Part 10

Gail startled awake, her head lifting and searching as she came into consciousness very quickly.

She spotted Holly laying naked beside her, in fact Gail was holding her as they both lay on their sides. The sheet had fallen down by their waists and by the low level of light flooding the room from the window Gail assumed it was still the middle of the night.

She blinked as her heart rate started to slow and she shifted away from Holly gently, after pressing a kiss to bare skin, as she wondered why she woke up so suddenly. She took a deep breath and rubbed at her face as she spotted the time, it was just after 3 am.

Maybe she had a nightmare?

Sighing she shifted onto her back and eyed the ceiling, placing her hand onto her bare chest above her heart. She hadn't had a nightmare in weeks. She frowned, it didn't feel like a nightmare either.

And then she stiffened as her eyes shot to the bedroom door.

There was a noise.

Coming from inside the house.

Sucking in a breath Gail got up as quietly as she could, her eyes trained on the door as she pulled on her clothes from their places across the floor. Another noise had her quickening her pace as she shifted around the bed, picking up Holly's cell phone as she knelt beside her girlfriend.

"Holly." She muttered, shaking Holly by the shoulder. "Holly!" She hissed urgently.

Holly moaned and blinked her eyes open sleepily only to find her mouth being covered.

"Shhh!" Gail warned as Holly met her eye. She waited for the older woman to give her a nod before withdrawing her hand. "Quiet." She told her, pressing the cell phone into Holly's hand. "Get dressed, quickly."

Holly shuffled out of the bed, watching as Gail turned and opened the lower drawer of her wardrobe and pulled out the lockbox.

Her eyes widened as her girlfriend pulled out her gun.

Gail turned, frowning as she spotted Holly standing their naked. She stood, gathering Holly's clothes and pressing them into her arms as she then checked that her gun was loaded.

Holly opened her mouth to ask what the hell was going on when she heard a loud crash coming from somewhere outside their bedroom door.

"Dress Holly." Gail instructed her girlfriend as she moved to the door with the gun in her hand. The blonde pressed her ear to the wood listening. In her head she started remembering all the statistics she had looked into when she'd found where Holly lived.

The Beaches was a very safe district, the serious crimes committed in any given year were some of the lowest in Toronto. Break-ins on Holly's street were no existent, only two in the surrounding block and those had been domestic related.

And none even remotely local that reported with firearms.

Gail took a deep calming breath as all her training kicked in. She consciously left the safety on as she tightened her grip on the weapon.

Holly, now fully clothed, inched over to Gail. "What do we do?"

Gail studied Holly, her eyes were wide and she was nervous but she wasn't overwhelmed with fear or panic. That was a good sign.

"You are going to call it in, say the suspect or suspects are still in the house." Gail replied quickly and quietly. If this had been anywhere else Gail would have told Holly to mention it was a cop house, the response would have come in hard and fast to protect one of their own, but Gail was very wary of the fallout and how her mother could use this.

"Shouldn't we stay here?" Holly asked, her hand reaching out to cling to Gail as the blonde slowly opened the door. "Let them take whatever they want Gail! It's only stuff, please?"

Gail paused, considering.

She was confident enough in her skills that she could handle whatever was outside this room. And she needed to protect Holly, any response would take time, and while it was unlikely whoever was in the house had a gun they could easily have a knife or some other type of weapon. Or take one from the kitchen to use.

Gail wasn't going to risk Holly's safety waiting for help.

Holly watched Gail shake her head and released her hold on Gail's arm.

"I want you to call, but stay in here and lock the door behind me." Gail told her, turning and putting her hand to Holly's cheek, her thumb stroking the skin softly. "Let me take care of this. Don't come out unless I say so, okay? You promise?"

Holly's lip trembled as she nodded. She ducked her head, pressing the numbers she needed and raising the phone to her ear. She lifted her head and caught Gail's stare. "I need to report a beak in, someone is in my house…" Holly closed her eyes as Gail pressed her lips to her forehead and slipped out of the room.

