A/N: Thanks to Beta Bailey and all of you who're sticking with me and those of you who've taken the time to favorite, follow and review. I love reviews. I love your feedback good and bad. Let me know what you think. And now on with our story.

"He fucking what?" Gail asked as she sat heavily in a chair that threatened to roll out from under her. Ryan steadied it with her boot-clad foot.

"He escaped. I don't know all the details but they were having an outbreak of what they think is food poisoning. He was exhibiting the same symptoms as everyone else. He escaped from the infirmary. He incapacitated a doctor, took his clothes, locked him in a closet, and escaped," Steve said as he knelt down in front of Gail. "You okay, Gail?"

"What kind of fucking question is that, Steven?" Gail made an angry face. Then her eyes went wide, "Holly! We have to get to Holly!"

"Holly is fine, Gail. I've got an old friend in the lab with her," Ryan said in a calming tone.

"An agent?" Gail asked.

"Not exactly," Ryan hedged.

"Well we need to get someone over there that knows what they're doing!" Gail stood up grabbing Ryan's shoulders.

"Hold your horses there, Peck. Holly hasn't been without a watchdog since right after the second body was found. Cleve is the best private security money can buy."

"Private? Private security? Why?" Gail released Ryan's shoulders and stepped back.

"I needed someone I could trust. Cleve used to protect the President. She can protect Holly."

"If she's so good, why is she in private security now? And who's paying her?" Gail asked skeptically.

"She and her direct supervisor had a…'spirited disagreement' and she owes me a favor," Ryan replied in her matter-of-fact way.

"How big a favor?"

"A big enough one."

"But…"

"Hey, let me call Cleve and give her a heads up. She hates surprises worse than I do," Ryan pulled out her cell and walked out of the room to make the call.

Gail sat back down in the chair and put her head on her arms on the table in front of her. Traci walked over to Steve. She angled her head toward the door in a gesture that clearly meant he was to follow her. He did so quietly.

The FBI agents continued to work. Their fingers flying over their keyboards providing the only sounds in the room. Luke sat silently in the corner, his eyes on Gail. Chris approached Gail. "Gail, I'm…I'm sorry."

Gail didn't even lift her head. "Whatever."

Steve came flying back into the room, spun Chris around and punched him in the mouth. "You son of a bitch! You're as stupid as I always thought you were!" He followed that statement with another punch to the face. Gail raised her head and stared at her brother in shock.

Traci tried unsuccessfully to pull Steve off of Chris. "Luke, a little help here?" Traci yelled at Luke who had instinctively stood up and moved toward the fight.

"I was thinking of helping Steve," Luke said as he assisted Traci pulling them apart. He turned to Chris as he held Steve back. "I mean just how stupid are you, Diaz? You know someone is killing Gail look-alikes. You know we're chasing our tails here. You don't think it's pertinent to pass on that someone had asked you about Gail and Holly? You know what kind of danger they're in!"

"I should have kicked your ass when you broke up with her, you piece of shit!" Steve screamed as Traci and Luke pushed him backward.

"Hold on there, Steven," Gail said as she stood. "Why you're all of a sudden bothered by the disaster that is my love life, I have no idea, but please stop yelling," She quelled him with a glare. Steve stopped struggling. "Now, Christopher, we might as well do this now. You're going to sit here and tell us everything there is to know about Megan Stapleton."

At that moment, Ryan ran back into the room. "Hey, Cleve said a policewoman matching Megan Stapleton's description just tried to come into the lab and get Holly to leave. The woman said I had asked her to come pick Holly up. Cleve, being the beautiful, paranoid soul that she is, was about to call me when I called. When she said it was me, the woman left. Cleve didn't follow but stayed with Holly per protocol. I told Oliver on the way in here. He has uniforms on the way to secure the lab, canvas the building and area. I'm going to the lab."

"I'm coming with you," Gail said more forcefully than she intended.

"Fine. Let's go."

"Trace, will you and Luke go over everything with Chris?"

"Sure, Gail."

"Boys, give them the room. Have Oliver set you up somewhere else for now," Ryan instructed Trask and Bishop who nodded their assent and began to pack up their things.

"Steven, you should go. Tell Mother…whatever will keep her off my back."

"Will do."

