Part 11
Holly felt Gail's hand slide through her hair as she came down from her high. She pressed one last kiss to the inner thigh she was nestled against before crawling up over the blonde to smile down at her girlfriend.
Gail blinked lazily up at Holly, her hands trailing up the brunette's body, past her hips, along her sides to bury into dark tresses, pulling the cocky looking pathologist down for a heated kiss.
"You, are not leaving this room. Ever." Gail muttered as the kiss ended.
Holly chuckled and laid down on top of the blonde.
"I'm serious." Gail continued, closing her eyes again as she pulled Holly into her arms and held her close.
"I'm sure you are, but alas I have bills to pay and dead bodies to cut up."
Gail grunted, pinching Holly for bringing dead bodies into the conversation. "Way to kill the mood. You're right, can't wait to be rid of you."
Holly grinned to herself as she felt Gail press a kiss to the top of her head. The blonde was like that, inflict a small measure of pain to get her point across then follow it up a fraction of a second later with a show of part affection, part contrition.
Holly had her suspicions that Gail grew up with her brother in a mixture of teasing affection masked with bouts of sibling violence that probably took place right under the noses of their parents. Just from some of the ways she'd witnessed Gail with her friends as well as Steve himself.
It was weird and something she didn't really understand, but every time Holly got a taste of it, it always made her smile.
She sighed heavily across the skin of Gail's bare chest. "I'd like to though. Just stay here with you." She explained. "I'm sorry about Elizabeth just turning up like that last night."
Gail shrugged playing with Holly's hair as she stared up at the ceiling. "I don't mind, she's your sister, its cool."
"I know, and I'm thankful, but I was just really looking forward to having you all to myself for a while." Holly added.
That made Gail happy and she turned to study Holly in silence for a bit. She'd been looking forward to the same thing, but she could wait. She'd waited this long for Holly to come into her life what was a few more days?
Gail leaned forward and pressed their lips together, her hand reaching up to hold Holly in place as she slowly deepened the kiss. The blonde went with Holly as the older woman rolled onto her back. Gail felt hands begin to caress her body but she supressed the need to moan because it was her turn now that she'd recovered.
A loud bang on the door startled them, making Gail pull away from Holly to turn her head with a frown as she eyed the unseen disturbance to their inner sanctum.
"Hey, come on guys, before round what…four, starts up, how about breakfast?" Came the voice from behind the door. "I cooked, and given all the noise coming from in there you should eat. The life you save may be your own." Then there was a giggle that faded as Elizabeth walked away.
Gail snorted shifting to lay beside her girlfriend as Holly dropped her head back down onto the pillow with a groan of disappointment at loosing Gail from her arms.
"Save a life? Yeah she's going to need someone to save hers in a minute." The blonde muttered.
Holly grinned but closed her eyes, content to remain where she was for the time being.
"And why the hell is she even up?" Gail continued as her hand unconsciously started to stroke Holly's body, making its way back up her skin as she lay beside her. "She should be hiding away in the bedroom upstairs nursing a hangover." She said, her hand cupping a breast.
"I guess she's just lucky." Holly said brokenly as a thumb brushed over her nipple.
"Oh, like you?" Gail asked knowing Holly rarely suffered after a heavy drinking session. She saw the wicked grin Holly was trying to tame that gave the answer away. She removed her hand and made a disgusted noise. "I hate you both."
"No you don't." Holly stated pressing her lips to Gail's quickly before pulling back. "And she's right, we both have to get up anyway, might as well take advantage of her cooking."
Gail sighed unhappily as Holly moved away from her. "Fine."
Holly tried hard to keep her smile small as she turned back to the blonde as they both started getting dressed. "And you have to promise not to shoot her if she makes any jokes about all those weird noises you make."
"That I make?" Gail asked turning incredulous eyes to her smirking girlfriend.
Holly chuckled and went towards the door having clothed herself first. "Well, I'm blaming you when she asks, so yeah, you." And with that she scampered out of the room just as a pillow hit the back of the door.
"Ugh." Gail wasn't ready for this. She didn't do families, her own were trouble enough to deal with without trying to cope with Holly's. Gail didn't do well with being teased, she hated being made fun of, it made her say mean things and the last thing she wanted was to give Elizabeth a bad impression of her or embarrass Holly.
Family meant a lot to Holly.
Maybe she could just hide out in here until she needed to leave for shift?
