breathe...we've got a little ways to go before that...