Gail and Ryan entered Holly's lab past several uniformed officers, including McNally and Collins, who seemed to be interviewing different techs that Gail recognized from her time spent in the lab. Ryan and even Gail had to show identification before they were granted access to the lab. When they entered, Gail focused on the diminutive woman standing at parade rest near a sitting Holly. She had brown skin, hair, and eyes. Her eyes were doe shaped and were on alert. She nodded at Ryan in an official way. She couldn't have weighed more than a hundred and ten pounds and was only about 5' 3". Gail was taken aback. This was the best Ryan could do? They were damn lucky Holly hadn't been taken.

Ryan made her way over to Holly and squatted down in front of her. "Holls, you okay?"

"I'm fine, Ry," Holly responded mechanically.

"You know my 'fine' rule."

"I'm okay. Really," Holly said as she looked at Ryan.

This seemed to be good enough for Ryan who stood up and was about to turn to speak to Cleve when Gail spoke, "I didn't realize that agents came in pocket sizes."

Ryan heard the telltale thwak thwak sounds and spoke in warning before turning around, "Cleve…" Thwap, thwap, thwap and Gail's gulped breath were the only response she received. She turned to see Gail's eyes watering in pain. "Steady breaths there, Peck. Cleve has just taken away your ability to use your arm for the next forty-five minutes or so. The last three strikes were to release you from the hold before it became longer. It's not permanent but it'll feel like it's asleep and tingly for a bit." She turned to Cleve, "left arm, yeah?" Cleve nodded.

"What did you do to Gail, and why did you do it?" Holly narrowed her eyebrows at Cleve.

"Proved I could protect you. Left her use of her gun hand. Saved words," Cleve replied to Holly laconically.

"Gail, are you okay?" Holly asked.

Gail nodded at Holly and then asked Cleve, "What the hell was that?"

"Just something I picked up here and there. Courtney Davidson. Everyone calls me Cleve." She held out her hand for Gail to shake.

"Why?" Gail asked as she shook Cleve's hand with her remaining good one.

"Well, it's useful," Cleve said.

"I mean Cleve. Why the name Cleve?"

"She's from Cleveland," Ryan answered.

"Ohio? I have relatives in Xenia," Holly broke in.

"Mississippi," Ryan answered smiling.

"There's a Cleveland, Mississippi?" Gail asked.

"Yep. Home to the Delta State 'Fighting Okra,'" Cleve answered.

"What the fuck is an okra and why would I want to fight it?" Gail made a face.

"It's a green vegetable, Gail. You wouldn't be familiar with it," Holly replied with a smirk.

"Well, that explains it then," Gail curled her lip.

"Although, my understanding is that in the southern part of the U.S. people cut it up and fry it. That, I would think, might appeal to you," Holly said.

"Very good Dr. Stewart. Listen, I hate to break up this okra discussion, because honestly when is the next time I'm gonna be in one, but the two of you shouldn't be in the same place at the same time. It'll be too attractive to them," Cleve said as she gestured between Holly and Gail.

"You're right, Cleve. With Perik on the loose, and Stapleton being bold enough to come here and try for Holly…" Ryan started but was interrupted by Holly.

"Perik is 'on the loose'?! When did this happen?!" Holly demanded.

"Not sure. We found out about twenty minutes ago," Ryan replied calmly. "I guess you didn't tell her any of it?" Ryan asked Cleve.

"Not my place."

Before Ryan could explain, Holly was in front of Gail looking into her eyes, "Gail, h-…, Gail, are you okay?"

Steve asked me the same question not a half hour ago and I wanted to take his head off. But not her. Never her. "I'm not, but I will be," Gail answered honestly.

"Cleve, you vetted the officers on the outside?" Ryan asked.

"Nope, but I didn't let any of them in here."

"I can vouch for the officers out there. I know that they're all police officers at least. Whether their judgment is any better than Chris' I couldn't say," Gail said.

Holly looked quizzically at Gail but Ryan responded, "I'll explain it later, but Cleve's right. We need to separate you two."

"They wouldn't try anything with all the police presence here," Gail said.

"Honestly, it's not really that much more far-fetched than trying to take Holly directly from within this facility, period. A good game of misdirection, and they're in business," Ryan said.

"You said Stapleton being bold enough to try for me. Do we know who the killer is?" Holly asked.

"We've identified her as Megan Stapleton. She's been going out with Chris in a casual relationship. We were about to interrogate him when Ryan came in and said someone had tried to get you to leave with them," Gail answered.

"Oh…Gail, I'm so sorry," Holly said. Gail waved her hand away in a dismissive gesture but said nothing.

Ryan asked Gail, "You and I need to go. Who do you trust out there to protect Holly?"

"Nick and Andy," Gail responded automatically.

