CHAPTER 7

Gail had gotten a call from her social worker Anne who had asked her to meet her a half hour before Gail's regular visit with Sophie. She was nervous, she couldn't tell from Anne's neutral tone whether the reasoning behind the meeting was good or bad. Her heart was racing the entire time she spent in her car driving to meet Anne at the park where Sophie's foster mom would be bringing Sophie to for Gail's visit. She had gotten very attached to Sophie during the few months she had been spending with her and didn't let herself imagine what would happen if they had denied Gail's adoption application. Until now. Now it was all she could think about since that phone call. What if Anne is going to tell her that her application was denied? With Holly gone in another country, Sophie was all Gail had left and she wasn't sure her heart could handle another loss.

She walked up to the bench where she saw Anne sitting and Anne had noticed Gail's incredibly nervous facial expression and the crack in her voice as she greeted her.

"Don't look so terrified Gail, I'm here with good news, not bad."

Gail let out a loud sigh of relief. "Oh thank God. I was freaking myself out the entire way here. I really can't even stomach the thought of not getting Sophie."

Anne flashed Gail a reassuring smile. "I apologize if my phone call scared you. I just didn't want to talk about this over the phone, I wanted to do it in person." She paused and Gail was hanging on every word, anxiously awaiting the next ones to leave her mouth. "I wanted to meet with you today to let you know that we've made some great progress in your adoption application. All of your references had amazing things to say about you and none of them doubted your abilities to take this on. Of course you being a police officer made your background checks quite easy, so there was no surprise there." She paused again giving Gail a moment to take it all in. "Look Gail, officially I'm not allowed to say that this is a done deal, we still have to come and do a couple home visits and have a few more group sessions with you and Sophie together to talk, but unofficially I wanted to let you know that you should start to prepare yourself for Sophie coming home with you in the coming weeks."

Gail had a frozen expression on her face. She had heard the words, but she was still processing. She had been waiting for this moment and now that it was here she felt a surge of emotions all at once and needed a moment before she could speak.

"I….I…oh my God I can't even put these feelings into words. I can't even express how badly I wanted to hear you say that. Sophie makes me so happy and I want you to know that I am going to do everything within my power to make sure I make her as happy as she makes me and give her the life she deserves." Gail now had the biggest of smiles across her face and could barely stay seated.

"I know you will Gail. And I also know Sophie feels just as happy as you whenever you are around. She keeps asking if she is going to get to go home with you. I don't want us to say anything to her yet though, not until all the legal paperwork is completed."

Gail nodded in agreement. "Of course, I understand. I really appreciate you telling me."

Anne smiled once more at Gail. "Of course. I wanted to give you a little bit of reassurance because I know how stressful this process can be. But I think there's someone here that would like to steal your attention away now" and points in the direction of Sophie, who had spotted Gail from across the park and was now running towards them.

"Gail! Gail!" Sophie exclaimed as she ran into Gail with arms open and wrapped her in a hug. Gail scooped up the little girl in a hug and felt tears starting to form behind her eyes. Sophie released herself from the hug and gave Gail a confused look.

"Gail, why are you crying? Are you sad?"

Gail shook her head "No no honey, I'm not sad. I'm just very happy to see you."

"Well you don't have to cry about being happy silly! Can we go play now? I have a new game I want to show you!"

Gail followed Sophie towards the playground with a smile on her face. Soon she was going to be able to call this little girl her daughter. Daughter she said to herself. The word felt good. It felt right.

After her visit with Sophie Gail was still smiling like an idiot. She was feeling relieved and happy that things were finally starting to go her way for once. Once she sat in the car she immediately wanted to call Holly and tell her the news. Though they were just friends, Holly was the first person Gail wanted to share this with. She moved her finger over to Holly's contact in her phone and dialed. The phone went directly to voicemail.

"Huh, that's weird. Her phone is never usually off" Gail thought to herself. She turned the ignition on and decided she would try again once she got home.

