A/N: Hey everyone who is still reading this story. I am so sorry that I haven't updated in a long time. I got back to school and between classes and soccer practices I had no free time. I thought I would, but I ended up spending more time practicing and hanging out with my girlfriend than I expected. To make up for that I am going to try to try to get in another update before new years. Then one more before I go back to school the week after that. Hopefully this coming semester will be easier and I'll have more time to update. Fingers crossed, and happy holidays to all.

It was a rough week for Gail. She expected to coast through her recovery, get in some training during the week off so she didn't slow down. That's not what happened at all though.

After playing so rough with Thalin the first day Gail was beyond sore. So sore that when Thalin came jumping on her bed early the next morning to wake her up she raised her voice at him. He left the room quickly and quietly. She felt horrible, but when
she tried to get up it caused an excruciating pain through her entire upper body. She grit her teeth but couldn't fully stop the groan from slipping out. Elinath walked in with a tray of breakfast. "How bad is it?" She asked in a kind voice. Gail
gave her a small head shake. "It's not that bad" She tried to deny. Elinath smiled "well for what it's worth Thalin is very sorry for hurting you." Gail dropped her head in guilt. "I'm so sorry for snapping at him Elinath. I don't even really know
what happened. One minute he was jumping and then-" The other woman cut her off. "Gail it's OK. I'll let him know you're not mad at him, but you didn't do anything wrong either. Let me help you sit up and you can eat. I'll come back and see if you
need anything when I get back from taking Thalin to school." Gail nodded and thanked the woman as she helped her sit up comfortably and then left. Gail ate and fell asleep before Elinath got back. She slept through the rest of the day and night only
waking up for short periods of time to eat and take medicine.

The second day was much better. She was still sore, but she had more strength. She was able to get out of her bed and make it to the couch in the living room. She played with Thalin and some of his action figures until he had to go to school. He gave
her a big hug and an enthusiastic wave on his way out. When Elinath got back she made tea and they sat on the couch talking and getting to know each other. "I have to know how you and Hayden ended up together. I mean you're Very different yet you
work so well together." Elinath chuckled lightly. "We were neighbors as children. We used to do everything together. Honestly I'd always had a little crush on her, but she didn't seem to see me as anything more than one of her friends. As we grew
up we began to have different hobbies. She played sports and was all about training to go to the academy, and we had a fight about the violence of the military. We stopped talking for a long time. She joined the military and I got married." Gail was
surprised at this revelation. "About a year later she came home to visit her parents and prove to me how successful she had been. She stopped by visit my husband and I and when she knocked on the door nobody answered. So she looked through the front
window and saw my husband hitting me. She stormed through the the door and told him to stop. He smirked at her and said, 'or what?' And she kicked his ass for me. She apologized for the fight that we had and I cried. She held me for hours just letting
me cry on her uniform. I know she caught hell for it when she went back to training, but she never mentioned it to me. We started dating as soon as my divorce was final which wasn't long considering he was in prison. Five months later Thalin was born.
She was there for me every step of the way, and by the time she proposed there was not a chance that I was going to say no. She has protected me every day since then and I know she always will. We're different, but we complement each other." Gail
didn't really know what to say. So they sat in silence for a moment before picking up the conversation on a different topic. Gail got plenty of embarrassing Hayden stories that she would be locking away for a time when they were completely necessary.
That night when Hayden came home for dinner she ran Gail through the new guard rotations. They were ampingup security on the king and her replacement guard was on a shift rotation. Hayden said it was so that nobody else's schedules got messed
up. To Gail it all seemed like a huge mess that could easily be manipulated. "Hayden can you make me a list of everyone who rotates through my position, anyone who volunteers for guard duty for Holly or the king, anyone who volunteers for extra duties,
and everyone who actually gets approved for extra duties over the next couple of days. Keep the lists separate. I have a bad feeling that this whole set up is a trap to try to manipulate someone on the inside into the king's good graces so that they'll
get more responsibilities and have better opportunities at Holly." Hayden had never thought of it that way. Sure she thought the system was weirdly set up, but she didn't think the same way Gail does. That's why Gail needed to come back to work ASAP.
She promised to bring her a list every day of the people she wanted.

The third day was much the same as the second, but this time it was Gail's turn to bear her secrets. The funny thing was that she wasn't nervous about it at all shetrusted Elinath, in fact she trusted the whole family more than if they were her
own family. She found herself telling Elinath about how her parents dropped her off at the academy when she was young and she was raised there by the instructors. She didn't know anything else. She couldn't bring herself to voluntarily tell her about
her mother and Elaine though. If she had asked maybe Gail would've shared, but she didn't ask so itdoesn't matter.

Finally by the fourth day she was feeling strong. She got up before even Thalin and got ready to go for a run. The first time she had voluntarily run in a long time. She ran as far and as long as she possibly could. Maybe that wasn't the best idea, but
she had to know her limits so that she could push them tomorrow. When she returned to the house Thalin was up and playing with his toys all on his own, but he looked bored. "What's the matter buddy?" She asked. "It's not the same by myself, but you're
back now so you can play now too!" He was so excited that even though she wanted to shower she couldn't say no. The action figures were locked in a great battle with no end in sight. Of course Elinath knew exactly how to bring about the end of his
great battle, "breakfast is ready!" She called. The two dropped the toys and ran into the kitchen to make their plates. "Just so you know, I was totally kicking your butt." Thalin informed. Boy did that start an argument. They argued strategy and
technique until they were blue in the face. Forks and spoons being used as demonstration tools. Finally the argument ended when Thalin went off to school. Of course once there he would brag about how his "army" was totally about to crush the "army"
of a well-seasoned warrior.