Holly locked the door with shaking fingers as the operator replied to her. Holly gave the women her address, pressing her head against the white door as her heart threatened to explode.

"Yes, yes, in the house, there was a crash." She told the operator.

Holly jumped as Gail's voice sounded loudly, shouting, Holly couldn't make out the words. But it made Holly's world just stop. She couldn't hear the women in her ear, she couldn't hear Gail only the beat of her own heart pounding in her ears.

"Holly!"

That was Gail's voice.

Holly struggled to open the door but she managed as the voice in her ear came back to her. She frowned. "No, my partner went to investigate." Holly moved into the hallway, flinching as the lights blinded her before her eyes adjusted properly. "She's a cop." She explained as the voice reproached her for Gail's actions.

And then she was in the living room. Gail in front of her, the gun being held behind her back out of sight of anyone else in the room.

Holly's eyes then found the person laying on her floor in a mess of Gail's belongings.

"What the fuck Elizabeth?!" Holly shouted at her younger sister.

Gail sighed as Holly's younger double just grinned at her sister. "Here." Gail said taking the cell phone from Holly and disappearing to call off any police response and to secure her gun back in the bedroom. She wasn't sure the younger girl had even seen it, and she was grateful she'd been cautious enough to leave the safety on as she switched the light on while calling to the person inside the living room to get down.

"Yeah, just a false alarm." Gail said into the phone. She listened while she stored her gun away, taking the time to pull out the clip and remove the bullet in the chamber. "Thank you, you're right, better safe than sorry, bye."

"Are you DRUNK!"

Gail chuckled at the incredulous tone coming from her girlfriend. But the idea that the girl was drunk eased Gail's worry over how the younger woman would react to having a gun aimed at her. That would give anyone nightmares. Gail had been quick to pull her gun out of sight as she recognised the girl from the pictures in the room, if Elizabeth was lucky she'd have nothing but a hangover to remember from scaring them to crap tonight.

Happy that the gun was stowed away safely Gail stood and took a moment to try and release the adrenalin rush that had taken over as she stepped out of this room and into potential danger only moments ago.

She found Holly shaking her head and her sister still sprawled out on the floor.

Elizabeth spotted the blonde first and gave her a wave. "Hey! You must be the girlfriend!" She then rolled her head in Holly's direction. "Nice going sis, she's cute!"

Gail chuckled and moved to Holly. "You okay?" She asked quietly, rubbing Holly's back soothingly, seeing the slight trembling of her girlfriend's hands.

Holly closed her eyes momentarily as she tried to calm down. They weren't being burgled, it was just her idiot sister scaring them half to death. But as she considered the situation she realised if Gail hadn't woke them up and she'd found Elizabeth passed out on the couch in the morning she wouldn't have given it a second thought.

"Why didn't you call?" She asked the younger girl as she struggled to sit upright on the floor.

Elizabeth shrugged, then gave the pair a wicked grin. "Did I interrupt something?"

Holly blushed as Gail sniggered beside her.

"Have you any idea of the time Eliza?"

Shrugging Elizabeth tried to get to her feet, after slipping she found a hand reaching out for her, accepting the help she let herself be pulled up onto her feet. "Hey you're strong." She said before realising how close she was to a set of electric blue eyes.

Gail frowned then eased out of the grip the girl had on her hand. "You're welcome." She muttered quietly before retreating back to Holly's side.

Holly hides a grin with her hand as she rubbed at her nose, spotting the dazed look in her sisters gaze as she still eyed Gail.

"Eliza!"

"What?" Eliza snapped her attention to Holly. "Yeah?" She asked in a slightly confused tone.

Holly sighed. "Bedroom. Upstairs. We can talk in the morning."

Elizabeth grinned at her big sister feeling that she wasn't in trouble any more. "Sound's good." Then she tried walking but tripped over her own bag just to round the night off properly.