She could get by without coffee until she got to the station right? And was that bacon she could smell?
xxxxx
"So…good night?" Elizabeth inquired as she sat across from her sister's girlfriend nursing a mug of coffee. Holly had told her to play nice and then promptly disappeared just as said girlfriend shuffled into the kitchen looking more out of place than Elizabeth felt, having spent a good part of the night and morning listening to the pair.
Gail continued eating, not even bothering to look at the younger woman as she kept her eyes on one of Holly's journals that had been left within her reach as she sat down to breakfast. "Hm," She muttered vaguely. "How was yours?"
"Oh, you know, catching up with friends, almost getting shot…it's was okay, I guess. I didn't die at any rate."
"Ah," Gail sat up a little straighter. "Sorry about that." She'd hoped to have gotten away with that one.
Elizabeth shrugged and took another drink of her coffee. "I think I was a bit too out of it last night to have noticed, I only remembered when you walked in here just before."
"Still, sorry."
"You're a cop right?" Elizabeth waited for the blonde to nod. "Then I'm glad it was you and not Holly, I'm pretty sure she woulda just pulled the trigger, even knowing it was me." She said with that little sideways grin that Gail liked so much from Holly.
Gail gave her a nod and went back to eating. She's not sure Holly would have herself, her girlfriend had refused the two offers of a trip to the shooting range so far and Gail doubted that would change anytime soon.
"What?" She asked, feeling eyes on her again.
Elizabeth just shrugged as she smiled into her coffee. She might not feel like eating right now but even her poorly stomach needed the caffeine hit. "It's just…the way you were screaming earlier, I thought you might be hurt." She continued innocently.
"And you want to what, checking for injuries?" Gail asked fighting the need to blush. She should have gone for the shower first instead of following the scent of food into the kitchen.
"You have a doctor for that though right?" Elizabeth continued. "I mean if you were looking for a second opinion I could help…"
Gail snorted and went back to her food just as Holly entered the kitchen, pulling her damp hair up into a ponytail. The blonde picked up her last slice of crispy bacon and got up from her seat glad to be done with the awkwardness.
As she past Holly they both stopped to share a kiss.
"Wasn't too bad was it?" Holly asked softly, her eyes flitting to her sister momentarily just to make sure she was still alive.
"Oh, it was fine, except your sister just offered to give me a full medical." Gail said in her normal voice making sure Elizabeth overheard.
"That wasn't what I meant!" The younger girl squealed.
Gail grinned and walked away leaving the two sisters to it. "Girls always hit on me."
"You told her?!"
Huh?
Gail stopped just outside the kitchen. Oh!
Holly's sister was gay?
Gail shook her head in amusement and continued towards the shower room.
xxxxxx
Gail made sure she was dressed to leave before she wandered back into the kitchen.
"Hey." She said only to stop in her tracks as she spotted Holly hold a sobbing Elizabeth in her arms.
Awkward.
The younger girl pulled away from Holly at the sound of Gail's voice. "Just…something in my eye."
Gail huffed quietly at that excuse as the girl took her mug and went over to the coffee machine, keeping her back to the blonde the whole time, even as her hands shot up to wipe at her face.
Contrite Gail eyed Holly wondering if she should back out of the room and leave the pair to talk, or cry, whichever worked.
Holly could tell what the blonde was thinking and shook her head, tilting it afterwards to get Gail walking towards her, which she did with obvious reluctance.
"Everything okay?" Gail whispered as she stepped between a now seated Holly's legs.
Holly pursed her lips as her arms went up and around Gail's shoulders. "Just relationship stuff."
"Oh." Gail bit her lip, eyeing the younger girl. She didn't really have anything uplifting or supportive to offer on that. She also wasn't entirely sure how welcome any advice she might have would be given she didn't really know the girl.
"Hm." Holly pulled Gail down for a kiss, taking advantage of the alone time.
"Oh god, really!" Elizabeth exclaimed having turned back towards them with her refill only to find the pair sucking face. "Seriously, I turn my back for like two minutes!" She said sitting back down and glaring at the pair. "Have you no sympathy? I only just broke off a nine month relationship, it was bad enough listening to you guys going at it all morning!"
Gail laughed and had to pull out of the kiss Holly seemed to want to extent just to rile up her sister.
Holly wiped her lip and turned to glare at Elizabeth who responded with a grin.
