A/N: Hey everyone. I know I said I would try to have an update up last week, but time just got away from me. I'm packing up to go back to college, I actually leave on Monday. That means that the updates will be much more spaced out. At least for the next two weeks while my schedule is packed I won't be able to update. Hopefully I'll get a couple of chapters outlined, but definitely not fully written out.

SHOUT OUTS:
I promised shout outs to anyone who could tell me where the reference for the Iocaine powder came from. It comes from the book/movie The Princess Bride. So shoutout to devil3567 and qbonbon.

Now some anonymous reviews then we can move on to the latest chapter.
Turtle: I'm glad you're enjoying it. I appreciate you taking the time to review.
Debby: You asked me to speed things up a little in an earlier review and I realized that you were right. There's a difference between keeping things slow to build the story and taking way too long to do anything. So thank you for the 1: I'm glad you're enjoying it despite the cliffhangers.
Guest 2:I appreciate all of the nice things you had to say. I definitely will be continuing this story and it means a lot that you would tell me that you admire my continuation of this. Positive reviews like this make me feel so good about my writing.
Guest 3: I think you might have misunderstood what I meant. The reference for the poison came from The Princess Bride.
Turtle: Well I appreciate you not throwing out the mild insult that I would have deserved. FYI to you and anyone else reading this that offer still stands if I miss a update by an entire week. Or if I link up two or more chapters that end in cliff hangers. I'm glad you like the story, and I hope that doesn't change any time soon.

On to the story:

"How is Gail!?" Holly asked. She couldn't wait anymore to find out the fate of the woman who had put Holly's safety above her own. The guard turned to her and gave a short bow before standing straight up and speaking, "She is out of critical condition and getting stronger every minute, but she is still unconscious." Holly let out a sigh of relief. "Can we go see her?" She asked impatiently. Hayden contemplated for a few seconds then turned to the guard who was standing waiting for either further instructions or to be dismissed. "Get Traci, Andy, and Celeb. Tell them to get here right now. We leave in half an hour." (Celeb- means silver) Holly was so thankful that she almost hugged them, but managed to refrain.

Hayden walked further into the room after the other guard left. She walked straight over to her wife and took her hand. "Elinath I need you and Thalin to stay here. It's safer here and I don't want him to see Gail in the state that she'll be in." Elinath nodded in agreement, and they all sat down to eat breakfast. As they were finishing up there was a knock on the door. Hayden went and answered it to have three guards, two women and a man, enter. They dropped to a knee in a line just inside the door. Holly was immediately on her feet telling them to rise.

Once they were back on their feet they got ready to go. Hayden gave a small almost imperceptible nod to her wife, and they got into formation. It was a standard diamond formation with Holly well protected in the middle of the "pack." Hayden was stood at the head of the formation and Celeb at the back facing away from everyone else. He was protecting Holly from the back, but this formation showed the absolute trust he had in the rest of the guards. They were not taking any chances with Holly, not anymore.

They got to the hospital fairly quickly, for the absolute care that they were taking. When they got there the guards shifted, Traci left her position at Holly's left to go clear Gail's room to make sure nothing was waiting to hurt Holly inside. Hayden stayed where she was, but Andy and Celeb both shifted positions. Andy dropped back to be diagonally back from Holly's right side, and Celeb moved up to her left still facing away from her. None of them said anything they just automatically knew what they were supposed to do.

Traci came out of the room and gave the all clear, so they lead Holly in with Traci falling seamlessly back into her position. It amazed Holly just how smooth they could actually be. She stopped short when she saw Gail lying in the hospital bed. She was pale, covered in a layer of sweat, with a small bandage on the side of her forehead, and an IV with an antidote being pumped into her. Hayden stepped to the side to let Holly creep forward towards the bed. She put her hand over her mouth as tears filled her eyes. She moved to the chair on Gail's left side. She grabbed Gail's hand and held on tight. She looked silently at Gail as her other hand came up to the bandage on Gail's forehead. Before her hand touched the bandage she choked on a sob and used that hand to cover her mouth again instead.

She began to speak forgetting that the rest of the guards were there. "Gail, I am so sorry. I never meant for this to happen. I would give anything for this not to be happening to you." She brushed some tears off her cheeks and continued. "The night before the ball I told you I didn't want anything to happen to you. I just had this terrible feeling that I couldn't shake, but you made me feel better and I forgot everything I was worried about. Then we kissed and I felt so free." Behind Gail Hayden's eyebrows raised almost all the way to her hairline. She wasn't aware of any kiss, she had her suspicions about the attraction Gail felt for Holly, but wasn't aware it had gone any further than that. She filed the topic away in the back of her mind to discuss with Gail when she got the chance. "Gail, I'm so scared. There are so many people here to protect me, but all of the guards in the kingdom were in that ballroom. They were all instructed to keep an eye on me whether they were on duty or not. But someone still managed to get through that security, and you're paying the price. I was arrogant about it. I was embarrassed that you stopped our kiss, so I didn't want you to be right. You need to wake up so that I can apologize and we can move on."

