"No!" Gail yelled and tried to pull the brunette out of the way. She was stupid, so so stupid. She'd thought it would be safe to have a drink or two, that she wouldn't be found that quickly and she'd have time to get back to the van.
Gail had planned it perfectly. She'd go to a random bar twenty minutes away, have a few celebratory drinks by herself, and meet Eric-no Chris across the street in the van and they'd go home. That wasn't quite what played out though. After her first shot she was swept into conversation with hands down the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen. And away went the plan, the minutes, all safety and rules, away went the hour.
She tried to pull Holly to the floor, to get her out of harms way, but she was too late. The shot had been fired and it was aimed at them. The intent was to hit Gail, she knew the boy who pulled the trigger, she had betrayed him and his so called family. It was why she was going home, mission complete.
The room erupted into screams and slams of furniture, people suddenly sober, scrambling to get out. Gail hardly heard any of it, it was all blurred out background noise. Chris had the kid on the floor before she could register doing it herself, all she could think about was Holly, her only instinct to make sure she was okay and keep her safe.
So she did just that. Gail fell to her knees, placed two fingers to Holly's neck to cheek for a pulse while she looked for the source of blood, a bullet wound. "Holly." She tapped the brunette's cheek to get her attention. "Holly, talk to me. You need to stay awake."
"I knew getting shot hurt," Holly whizzed, "but wow. T-they really weren't kidding about the pain."
"Preaching to the choir, sister." Gail chuckled. She'd found the bullet wound and began applying pressure.
"Yeah?" Holly's eyes fluttered open, a grimacing smile trying to play it light.
"Twice. Once in the lower caff when I was seven, my brother was just learning to shoot and he's an idiot. And another in the hip, drug deal gone wrong." Gail tried to keep it light. It seemed to be how Holly wanted to play it out and she'd respect it, plus it was easier for herself. Gail wouldn't know how else to keep her talking if they had to be serious.
"How's she looking?" Chris asked from above them. He held the kid by the handcuffs, a stern mask set in place on his face. Gail liked to tease him about that look, his cop face she called it.
"He got her in the shoulder, I can't tell how the bleeding is besides a fuck ton." Gail replied, unconsciously putting more pressure to the area. Holly sputtered a laugh and Gail looked on with overwhelming concern when it turned into a coughing fit. "Have you called EMS yet?"
"Of course. They should be here any minute."
"Good." Gail nodded. She turned her attention back to the beautiful woman who had stupidly taken a bullet for her. "You hear that? You ride is on it's way."
Holly's jaw was tight, she ground her teeth in an attempt to hold back her pain, but she smiled for Gail.
"They're gonna give you some really nice drugs, and patch up your idiotic decision to take a bullet for a stranger."
"The hero thing doesn't do it for you, Charlotte?" Holly hushed her faux disappointment.
Gail half winced at the name. She'd gotten use to introducing herself as Charlotte, use to being someone else, and it didn't even occur to her to use her real name when meeting Holly. Gail had been there for a couple drinks in the first place, so why would any of it matter? It wasn't the time to clear anything up though. "I tend to go for the librarian type."
"So you're telling me I did all this for nothing?" The brunette smirked playfully, gesturing with her right hand to point out all of the blood pouring from her left shoulder.
Gail shrugged. "Looks like it."
"Damn." She dropped her hand back onto the gross wooden floor of the bar. There was a moment of thought, a pause where neither spoke or looked at one another, before Holly rolled her head back to gaze at the blonde. "Would it help if I said I usually wear glasses?"
"Maybe a little." Gail winked, an amused grin dared to make an appearance.
"I also read for fun, y'know. And-" Holly was cut off by another round of coughs, stealing all air from her lungs.
The paramedics came rushing in then and took over Gail's job. She watched helplessly, just a step away as they quickly checked her over and then lifted her onto a gurney. She stayed in step with them, listening intently to everything they reported into their radios, but once they lifted Holly into the back of the ambulance her stomach dropped. Holly was being taken to the hospital and she probably wouldn't get to see her until after her surgery, and even then she didn't know how that would happen because she never got a last name.
Holly weakly waved to Gail, a soft drowsy smile on her lips, just as they closed the doors. And just like that the first person Gail genuinely liked was gone.
"You coming, Gail?" Chris called from the car that was to take them back home.
She looked to her blood covered hands, her blood stained clothes, and took a shaky breath. "Yeah."
