Author's Note: Here is chapter six! I would like to thank everyone for their kind reviews! It is really appreciated!
"There we go..." Holly said as she slid the last piece of glass out of Gail's hand, "I think that is the last of it, but with only the light from your flash-light, I can't be sure. Are you okay?"
"I'm okay... I'm sorry though," Gail said as she stared into the darkness.
"What are you sorry for, honey?" Holly asked as she wrapped her shirt around Gail's hand to stop the bleeding.
"I'm sorry I ruined your shirt. I promise when we get out of here, I will buy you a new one." Gail laughed at a sudden thought that popped into her head.
"What's so funny?" Holly asked as she sat down on the table beside Gail.
"I was just thinking about what Chloe said earlier," Gail said as she placed her uninjured hand on her head. "She had this inane idea that Oliver had us ride together because he wanted her to try to get me to open up about what happened between us." She looked back up at her girlfriend and smiled sadly. "You know what?"
Holly shook her head. "What?"
"I think she was right," Gail said with a half-hearted laugh. "I am really sorry about that night. You know, I had dreams about that night every single night until today. I should have never walked out like that. I was just hurt and scared and since this is all new to me, I just didn't want to feel the pain any more. I thought, 'If I walk out now, I will save myself the pain.'" Gail smirked in the light of the flash-light and sighed. "I guess I didn't help ease the pain any, did I?"
Holly bit her bottom lip and readjusted her glasses. "No you didn't, but Gail... if you felt nervous and scared, you should have talked to me about it. We could have worked something out, you know? We could have waited until you felt more comfortable about us."
"It's not that I felt uncomfortable about us," Gail replied as pulled her legs up on the table and crossed them underneath her. "I feel uncomfortable about myself. About how I could be the one to make this not work. When it comes to relationships, my track record isn't that great, as you know, and that is what scares me." Gail stared into Holly's eyes as she took a deep breath. "You know, earlier that day, Dov had asked me about our relationship. We were in this old abandoned warehouse... it was part of that Project Accountability thing the Inspector had us working on and I remember he asked me how our relationship was going. He thought since I didn't talk about us, it wasn't going well. When in fact..."
"When in fact you are a person who doesn't like kissing and telling... I understand," Holly said with a grin and nodded her head. "It is perfectly acceptable to separate work life and personal life. But then again..." Holly placed a finger to the corner of her mouth and stared up at the ceiling. "Your colleagues at work are your personal-life friends, so you just destroyed the whole not mixing work and home idea."
"Are you finished?" Gail asked as a smile crossed her face.
"Oh..." a sly smile played across the pathologist's lips. "I'm sorry. Please continue." Holly's eyes sparkled with mirth as she watched Gail roll her eyes.
"As I was saying... he thought are relationship was not going well, so he kept pestering me about us until I finally told him."
"What did you tell him?" Holly asked genuinely as she applied more pressure to the wound to staunch the bleeding.
"I told him that it was going great," Gail said with a shrug. "That we didn't fight, which was a first for me and that I felt better. More myself, than I have ever felt my whole life."
Holly smiled and placed a chaste kiss on the side of Gail's mouth. "I promise, when we get out of here, we will talk. We will work everything out because there are a few things we still need to discuss... and we will do all of this together. Deal?"
"Deal."
"Do you think we need to call ETF?" Traci asked as she stared at the place where the opening of the panic room should be.
"And risk their safety and the integrity of the crime scene?" Steve questioned as he ran his hand over the wall. "We can't do that. I didn't see how large the room was before. It was too dark. If we try to bring them into the equation, we could run the risk of hurting them more than they could already be."
"You're right..." Nash said as she glanced back at the thermostat on the wall. "I think this thing is broken. It shows that the temperature is 36 degrees Celsius and it can't be any more than 22 in here."
"Let me see that," Steve said as he moved closer to Traci. "Shit... keep an eye on that thermostat! If it gets any higher, let me know. I'm going to call for assistance." He said as he paced back and forth across the floor.
"Do you need me to do anything Steve?" Chloe asked as she watched the man fumble with his phone.
"Yeah, try to call some of the others... Dov, Andy. Get Chris and Nick back over here as well. I'm calling the ETF."
"But you said..."
"Forget what I said, Traci," Steve said as he glanced back up at the female detective. "That's my sister in there and I am not going to let them overheat in that thing!"
"I wish the video feeds didn't short out when you broke the bulb," Holly said as she stared in the direction of the bank of monitors that went dark. "I really wish I could see if they found out we are in here or not."
"I just wish it had cooled off a bit in here once all those electronics went off," Gail said as she wiped the sweat off her forehead. "Do you think there is a refrigerator in here?"