They sat in silence for over an hour before Holly felt Gail squeeze her hand. "She's waking up!" Holly said excitedly. Gail slowly blinked her eyes open. The bright lights burned her eyes, but eventually her eyes were fully open and looking around. Celeb left the room to find Gail's doctor. As Gail was looking around her eyes were noticeably unfocused, and as her eyes finally focused on the dresser with her uniform and weapons on it. All of a sudden she leaned over the right side of the bed and puked into the bucket that was waiting there. When she finished puking she leaned back on the bed a little too forcefully because she groaned and put a hand over the bandage on her head.

"That's some heavy shit. What was it?" Gail asked in a groggy voice. Honestly Holly found it kind of sexy. "Iocaine" Hayden said stepping up. Gail groaned again. "When are they gonna let me out of here? I hate this place." Hayden chuckled at her friend's misfortune. "Celeb went to get your doctor to come look you over now that you're finally awake." Hayden told her. "Yeah whatever, just admit that you missed me." Gail said arrogantly as she closed her eyes against the light that was hurting her eyes. "I did, we did; Gail you scared us." Gail waved her hand brushing off Hayden's concern.

Finally Celeb and the doctor came into the room. The doctor made them leave the room so she could talk to Gail privately. They sat in the waiting room for about a half hour when the doctor came out to get them. "One more night. I want to keep observing her overnight, then she can go home in the morning if she's still doing as well as she is now. That's all I can share with you." They thanked the doctor and went back into the room. They talked with Gail for a few more hours, but eventually Holly had to go back to the palace to keep up with her duties.

Hayden instructs Holly to go back with Traci, Andy, and Celeb. She assured Holly that she would stay with Gail for as long as she could, but Holly had to promise to stay with the other three no matter what. Holly didn't like it at first, she knew it was because she wanted to spend more time with Gail but it was also a bad idea, but eventually she agreed as long as she got a status update as soon as she got back.

When everyone else was gone Hayden and Gail were sitting making small talk, kind of awkward for the outside observer. "I heard that Elaine hasn't been to visit you." Hayden said. She figured this was a good time to find out a little more about her partner who had quickly become her friend. "Nope" Gail said nonchalantly. "I understand your dad can't come out because of his injury, so that I understand. But I can't imagine a mother not coming to visit her daughter who almost died." Hayden spoke softly. She truly was confused. She couldn't imagine Thalin getting hurt and not being at his side every moment. "Well then, it's a good thing Elaine isn't my mother." Hayden was shocked. "What? But-" Gail cut her off. "She's married to my dad, she's Steve's mother, but she's not my mother." Now Hayden was really confused. "I don't understand Gail." Gail sighed resigning herself to tell the whole story. "My dad had a very short lived affair with a human. By the time Elaine found out my mother was already pregnant with me, so they waited. After I was born they took me away from her. I don't know her name, or what she looks like, or even if she's still alive. One day I want to find her." Hayden was shocked so all she could let out was a small "wow." Gail nodded. "It's why I have human style tattoos designed and done by a human. They remind me of who I am." Gail said moving the collar of the shirt she was in so they could see the parts of the tattoos that wrap around her shoulders and to her collar bone. "When this assignment is over and Holly is safe again I'll help you find her." Hayden told her taking Gail's hand. "Thank you" Gail said squeezing Hayden's hand. "Don't thank me, you deserve to know who your mother is and get the chance to know her." Gail smiled her thanks, but it was broken by a large yawn.

Hayden chuckled "sleep now, we have a bigger discussion to have tomorrow." Gail gave her a confused, but sleepy look. "You and Holly?" Hayden asked. Gail's eyes widened unsure how Hayden found out. She'd been so careful. "Don't worry about it right now. Sleep, I'm going to go back to the palace and update Holly. I'll spend some time there and see if they have any leads on what happened to you. We will talk about this when I come back tomorrow to pick you up." Hayden said. Gail nodded and fell asleep.

A/N: Well there it is. A week late, but better late than never right? I know it was short, and I'm very sorry about that. But honestly with getting ready to go back to school I haven't had the motivation to write for the last couple of weeks. I'm sorry if it's shitty, but it will get better, I hope. Please leave a review letting me know what you thought. If you have any ideas about what should happen in this story please feel free to message me or leave it in a review. I don't really have much elso to say, so I'll see you next time,
Hold The Line and Don't Look Back