"So, how do you two deal with it?" Elizabeth asked, wiping at her face again just to make sure there was no more tears. Her eyes felt puffy and she was sure she looked a mess right now but she was past caring.
Gail frowned, feeling out of the loop. "With what?"
Elizabeth's hand waved in the air. "The hours, never seeing each other. Susan said all I ever did was work and study."
"Oh." Gail was regretting everything right now, from getting up this morning to opening her mouth. Ever. It was the height of stupidity to ask an emotional woman that's just broken up anything that wasn't derogatory towards the ex or didn't involve alcohol.
"Sorry you asked?" Holly whispered to Gail as she slipped her hands into the blonde's pockets to prevent the escape she knew her girlfriend was desperately looking for.
"Oh yeah." Gail replied as she settled against Holly as she realised she wasn't leaving anytime soon.
Elizabeth took a small sip from her mug then looked back at the pair expectantly. "Well?"
"Well what?" Holly asked, "We see each other whenever we can,"
"We text." Gail offered.
"Meet for lunch,"
"Dinner."
"And we spend our time together, even if it's just to be in the same place even if one of us has to sleep. Just being in the same room or house, it's enough." Holly explained.
Gail nodded quickly to agree. She wasn't the only one that sometimes worked the night shift and even if she was the one catching a nap, seeing Holly just before and knowing she would be there when she woke, it was enough, it was more than enough. "And then there's days off."
"Ugh." Elizabeth didn't find this at all helpful. "But you guys practically work together. What if you didn't, what if you couldn't have lunch all the time and were too busy for texting and one of you was never home from the office until late every night?"
Gail's eyes widened at the scenario.
"Susan's right isn't she, that isn't much of a relationship is it?" Elizabeth ask, looking heartbroken and sad as she realised her relationship couldn't even hold up to her sisters of a few weeks.
"How about we not make this about me and your sister's relationship." Gail pleaded, she had enough insecurities of her own to deal with she couldn't add all of Elizabeth's as well. There was only so much she could cope with.
Holly grinned at her girlfriend. "We're doing okay."
"For now." Elizabeth muttered only to have both women glare at her. "What? You guys have to still be in the honeymoon stage, wait till the sex slows down…" She stopped and held her hands up when Gail gave her a hard stare, because seriously, the woman owned a gun.
Holly sighed and rolled her eyes at her sister. She was all for making her feel better but not at the expense of Gail whom she knew worried about how badly her past relationships ended.
"How about this," Gail said, her eyes lighting up a little as she looked between the sisters. "You're what, twenty-three, twenty-four?"
"Twenty-four."
Gail shot Holly a look, judging how quickly she could get out of the woman's hold. "That still gives you six years on your sister to find a partner!" She spat out quickly dodging away just as Holly leapt for her.
Elizabeth laughed as Holly chased Gail around the kitchen before grabbing the squealing blonde and whispering something into her ear that had the blonde pouting.
She was suddenly grateful for her snap decision to come to Toronto for a quick visit. She'd never really seen Holly like this. She watched them quietly as they whispered to each other still holding on to each other. She wondered when the last time she and Susan had looked at each other like that, questioned if they ever had.
She focused on her coffee for the next little bit, not looking up at the pair until they eventually sat down across from her again.
"You know, I won a bet because of you." Elizabeth said as she watched Gail move over to the counter and pull a travel mug over and seat it under the coffee machine.
"Me?" Gail asked shooting the younger Stewart a look over her shoulder.
Elizabeth nodded as she grinned to herself. "Jason and I bet on whether you were real or not or if Holly was making you up to stop mom worrying about her dying alone." She said with a giggle.
"Hey!" Holly was affronted by that. Just because she wasn't married with six kids by the time she was thirty.
Gail, bemused by the bet, returned and sat beside Holly, giving the older woman a consoling pat on her leg. "How much did you win?" She asked Elizabeth, her bets with Steve, when they didn't involve avoiding their mother, often reached several hundred dollars.
"More than enough to cover this little visit." Elizabeth answered smugly.
"Nice." Gail said in approval.
"Thank you." Elizabeth said. "See, I still believe in you."
Holly rolled her eyes, still unsure what to make of her siblings taking bets over her love life as well as the fact Jason thought she would make up having a girlfriend.
Elizabeth could see a touch of hurt in her sister's face that she had trouble masking. "Come on Hol, it's not like you shout about anyone you date, he thought you just wanted mom to stop stressing over it."