As she pulled her car up to the driveway of her townhouse that she had moved into once she decided to start the adoption process and she froze as she noticed a very familiar brunette sitting on her front porch with a suitcase sitting beside her. She rubbed her eyes in case she was seeing things. Nope, Holly was still there.

"What the hell is going on?" Gail said to herself outloud. Holly registered Gail's presence and smiled at her and waved.

Holly was nervous, terrified actually. She had been sitting and waiting for Gail for the last 2 hours but she didn't care. She would have sat on that front porch the entire day if that's what it took. She briefly debating seeing if Gail was at the station, but decided against it because she wanted to do this in private. If she was going to pour her heart out and try and get Gail back she didn't want to do it in an observation room with a criminal onlooker.

Oh God here she comes. Calm down and breathe Holly, just say what you've been repeating in your head for the last few hours she said to herself, trying to calm her nerves. She couldn't tell if the look on Gail's face was a good or bad one, or just a completely confused one.

"Holly? What are you...how are you here?" Gail asked, her voice shaky and her eyes not breaking from Holly's as she continued to walk closer.

"So I'm in San Francisco working in a state of the art lab doing a job people would kill for in my shoes and I should be happy. I'm in a gorgeous city with a dream job and I should be happy. Except that I'm not. I'm miserable every day because no matter what job I have or what beautiful city I live in there is nothing that makes me happy anymore except for you. You and your sarcastic wit, your amazing blue eyes, your warm smile, the smell of your skin. I can't be happy anywhere else because you aren't there with me." Holly inhaled a deep breath but continued before Gail could say anything because she was determined to get it all out.

"I hung up the phone with your adoption worker and I had a gut wrenching realization that I was a complete idiot. There I was spending all my time trying to get over you, convincing myself that I would eventually be ok with being friends. Only as each day past it wasn't getting any easier and I wasn't feeling any happier. Hell, I even ate bags of cheese puffs on the nights where I felt particularly miserable missing you, and I friggin hate cheese puffs….basically what I'm saying is that I love you so damn much and I had to come back here for you, come back and see if I wasn't too late to get you back. I want you Gail, and not just as my friend. I want all of you and I'm sitting here on your doorstep hoping that you still feel the same."

There was a pause, Holly felt like her heart was going to beat right out of her chest while she awaited Gail's response. Gail's face was still staring in her direction with a look of shock. Holly still couldn't tell if it was good or bad. The silence finally broke when Gail started to speak.

"I went to the batting cages"

Holly was confused. "You what?"

Gail repeated. "I went to the batting cages. Alone. I went there because I was missing you and wanted to feel close to you somehow. I actually hit a ball too…well barely but it made contact with the bat and that's close enough." She stepped closer to Holly and took a seat beside her on the porch.

She took Holly's face into her hands and started to speak again. "If it wasn't obvious, what I'm trying to say is that of course I still feel the same. I haven't stopped missing you a single minute since I had to let you walk onto that plane. I love you Holly, and I am pretty convinced now that no matter what I ever try to do, that is never going to change." She leaned closed and met her lips with Holly's, the kiss turning into unspoken promises that they were in this for the long haul, together, as it deepened.

As their lips parted Holly smiled and looked into Gail's eyes. "So, I'm homeless and jobless now. You've got yourself a pretty good catch here, Officer." She smirked.

Gail smiled back at her. "You're not homeless Lunchbox, you're home."

Gail started to stand up and reached out to take Holly's hand in her own. "Let's go get you unpacked. I have so many things to tell you. Not to mention, we have a lot of sex to make up for. Like, a lot. You owe me. You made me hold a baseball bat again. It was traumatizing Holly."

Holly let out a vigorous laugh and took Gail's hand and followed her into the house. Their house. Gail was right, she was home.

A/N: So I could have ended this here but I have one final chapter I wanted to write that I had in my head before I started this. Thank you for reading! I'll post the last chapter soon.