This time both Holly and Gail caught her before she could fall.

"Nice save." Elizabeth said as she was righted once more. "That woulda hurt."

"Okay, let's go." Holly said keeping a firm grip on her sister to help her to the spare bedroom.

Gail watched for a second. "Want an extra pair of hands?" She offered, wondering if Holly could manage taking the clearly inebriated girl all the way up to the spare room on her own.

Holly laughed and kept moving her sister along the hallway to the stairs. "Oh no, you get yourself back into our room and stay there."

Slightly confused Gail shrugged and after switching off the living room light, and assuring herself that the front door was locked, retreated back to their bedroom.

Eager to get back into bed and catch what little sleep she could before morning, Gail stripped her clothes off once more and climbed back under the covers, shifting onto Holly's side of the bed to ensure her girlfriend would have to move her before joining her again.

Gail wasn't sure how long it took for a hand to rest on her arm, pressure being added to get her shifting back. With a groan she reluctantly moved and then she was pulling an equally naked Holly into her arms.

"Sorry about that, she got all emotional when I was tucking her in. Bad breakup apparently." Holly explained quietly as they shifted together to get into their usual sleeping positions.

Gail took a deep breath then blew it out onto the back of Holly's neck, grinning to herself as her girlfriend flinched. "You know something Holly?" She muttered into the quiet of their room.

"Hm?"

"I'm not the only person you've given a key to your home to."

"Huh?"

"I'm just saying, right now? I'm not feeling so special anymore."

Holly grinned and snuggled back into Gail's body. "Oh, you are." She said fighting the need to laugh. "And apparently I'm not the only one who thinks so."

Gail blinked "What?" Where did that even come from? She lifted herself up to eye Holly.

Holly shook her head with a chuckle. "Just go to sleep."

After a kiss to Holly's cheek Gail put her head back down.

"Whatever Nerd, you're just lucky I love you."

Holly smiled and sighed before responding with a quiet, "I know. Love you too."

Gail closed her eyes and started to drift. One of the best parts of her day was moments like this, falling asleep with Holly and waking up with her. It was so intimate and peaceful. It was the safest and most loved she felt throughout her day, at least until she was with Holly again.

Living with Holly now was going to rock.

Gail's body jerked as she pulled herself back from falling asleep. "Hol?" She asked wide eyed.

"Hm?" Came the sleepy reply.

"You locked the bedroom door, right?"

"Go to sleep Gail." Came the laughter filled reply.

Gail scowled, debating getting up to check. Early morning nakedness was not to be messed with, she didn't care if Elizabeth was Holly's sister.

Holly felt Gail start to shift and tightened her hold on the arms wrapped around her. "It's locked."

Gail relaxed again.

"But you'll have to try and be quiet in the morning if you don't want to get teased." Holly warned.

Gail snorted. "Me?" She gently bit down on a nearby shoulder. "Care to rephrase that?"

Holly smiled and sighed happily, shifting onto her back as Gail hovered above, eyebrow arched. "We'll both just have to be quiet then."

Gail shifted closer and pressed her lips to Holly's, taking the kiss slow, testing just how tired Holly claimed to be. She would have smiled but Holly's tongue seeking entrance into her mouth and a hand cupping then squeezing her breast made her focus on the really important things in life.

"We should practise then." She said pulling away slightly just as Holly rolled them over. "On this, being quiet thing."

Holly shifted to rest between Gail's legs, pressing her hips down and rocking against the blonde to earn an approving groan of pleasure from Gail.

"Fuck!" Gail hissed as Holly started trailing kisses over her breasts, as hands squeezed and stroked and touched.

"Remember Gail, quiet."

Gail bit her lip as a tongue swirled into her belly button before drifting lower. She whimpered and gripped a handful of Holly's hair as she felt the older woman blow a warm breath over her centre.

"Fuck!"

They were so going to get teased in the morning.