If there was one task she hated it was waiting for results at the lab. Unless desk didn't count, desk was ultimately her lest favourite, she detested it. But the lab, she also hated the lab. It felt like a hospital, not many windows but brightly lit, you could never tell how much time passed, and the people, the doctors were horribly boring. Everything about it was dull. Even watching autopsies. The guts and everything would be a lot cooler if the person preforming it was better.
But there she was, on her way to a Doctor Stewart to wait -all day if she had to- for some answers for Traci. Gail followed the receptionists instructions, second floor, room 206. She knocked on the door as she entered, not caring if she interrupted, she just wanted to get it over with.
"Doctor Stewart?" Gail asked, looking to her hands as she unwrapped a piece of gum. The room stunk and it made her scrunch her nose a little, hopeful the minty gum would help a bit.
"That's me, what can I do for you Officer?"A smooth voice answered in that happy-to-help way that always got on Gail's nerves.
"I'm going to be sitt-" Gail finished with the gum and turned up to to meet the pathologist when she cut off. The woman stood before her had turned around to also look at her mid sentence, going from jealous worthy dark hair to someone she never thought she'd see again. Someone she thought of for months, day and night. Someone she wondered about mindlessly in passing. Someone who had once taken up every dream. "Holly?" She stated in a breathless whisper.
Recognition flashed across the doctor's face, "Charlotte."
Like she had six months prior, when covered in blood and worried for a life, Gail winced at the name. At Holly calling her by her undercover name. "It's actually Gail..."
"Oh." Holly looked confused. Was the blonde woman not who she thought she was?
"I was Charlotte when we met." Gail was quick to get the smile back to the brunette's lips. "I was on a UC. Actually I was at the bar to quickly celebrate before going home, but a pretty girl distracted me and I ended up staying a little later, and then she decided to get shot. It was a pretty traumatic night."
"Sounds like it." Holly's cheeks were lit with a light pink.
Gail wondered further into the office and took a look around. It was different than all of the other autopsy offices she'd been in, it had a vibe to it, a feeling that relaxed her. It was minimally decorated, a painting here and there, a plant or two, a small desk with next to nothing on it. Gail liked it. She went and sat behind the desk, assuming that Holly was going straight for the carefully laid out skeleton on the brightly lit table.
"How's the shoulder?" She watched Holly snap on latex gloves.
Holly instinctively rolled her left shoulder. "It's good. Healed well, hasn't hurt in months."
The day went on smoothly. Gail didn't hesitate in asking questions on what Holly was doing, they chatted absently, they even had lunch together. It was by far that best she'd ever spent in the underground of the lab.
"Char-Gail," Holly corrected herself for the umpteenth time that day, "wold you um..." She shook her head, dismissing whatever she had begun to say.
They walked their way through the parking garage, close enough they would brush against each other every now and again, the same tension that had been simmering all day was present. Gail could have guessed what the pathologist had been about to say, to ask, it was the same thing she wanted to ask. It was the question she had hoped to hear before Holly had been shot all that time ago. So she would wait for Holly to build up the courage again.
"This is me." Holly announced, coming to a stop in from of a cute little blue car that Gail would definitely peg as Holly worthy. Gail did a little check, making sure no one was in the car or around it, making sure there was nothing to harm the brunette. She could feel Holly's gaze as she did so and it burnt a hole in her back.
"All good." She declared once she finished, clapping her hands together in a nervous way to occupy herself.
Holly gave her an amused, crooked grin. "Thank you, Officer Peck."
"Anytime, Doctor Stewart, you do live in the big bad city now."
"That I do."
Gail shuffled uncomfortable, nervously, she wasn't what to to. She had never been good at this sort of thing, dancing around a subject, playing cool. She didn't have much practice with stereotypical girl crushes, the ones that had her acting like a sappy fool, the ones that had butterflies in her tummy, the ones that bubbled in every cell of her body. And so she felt awkward in trying to deal with it.
"I'll see you around?" She asked, her nerves leaking into her voice.
"I'd like that."
"Okay." Gail took a step back. Was that her place to leave? It sort of felt like parting words. "Cool." She said more to herself. Then with once last Glance Holly was unlocking her car and opening the door, Gail had backed up a few more steps, giving Holly room to back out so she could see that the brunette drove off safely. But Holly had stopped, one foot in her car, and turned back around.
"Gail?"
Her head snapped up at her name. "Yeah?"
"Can I have your number?" Holly looked pathetically hopeful and the sight made all of Gail's insides melt. God, she's adorable.
"It's already in your phone." Gail winked and began to walk away.