Holly shrugged. "He thought I made Gail up?" Her lips twitched as the blonde snorted at that. "Just because I'm not dragging her off to meet mom and dad after 5 minutes doesn't give him the right to joke about my relationships."
Elizabeth realised she'd touched a nerve, tried to smooth a few ruffled feathers. "You know Jase, he was just saying that with you living up here you could say anything was true and mom and dad would be none the wiser unless they came for a visit." Then she winced as she stared at her sister. "Which reminds me…"
"No." Holly said, almost getting up just to stress her point. She really didn't need more of her family turning up unannounced.
A smile broke over Elizabeth's face as she saw the panic starting to spread to Gail as well as her sister at the idea of her parents coming for a visit. "Just kidding!"
Holly groaned completely unamused with her sister's joke.
Gail eyed Holly. "Hey, I'm very real. Seriously, how could anyone make me up?" She said leaning in for a kiss with Holly just to prove her point. "But this very real girlfriend has to get to work, so…"
"Actually, I'm not going in." Holly said, looking at Gail somewhat apologetically. "I'm going to take a personal day and spend some time with Eliza. I can still drive you in though." She said moving to stand.
"You never take personal days to spend with me." Gail complains.
Holly smirks and leans closer. "That's because I can see you whenever I want Elizabeth doesn't even live in Canada."
Gail crosses her arms over her chest, clearly not impressed with that excuse. "Fine whatever." She said narrowing her eyes playfully at Holly's younger sister who was smirking back at her from behind Holly.
"I promise to make it up to you." Holly offers as she leans forward towards Gail.
Gail grins and closes the gap, and as the pair kiss she lifts her hand past Holly and flicks Elizabeth the bird as she makes sick noises at them.
Holly chuckles as she pulls back and throws her sister a look to behave.
"Well, I'll leave you both to it." Gail says picking up her travel mug of coffee. Holly's coffee was so much better than the crap in the staff room.
"Oh no, I'll drive you." Holly repeats standing to join the blonde.
Gail shakes her head. "Wouldn't want to interrupt family time." She says but softens her words with another kiss. "See you tonight."
Holly watches her walk away and Elizabeth makes another sound that has Gail pausing in the doorway to turn back around.
"You know what kid, see while you two are out today, buy yourself some earplugs because your sister owes me and tonight she's going to be the one screaming. Loud." And with that the blonde spun and left.
"Eww." Elizabeth says after the comment sunk in.
Holly swallowed then got up quickly and chased after Gail. She caught the blonde just as she was turning the ignition of her car over. "Hey!" She called out as she came to a stop by the driver's side window.
Gail slowing dropped the glass. "Yeah?" She asked looking nervous.
Grinning Holly leaned on the door. "Why don't you take a personal as well and come back inside, I'm sure Elizabeth can spend the day with her friend from last night."
Gail was stunned for several seconds before the both of them burst into laughter.
Holly fanned her face. "Really? You're going to make me scream tonight? You can't just say that to a girl and walk away." She insisted, sticking her lower lip out in a pout.
Gail groaned and covered her face with both hands as a blushed broke out over her face. As she listened to Holly laughing again she realised it wasn't as bad as she'd thought it was a few seconds after those words had escaped from her mouth.
"I thought you'd be mad at me." She said, looking hesitantly back at her girlfriend.
Holly sighed but she was grinning. She shook her head at the blonde. "No, surprised you'd say something like that in company but not mad." She pressed a quick kiss to Gail's lips and pulled back to gesture back to the house. "So how about it?"
Gail blinked. "You're serious?" Holly nodded at her. "I can't, we're still short staffed right now, I-"
Holly pressed her fingers over Gail's lips to halt her apology. "I get it." She said taking her hand away. "But way to get a girl worked up." She sighed.
Gail gave her a repentant look. "Sorry. I'll make it up to you."
"Yes you will Officer Peck."
They both stared at each other until Gail was pushing her ability to get to 15 on time for parade.
"I really got to go." She said with a sigh. Taking personal days wasn't in her upbringing, especially not for something like this, but right now with Holly's sister in town Gail was very much regretting not taking yesterday off to move in with Holly properly and enjoy what little alone time they would have had.
Holly, looking just as disappointed, leaned over for one last kiss, making it last a little longer as Gail's hand pressed at the back of her head, holding her in place.
"Stay safe out there Gail." She said, giving Gail's face a final caress before stepping away from the car.
"I will."