Part 2

Gail didn't even look up when Gin entered the hotel room, too busy sneaking past guards in a video game. "Hey, Wonder Twin," she greeted distractedly. "I've got some news."

She thought it was strange when Gin didn't answer, but she was left pretty much speechless when she saw and felt her slump into her side with a muted sob. She quickly pressed pause before she accidentally shot anyone, and sat there awkwardly. "You, uh, have something to tell me?"

Gin buried her face into Gail's neck, who was starting to eye her double rather comically. "Andy rejected me."

"What."

Andy stared at the white board in horror, wishing the names would magically change.

"Oh, will you look at that," Gail quipped, sidling up next to Andy with a pleasant-creepy smile on her face. "You're with me, McNally."

Andy sat behind the wheel, waiting for Gail to let her have it.

"Y'know, usually for the car to work, you need to turn the key," Gail said airily, enjoying torturing Andy by delaying the Talk. She'd manage to do so all the way until the very end of their shift.

Andy sighed, her eyes on the road. "Just get it over with it."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Gail shrugged, acting way too innocent to actually be innocent. "It's not like you told off the nicest, most understanding woman on earth or anything."

"I'm just not into women like that." The way she said it made it sound like she was convincing herself more than Gail. If Andy actually sounded like she wasn't into women, Gail would have dropped it.

But she didn't.

"You don't need to be into women to like Gin," Gail said, audibly containing her frustration with Andy. "You need to be into Gin to like Gin."

"But she's you!" Andy protested, finally looking at Gail.

Gail just looked right back at her, unimpressed. "You do realize that's the biggest, fattest lie you ever told anyone, right? I'd laugh if it weren't so stupid."

Andy shook her head. "Whatever. You know what I mean. You two are the spitting image of each other. She even dyes her hair like you!"

Gail narrowed her eyes at her like she was talking Japanese. "Have you looked at her?" She didn't pause, letting her frustration fuel her. "No, you know what, have you even met her? No one who knows at least one of us thinks she's me. I'm calling bullshit, McNally."

"What do you want me to do?" she asked desperately. "Date someone who looks exactly like you?"

"Yes!" Gail answered right away. "What's so hard about that?"

"I don't know, okay!" Andy almost yelled, taking Gail aback. She took a deep breath, lowering her voice. "I don't know why I freaked out. She really is the sweetest, most ridiculous person I ever met, and she's totally a fantastic kisser—like, I would turn gay for her fantastic—but I freaked out and I don't know why."

Well, now that all the cards were on the table, Gail wasn't sure what to do next.

"Oh God, I told her I wasn't attracted to her," Andy realized before Gail could find anything to say. She rested her forehead against the steering wheel and groaned before chanting, "Stupid, stupid," as she thumped her head against the rubber.

Gail nodded her agreement, but chose to help Gin instead of rubbing that little fact in. "It's not too late. You can still sweep her off her feet."

Andy turned hopeful eyes to Gail. "You think?"

Gail shot her another dry look. "Have you met her?"

At the repeat of those particular words, Andy cracked a small smile. Gin was the kind of person who probably would give her another chance if she groveled enough.

Gin had found some great music on Gail's iPod. And when she said great music, she meant fast-paced, angry music. They were a few songs, hidden away amongst a multitude of playlists, but they were there. It was a perfect background for blowing off some steam as she went through her kata.

She knew they were meant to be done in an almost quiet contemplation, but she was not feeling very quiet or contemplative today.

Her jabs were unforgiving and her movements stiff. She knew she wouldn't fare well in battle, but her only opponents at the moment were bitter disappointment and, for some reason, jealousy. Someone else was going to make Andy happy some day, and it really didn't sit well with her.

She parried an invisible opponent's attack, throwing them a little harder than was strictly necessary. And that's when she saw Andy standing in the doorway of the hotel room, looking a little stricken by Gin's routines. Andy opened her mouth to ask what she just saw, but couldn't find the right words to do so.

Gin dropped her aggressive stance, pulling the earphones from her ears. "I spent my rebellious years in Japan," she explained half-heartedly, panting. "What are you doing here?" She chanced a glance over Andy's shoulder. "And where's Gail?"

Andy shook herself out of her stupor and closed the door behind herself. If ever there was a time to be sexually attracted to Gin, it certainly wasn't now. "Gail is scarfing down the bag of chips she made me buy her, down in the lobby," Andy said, scrunching up her face at the thought of eating all those treats in one go.

Gin grabbed a towel from the bed and wiped the sweat off her face, waiting for Andy to continue.

Andy watched her face like a hawk. She tried very hard not to notice how lean and fit Gin looked, all glistening with sweat, and it was working pretty well. "And, um, I'm here to talk to you."