"Have them come in here and introduce themselves to Cleve," Ryan said. Gail walked out to get Nick and Andy.

Holly turned to Ryan and immediately asked, "How is she really?"

"No idea. How would you be? Your ex is the unwitting mole of a serial killer. Your kidnapper and almost rapist escapes from prison and your other ex is the target of an at large serial killer, not once but twice. How the fuck would you be, Holls?" Ryan snapped back uncharacteristically. Holly didn't react but Ryan apologized anyway. "I'm sorry, Holls. I'm sorry. I don't have an excuse."

"We're all under a lot of stress. It was a stupid question. Don't worry about it," Holly replied.

Gail came back in escorting Andy and Nick. "Cleve, this is…"

"Collins? Is that you?" Cleve smiled. Gail thought it looked out of place.

"Cleve!" Nick ran over, picked her up and spun her around.

"I guess they know each other," Andy said.

"We served together in Afghanistan," Nick answered.

"Briefly," Cleve said.

"You still know all that ninja shit?" Nick asked. Cleve just looked over at Gail and smirked. Nick smiled knowingly at Gail. "I thought your arm looked funny."

"Shut up." Gail flexed her fingers ineffectually.

"Alright. So, now that we've concluded ol' home week. Gail and I are going to get back to the precinct. A bolo is being issued for Megan Stapleton who is one of Chris' girlfriends. I'm letting you both know in case you've met her. She's our unsub."

"Holy shit. I thought my love life was fucked up," Nick said. Andy and Gail hit him in a different arm. "Oww!"

"I told you, we'd always have Nick," Gail said to Andy.

"That's even less comforting now than when you said it the first time," Andy said.

By the time Gail and Ryan got back, Traci and Luke were leading Chris though his relationship with Megan for the third time. "I've told you everything I know!" Chris said emphatically.

"I don't really care, Diaz. You're going to go over it again," Luke replied.

Chris noticed Gail and Ryan as they pulled up chairs and sat down looking at him. He bit back the retort on his tongue, took a deep breath and started over again. "Like I said before, I met her one morning about a year ago when I was getting coffee. We hit it off. She gave me her number. I called. We went out for drinks at a bar she knew called Amsterdam. I'd never been there before. We started seeing each other casually. She said she was a flight attendant and didn't really live here, but she crashed with some other girls that worked for the same airline. I never met any of her friends. They just all rented the apartment together so they'd have a…'crash pad.' That's what she called it. We always went to mine and Dov's apartment when we..." he looked over at Gail, "hung out."

Ryan's phone rang, "Parker. Okay. Send that information to Staff Sergeant Shaw." She hung up and told them all, "The guys got an address here in Toronto finally. Oliver told me when we got something to send it to him and he'd send a couple of unmarked cars to watch the address. Try not to scare her away. Maybe we'll get lucky."

"Maybe isn't good enough." Gail looked at Chris, "Continue."

"Well, that's the way it went. She'd text me when she was going to be in town. Never too much notice beforehand. We'd meet up a couple of times a month. Sometimes we'd go out to dinner. Sometimes for drinks. It was all very casual. Then we'd go back to my place."

"And fuck," Gail said.

Chris cut his eyes over at Gail, but then he sighed, "Yeah. Yeah. We had sex."

"And how far into it did she start asking questions about Holly and me?"

"Gail, I told them before. It wasn't like that. It was maybe like three months into it when she started asking questions about all my exes and girls I was seeing besides her. Not you. Never by name. She started asking if I had any girlfriends that were into threesomes; if I had ever done anything 'wild.' Stuff like that."

"I can't wait to hear this. And that's how my name came up?" Gail snapped.

"Gail," Traci spoke in warning.

"No. I wanna know. I want to know how you came to discuss Holly and me with a serial killer."

"It wasn't like that, Gail! We got to talking about exes and I talked about you. She talked about some of hers too. She said she'd dated girls before and asked if that bothered me or if I was into it. I said I had an ex that figured out she was a lesbian. Told her about you, about Holly. Then I told her you broke up. She asked if you'd be into a threesome." Gail stared at him and pressed her lips together tightly. Chris held up his hands, "I told her you wouldn't be. I said you were pretty broken up about Holly."

"You fucking dick!"

"I didn't know Gail! I didn't know!"

"Chris, it would seem the amount of stuff you didn't know is astronomical," Gail said as she abruptly stood up and caused the rolling chair to crash into the wall. She walked quickly out of the room.

"Oh, God. What have I done?" Chris asked.