Once he was gone Gail had the time to check over the list that Hayden had given her. She starred anyone whose name showed up on more than one list. And she checked anyone who had legit business being a guard ofthe crown, like for example Hayden
had put herself on the list, but she also checked anyone who had been a regular guard of the king. She circled anyone who would have the ability to actually protect anyone from an attack, like Traci and Nick. Finally she put a question mark next to
anyone who couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag and would've had to get special permission to request the detail let alone actually work it, people like Dov who was much better from a distance than in close combat or Duncan who only graduated
the academy because his dad worked with Elaine and had pull. She looked over the lists at the names she hadn't marked. There were less than a handful. She put them in a list all their own. She would check for their names to appear on any lists that
she would get in the future, but for now she had no reason to suspect them of anything. From the lists that she had she began to consider every person trying to decide if she thought they were capable of treason in the form of assassinating theprincess.
The problem with that theory was that she didn't know most of them all that well so she couldn't fairly make that decision. Huffing she resigned herself to talk to Hayden about them when she got there because Hayden was way more personable than Gail.
Hayden at her worst was still at least four times better than Gail at her best when it came to dealing with people. Instead she filled her afternoon by coming up with a solution to the messy system that she could, hopefully, pitch to the king and
his assistant when she returned to work. That night she and Hayden made a small amount of progress on the lists, but not much. Neither of them felt comfortable ruling people out based on their personal opinion of them.

The last few days of the week. Were spent training harder than before. She pushed herself often working out to the point of almost passing out. She had Thalin'shelp when he got back from school. She would take him on runs on her back. He would count
the number of times he heard her footsteps or how many times the branches wobbled under her feet. He took great pride in making her do five pushups for every time either one happened.

Finally it was time for her final doctor's appointment. Since it was a weekend which meant no school Thalin was left with a babysitter so Elinath could support Gail. They sat in the waiting room with Gail bouncing her leg. "Relax" Elinath said putting
her hand on Gail's knee to stop the bouncing. Gail looked at her. "I'm nervous, what if they decide not to let me to go back. To work?" Elinath chuckled. "Then you stay with us for a few extra days and continue to get better." Gail nodded that helped
a lot. She was still nervous, sitting in the chair bouncing her leg until the nurse called her back.

She was taken to one of the exam rooms where she was put through the usual tests, blood pressure, height, weight, and reflexes. The nurse told her that the doctor would be with her in a minute, liar. It was almost an hour later that the doctor came in.
Gail was playing with one of the gloves, she had blown it up and was in the process of making a face on it with a marker that she had found in her search of the cabinets. The doctor chuckled at her antics, but stopped quickly at the glare she sent
him. He looked over her charts and said, "OK, I want to put you through a couple of stress tests to see where you're at then we can come back here and talk about any concerns you may have. Gail didn't say anything she just nodded. She was lead into
another room set up with all kinds of rehab equipment.

They started her off with a two mile run. They told her to go as fast as possible, so Gail set off running. Halfway through the doctors told her to speed up if she could, and she did. She finished the two miles in under twelve minutes. She was breathing
heavy, but not totally dying. So they took her across the room to a weight bench. They took her bench and squat maxes and put her through a few ab exercises. "This is beyond stupid. This isn't the gym, I'm not here to get a workout." She thought to
herself, but kept her mouth shut. They took her vitals, and then to finish they gave her a practice sword, blunt and heavier than an official sword. She sparred with one of the physical therapists for five minutes then had her vitals checked again.

She was led back to the exam room to wait once again for the doctor to come back. Finally he came back in. "I must say you are in remarkable shape, especially for someone who was poisoned just a week ago. We are a little concerned about the fact that
you lost a few pounds since the incident. It isn't a significant amount, just eat a little bit more at each meal until you're back to your original weight." Gail nodded along. She would be happy to eat all day long. "Great then if that's all you can
just sign that little piece of paper letting me go back to work." She said beginning to get off the table. "Not so fast," the doctor said. "Of course, it couldn't be that easy." She muttered under her breath. "Your blood pressure is a little higher
than we would like, but I still want you to make an appointment to check in with me in a couple of weeks." Gail didn't like that. "And if I don't want to?" He smiled. "Then I just won't sign the paper until after you check back in." Gail glared at
the smug man. "Fine" she ground out through her teeth. He handed over a note that would allow her to go back to work at the beginning of next week.

Gail took the note and ran out to the waiting room, stopping to make her next appointment, and went straight over to Elinath. "I get to go back to work!" She announced. Elinath stood up and gave her a very excited hug.

A/N: I hope you liked it. I wrote this on my phone so I apologize for any mistakes.I'm about to go work on the next chapter so that I can have it ready in time. I hope all of you can forgive me for not updating in months. I promised myself I wouldn't do that, and yet here I am. Again I'm so sorry. See you soon, I promise.

Until next time
Hold the Line and Don't Look Back