Gin perked up at that, wondering if this was going where she thought it was going. "About what?" she asked casually.

Andy momentarily pulled a blank when being asked that question so frankly, so she decided to go with the truth. "About how I kind of want you to kiss me again? Well, maybe we could be a thing, first. I hope." She shook her head at her own weird rant, not quite noticing that Gin was walking over until they were at normal speaking distance. "I mean, do you still want to go out with me now that I've realized I was just scared?"

"Of me?" Gin asked, elated that Andy wanted to give them a chance but at the same time trying to keep her cool. Heck, she even understood the thing where Andy was scared. It made more sense than the nonsensical rambling from a few days before.

"You are related to Gail," Andy tried to lighten the mood. "But no, of—" she made a vague gesture, "—us. Together. Working."

Gin came over to stand too close for mere friends. She looked Andy in the eyes, and noticed that she was actually holding her breath as she waited for an answer. "I don't know. I may need some convincing," she said, finally cracking a smile. "And you'll have to tell me some more about this thing where you're scared."

Andy let out a breath, returning the smile with a dopey one of her own. "Yeah?"

Gin nodded, studying Andy's face carefully as she thought. "And maybe a few kisses."

"I can do that." Her smile turned amused, only vaguely noticing that she was closing the distance between them when Gin's face came closer. Feeling a little giddy, she leaned in, only to bypass her lips and give her a kiss on the cheek.

Gin narrowed her eyes playfully as she looked at Andy, who was only a breath away. "You do understand the concept of a relationship, right?"

Andy grinned, probably enjoying the teasing more than she should. "I don't know, maybe you should tell me," she quipped.

Yeah, definitely too much.

Gin linked her hands behind Andy's neck, gently rubbing her thumb along her hairline. Perhaps too gently for what she was about to say. "That's where we're friends, but when I stick my tongue down your throat, you like it," she said frankly, earning an incredulous laugh from Andy.

"Wow," Andy breathed, but that was all she could say before Gin demonstrated what she meant in the most pleasant of ways. They were both still smiling as they kissed, preventing Gin from actually proving her point, but neither really cared. There would be more time for proper kisses later. As it was, they couldn't stop their giggling as they came together for kiss after kiss.

Some time must have passed, because the next thing they knew, violent knocks to the door interrupted them.

"Hey losers, stop making out and let me in!" Gail yelled.

Andy looked over her shoulder, visibly startled, which just amused Gin all the more.

Gail had to beat Andy off Gin with a stick after she found out the Peck sort-of-siblings were moving to Holly's spare room. Figuratively, of course. Not only were Andy's intense morals triggered, but also the passion of a thousand lovestruck puppies. It took all of Gail's sarcasm and snark (and at one point even physical pushing) to get Andy to stop wanting to please Gin and move the fuck on.

So they packed their bags and headed for Holly's, Gin's super okay-ness once again getting on Gail's nerves. "Aren't you even slightly annoyed I didn't want Andy to come along?" she asked when she had enough of Gin's calm breathing.

Gin side-eyed her as she followed Gail down the corridor of the apartment complex. "Why would I be? I'll see her soon enough. Besides, she's already texted me."

"Ugh, gross." Gail shuddered, then came to a halt rather suddenly, drawing Gin's full attention. "Okay, here's how it's gonna go down."

"How is what gonna go—"

"First of all, do not bond with Holly over healthy crap. If there's need of democratic representation regarding sustenance, we are the Peck front, and we like junk food," Gail started, completely ignoring Gin's interruption. "Second, do not bond with Holly, period. Third..."

Gin waited as it seemed Gail was going to continue. "Yes?" she prodded.

Gail shot her a look as if offended for even being interrupted, though really, she hadn't gotten further than her second point. "Third of all, I am the dominant Peck and retain the ability to add and/or alter any rules as time progresses."

"Fine," Gin snorted, more amused than anything else. She pondered Gail's rules as Gail headed for a door and knocked. It was starting to become clear that Gail felt threatened by Gin on some weird level. "Though she is pretty hot," she quipped, more to get at Gail than anything else.

Gail's eyebrows furrowed like they'd never furrowed before as she shot Gin the most incredulous of offended looks.

It was like this that Holly caught them when she opened the door. "I thought I heard bickering," she said casually, amused at catching them in the act.

"Hey Holly!" Gin said, quickly ducking inside to avoid Gail's wrath.

Holly was walking through the hallway, scrolling through emails on her phone. Her thoughts were somewhere else entirely, however, namely with the two Pecks in her guest room. She was considering the immensity of her asking them to basically move in with her, when she heard Gail's alarm go off from behind their slightly opened door. As per usual, it stopped quickly after starting, Gail no doubt turning it to snooze.