"Why would there be a refrigerator?" Holly retorted as she peered at the officer.
"Well, it's like what you said before..." Gail started as she slowly panned the flash-light across the room. "It's almost as if someone was living in here, and if I was the person that was living in here, I would have a refrigerator in here. I would also make sure I wasn't dumb enough to place a heat lamp or a high wattage bulb or whatever in the light socket."
Holly chuckled slightly as she followed the light across the room. "You know, you might have something there." She frowned as a sudden thought crossed her mind. "I think it has to do with something else besides the light bulb. Train your flash-light on the bed and follow me." Holly walked the short distance to the bed followed closely by Gail. "Be careful where you step. When we are out of here, I want the techs to do a full analysis of this room."
"What are you looking for exactly?" Gail asked as she stopped short behind the pathologist.
"Hmm, not sure..." Holly mumbled as she wiped the sweat from underneath her glasses and set them back on her nose. "This case is getting stranger by the minute, but I have a hunch that this isn't actually a panic room."
"But it looks just like one!" Gail exclaimed as she stared incredulously at the back of her girlfriend's head.
"I know what it looks like, Gail," Holly replied as she knelt beside the bed, careful not to touch anything, she motioned for Peck to move forward a little more. "Shine the light right here," the pathologist whispered as she pointed at the wall over the bed. The harsh light swept up towards the location of Holly's hand as Peck complied. Squinting her eyes at the sudden change in light on the area of the wall she was staring at, Holly muttered, "What the..."
"What the what, Holly?" Gail questioned as she stared at the wall. When the pathologist would not respond, Peck sighed irritably. "Holly. I can't read your mind, so how about telling me what you see."
The pathologist licked her lips and then bit her bottom lip as she continued you to stare. Letting go her lip as she sighed, Holly finally spoke, "Well, it isn't exactly what I was looking for, but it gives strong evidence to my proposal that this isn't a mere panic room. I found a camera lens in the wall."
Gail frowned as she moved closer to the wall. "Let me see." Her injured hand moved towards the wall. Peck brushed a finger over the spot on the wall that Holly pointed out and muttered, "I'll be damned."
Chloe huffed as she paced the floor in between the sofa and the large screen TV in the basement. "I don't care if you were getting ready to leave, Dov. We need you and Andy over at the scene on Richmond Street now. Tell Oliver everything I told you, maybe he can get more people over here so we can get them out of that room." Price pressed the end call button on her phone before her boyfriend could respond.
"Are they on their way?" Traci asked as she pushed off the wall she was leaning on.
"I hope so..." Chloe said with a sigh as she looked around the room. "I just don't get it, Traci. Why would this woman be so paranoid as to have a panic room?" As she continued to stare into space a random thought occurred to her. "Do you know what the weirdest part of this is?"
Nash shrugged her shoulders as she moved closer to the young officer. Steve had went upstairs to escort the forensics team to their van as they took the body from the basement to await a full autopsy at the labs and the two women waited for him and, hopefully, more reinforcements to arrive. The sun was beginning to set and they were no closer to figuring out how to get their friends out of the panic room. Traci had called the owner, Patricia O'Neal, to hopefully find out more information on the panic room while the others were calling up everyone they could down at 15 Division. The owner had her phone turned off, which made Traci suspicious, but then she remembered the woman had just arrived on a flight from Tokyo and had probably turned her phone off. "What's the weirdest part?" Traci asked when she noticed that Chloe did not finish her train of thought.
"The weirdest part is- why is the panic room in the basement in the first place? It makes no sense!" Chloe exclaimed as she pointed at the wall that the room was behind. "Sure, I can understand it being in the master bedroom... you're sleeping and suddenly you hear your alarms going off because some intruder is in your house. What's the first thing you are going to do?" She stared at the detective with wide eyes momentarily before continuing on her hyperactive hypothetical. "You rush to your panic room that is in the same room as the one you are sleeping in!" She started pacing the floor again, her shoulder length red hair flying behind her. "You are not going to wake up, peek around the room and then rush to the basement to the safest place in your house. That makes no sense! By the time you did that, the intruders would notice they are not alone in your house!" She stopped and turned towards Traci who was staring at her as if she was unstable. "What?"
Traci opened her eyes widely and lifted her hands in front of her. "Nothing... I'm just listening to your rant that makes absolute sense, but you never know... she may spend more time down here than in her own bedroom when she is home. Maybe you should calm down a bit Chloe. No need to work yourself up over this. Steve said ETF was on their way and had the perfect solution to our problem..." She lowered her hands and walked over to Price. "Let's just hope they do not ruin too much evidence with this solution."