She smiled to herself, remembering that Gail would let the alarm go off about five times more before she actually got up. A little too used to waking her up, she was running on auto-pilot as she peeked into their room, only to stop in her tracks and remember they probably wanted privacy. But it was too late. She'd already seen it.

Gail was lying on her side in a fetal position, facing Holly. She looked pretty dead to the world and unable to have turned off the alarm. It had been Gin who turned it off. Holly could see that because Gin still had her arm stretched over Gail in the direction of her phone.

Holly was unable to look away as Gin let her arm drop and wrapped it around Gail's waist, effectively cuddling the other woman to her front. She even went as far as nuzzling the back of her neck. And the most amazing thing of it all was that Gail allowed it. Almost as if they'd spooned before.

Holly was definitely able to stop herself from raising her phone and snapping a picture, but she didn't want to resist that particular urge. Not ten seconds later, once she'd closed the door to its previous barely-open state, she felt vaguely like she now owned porn on her phone; having a picture she didn't want to share with anyone else.

She knocked on the wooden frame like she hadn't just spied them being ridiculously cute. "Gail? I heard your alarm. Are you waking up?"

The response was a tired grumble.

"Gail?"

Holly bit her lip to keep from smiling when she heard a muffled, "Get off," followed by a louder, "Yeah! Yeah, I'm awake. God."

"I'll make coffee," Holly chuckled, wandering off again.

As it turned out, Gin was morning person and a fantastic cook. Holly was surprised-but-not when the double insisted on making them breakfast since they were pretty much imposing. She didn't have any trouble with letting her have a go at feeding them, but Gail was grumbling all the while. At least until Holly offhandedly mentioned that they weren't really imposing that much since she wasn't seeing anyone at the moment. Then, she was suddenly all ears.

"She said I wasn't over my ex," Holly said, shooting Gail a meaningful look.

Gail's eyebrows knitted upwards into her trademark hopeful puppy look, to which Holly responded with a reassuring smile, as if to say, "Yes, really."

Gin glanced between the two as she was reduced to a fly on the wall. Taking the hint, she made her way into the next room. But not before giving Gail the thumbs up.

To her credit, Gail ignored her completely. Mostly because she was on a collision course with Holly.

Gail was looking at Holly drink her coffee, knowing full well she either looked like a lovestruck puppy or a creeper, but not caring. Holly kept sending her looks too, so it was totally great. Fantastic, even.

"Aw, you two are so cute together," Gin said as she entered the kitchen, making her presence known.

Holly looked up, shooting Gin a small smile, while Gail continued staring. "Go burn in a fire," Gail sighed happily.

"I love you, too," Gin quipped airily, leaning on the kitchen island with both her elbows. "As much as I appreciate the death threats this early in the morning—"

"Please, I wasn't wishing you dead," Gail interrupted. She shot Gin a dry look. "Just horribly, disfiguringly mutilated."

"Yes, that's much better," she agreed sarcastically. Holly glanced between the two, unable to hide her amused smile. Watching and hearing the siblings bicker was quickly becoming one of the most entertaining things ever. Better than TV, even. "But I'm interrupting for a reason. In my very short, but very pleasant stay here, I've come to realize that this isn't going to work."

Gail became serious at that. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I want to earn my keep, and I'm kind of going to need an identity for that," Gin said, sounding like she knew it was going to be a pain in the ass. "That is, I'm pretty sure I'll never be seeing my reality ever again."

"You're remarkably cool about it," Holly noticed.

Gail slapped a hand on the table, making Holly jump slightly. "Yes! Thank you!"

Both Gin and Holly eyed her strangely, but Gin responded, "Uh, yeah. Anyway." Gail's outburst was quickly forgotten by everyone but Gail. "Apart from my mom, my reality is pretty fucking terrible—excuse my language—so this is a blessing, really."

"Elaine Peck?" Gail asked, looking incredulous all of a sudden. "That mom?"

"Yes." Gin was starting to wonder if everything was okay with Gail, until she remembered that some things were the exact opposite here. Like McNally, for instance. It wasn't a stretch that Elaine Peck was a bitch in this reality, opposed to her saint of a mother. "Oh," she muttered. "Actually, that explains a lot."

Gail was the only other occupant in the room that seemed to get where Gin's thoughts went, because Holly was clueless when Gail responded, "Your face explains a lot."

"We have identical faces," Gin reminded her, keeping her cool, as per usual.

Holly covered up her snicker with a cough, drawing both Pecks' attention. She quickly managed to find a reason for her interruption, not wanting them to know she'd been enjoying their banter. "I actually have an idea how to get you an identity, but we're going to need your mother's help."

Gail groaned, pressing her forehead to the table.

Gail loved how confronting her mother went.

"Hey mom."

"Hello Elaine."

Elaine glanced between the two identical women, looking as composed and intimidating as ever, only to collapse onto the ground as she fainted.

Gin hurried to her not-really-mother's side to check if she was okay. Gail trusted Gin's judgement, so she remained standing. "Is it weird to develop a crush on your twin?" Gail asked dryly.

It was pretty fantastic how their combined presence had made Elaine faint. What she hadn't foreseen was how much Elaine would love Gin.

Which was a lot.

"So you stayed in a Japanese monastery to learn their culture and martial art?" Elaine asked once she had accepted the entire story of Gin pretty much appearing out of thin air. It didn't take long before she became familiar enough and went into full interrogation mode.

"Um." Gin looked between Elaine and Gail, the latter visibly bored. If she looked closely, she could even see annoyance raging behind Gail's eyes.

"That's what happens if you support your kid's decisions," Gail muttered under her breath.

Okay, maybe she didn't need to look that closely to spot any annoyance.

It grated on Gail nerves how impressed Elaine was, because in her head, Elaine was a major factor contributing to her fucked-up-ness. Gin was living proof of that.

But then the thing pretty much turned around, because Gin was a saint, apparently.

"Mom? Uh, mrs. Peck?" Gin started hesitantly, but didn't wait for an answer. "I know you mean well, but you're kind of implying that Gail hasn't achieved anything. Gail and I aren't so different though. I think she may even be stronger than I am."

She was very cordial in intonation, body language and syntax, but her message was clear: stop riding Gail's ass.

"Well, she is a Peck, after all," Elaine answered, nodding.

Gail subtly rolled her eyes at that.

"So am I," Gin pointed out, leaving Elaine silent for a moment.

But the moment of silence meant everything to Gail. For once, Elaine didn't manage to turn a compliment around on her. She shot Gin the tiniest of barely visible smiles before changing the subject to more pressing matters. "Whatever. We still need to get Gin an identity."

And then, in Gail's opinion, everything went south again. Despite getting her mother on board, they still had to go through a shitload of paperwork and queues and at the end of the day, when they still hadn't gotten the mess fixed, Gail wanted to die.

Well, not really. But she had hit her quota of idiots for the day and wanted to sleep a very, very long time.

"I take it things didn't go smoothly?" Holly asked as she watched Gail drag her feet straight to her bedroom without a word.

Gin sighed, worn out herself, but wearing it better. She said the dreaded words, "We have to come back tomorrow."

"Even with the superintendent's help?" Holly didn't appear too surprised despite her words.

"Because of her help," Gin corrected. "Otherwise we'd be pending for weeks." She let the conversation fall into a lull, noticing how Holly kept shooting the bedroom longing glances. She cracked a smile. "You can go to her, if you want. In fact, you're probably the only one she wants to see right now," she joked.

"She did just go into my bedroom," Holly noticed, returning the smile.

Holly wasn't very surprised to find Gail lying face-down on the bed. In fact, it was a pretty amazing picture after all that time apart. And now that their relationship status had been reverted to 'tentatively together', she couldn't help but crawl onto the bed and sit next to her on the covers. "Are you okay?" she asked, silently amused.

Gail's response was a muffled groan.

Holly snickered, reaching out to rub comforting circles on her back. "That bad, huh?"

Gail whined. An actual puppy whine. And, really, it was enough information for Holly. "I'll get you something to eat."

Even as Holly made a move to do just so, Gail was spurred into action and rolled over until she was draped comfortably over the other woman's lap. "Make Gin get it," she mumbled into Holly's thigh.

"And how am I supposed to tell her from all the way here?" she chuckled, coming her fingers through Gail's short hair.

Gail was quiet for a moment, possibly enjoying her scalp being massaged, until she started squirming around to produce her phone. Once she had it, she flopped back into Holly's lap, face up.

Holly watched on curiously as Gail continued to message Gin to start on dinner. Putting up with that kind of abuse, she couldn't help but wonder, "I can't imagine what kind of post-apocalyptic world Gillian must come from."

"Shhh," Gail shushed her, gently pushing Holly away by pressing a hand into the middle of her face. "I'm awesome."

Holly just laughed and swatted away her arm.

SAM? SAM WHO?

A lot of you actually raised your hands, so I would like to say... *high fives all the raised hands* hahahaha.

A little look into the brainstorming process: "Gin would be the opposite of Gail; so a buddhist monk, basically, hahaha—shit, I like this idea."

Ember; I never considered Gin to be an OC since she's basically Gail-but-not, but I guess you're right? Ugh, what a mindfuck.