Part 19

Gail didn't mind being in the station doing some paperwork before heading back out with McNally for the rest of their shift.

She didn't even mind the other woman's continuous stares.

She just kept her head down and typed out her report.

Andy looked at the blonde again, the conversation from lunch still fresh in her mind. She'd tried getting more information from Traci but the detective hadn't known any more than she had.

"So, are you really not applying then?" She had to ask, she already knew Nick was her strongest competition. But Gail being a Peck, Dov's comments aside, she would have been guaranteed one of the spots from 15 Division.

"Nope." Gail muttered as her fingers continued to tap away at the keys.

Andy frowned and shifted her chair closer. "Really?"

Gail paused and turned her head. "Really. Now can you get back to it so we can get out there and do the job we already have?"

"Uh…yeah, sure." Confused, Andy wheeled herself back over to her desk and went back to her version of the report they were handing in.

"Good." Gail muttered as she continued to complete her write up. Just as she finished and went to turn to Andy she spotted her brother in the Detective area at Traci's desk. He had his cell phone at his ear and the minute he caught her gaze he started walking towards her.

Her eyes narrowed as she glared at her partner. "Hurry it up McNally."

"Almost done." Andy replied checking her notebook before continuing to type.

Gail kept her attention away from her brother, half-way tempted to get up and walk away but she could already hear his voice which meant he'd have just followed her. With a sigh she turned back around to her screen and packed her notebook into her trousers.

Steve stopped behind his sister's chair, blocking her in.

"No, I didn't know that, listen she's right here why don't you talk to her yourself?" Steve said then sat on Gail's desk as he held the phone out to her.

Gail scowled at her brother long enough for him to wave the phone in her face.

"Mom wanted to talk to you." He told her with a grin.

Snatching the device out of his hand she covered the mouth piece and quickly said, "I hate you."

Steve chuckled and grinned at Andy who was now watching with rapt attention. She always thought Gail's reaction to her mother was hysterical.

"Hello mom." Gail said as she fake grinned at the pair enjoying her misery.

She dropped her smile when her mother mentioned that she'd heard Frank had taken her application for the ETF training out of consideration.

"That's right, he did." Gail confirmed although she wasn't sure why she was going along with the pretence that those orders hadn't originated with Elaine herself. "What do you mean what am I going to do about it?" She asked her mother. "He's my Sergeant mom, I think he'd know whether I was ready or not, so I'm deferring to his judgment on this." She almost grinned as her mother spluttered to reply to that. "I mean, what if he's right? I wouldn't want to embarrass 15 now would I? How would that look on you?" Gail grinned fully now as her mother struggled again. "It's fine really, there's always next time. Anyway mom, I really have to get back to work. Bye."

Gail cracked her neck to ease the tension in her muscles now that she'd got through the call. She stood and tossed the phone back at her stunned brother who only just caught it.

She felt good.

Gail grinned as she walked away, "You coming or not McNally?"

Andy glanced at Steve for a second before getting up and hurrying after the blonde.

xxxxxx

Elizabeth watched as Holly hummed her way through a small intestine search.

Gross.

So far all the signs pointed to a heart attack but Holly had a few more checks to make before she would start putting the body back together for release to a funeral home and the person's relatives.

The younger woman was thankful when her cell buzzed and she could stop watching Holly pull the organ out of the body and run it tightly through her fingers looking for foreign bodies that shouldn't be there, or signs of disease.

She had a text message from her friend Rebecca, the girl that had picked her up from the airport the night Gail had almost killed her for arriving at Holly's unannounced.

"Hey Hol?" She asked, her eyes reading her phone.

Holly glanced over to the other side of the room, she'd almost forgot her sister was there. "Yeah?"

Elizabeth paused, she'd bring up Becca in a minute, she wanted to know something else first.

"You really love her, don't you?" She asked quietly her eyes trained on her sister.

Holly frowned. "Gail?"

"No, the other blonde cop you're sneaking off to have sex in restrooms with!" Elizabeth snapped back at her sister.

Holly chuckled and took a moment to tuck the intestine in her hand back into the cavity.

"Oh, that blonde."

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and texted Becca back her mind made up. As the silence lengthened Elizabeth lifted her head to look at Holly. "Well?"

Holly shrugged. "Yes, I do."

Elizabeth glared at her sister. "Woah, no stop, really? That's the best you got?"

Holly chuckled and shook her head. "What do you want me to say Eliza?" She asked as she pulled off her gloves and tossed them into the bio waste bin, coming around to sit across from her younger sister. "Does she make me smile just thinking about her? Yeah. Do I want to wake up with her every morning? Yeah, kinda why I asked her to move in." She added with a happy smile. She'd been so nervous about asking Gail to live with her but the blonde had jumped at the chance.

And so far so good.

"Marriage, kids?"

Holly snorted. "Okay, calm down, can I enjoy right now please?" The last few weeks had taught Holly that planning for the future was a waste of time, live in the present and the rest will fall into place.

And right now Holly's present was better than she could have hoped for, especially when she thought she'd been falling for a straight girl.

It was Elizabeth's turn to shrug. "You just seem really happy. It's nice to see. She makes you glow almost, I mean you're practically singing while you're cutting up a dead guy!" She told her sister with a giggle.

Holly could feel herself blush. "Thank you."

"So," Elizabeth waved her phone at Holly. "That brings me to Becca, she's invited me out tonight and said I could stay."

"Probably a good thing, wouldn't want to give Gail a second chance to shoot you." Holly told her with a cheek grin. "She wouldn't miss."

"Really feeling the love there, sis."

Holly chuckled and got back up. "Let's finish this up, I've got a big night to plan."

Elizabeth gave her sister a scathing look. "Eww. You just had to go there."

"Make yourself useful then, I need coffee."

Getting up Elizabeth shook her head and scurried off before Holly could make another comment that eluded to alone time with Gail.

xxxxxx

Gail and Andy walked through the hallway of the high school they had been called out to for a fight between two students. The school head was leading the way to her office where she was holding one of the students.

"It's just in here." The grey haired woman said, gesturing past a reception area. She stopped at the door, her hand on the door handle as she turned back to the officers. "I have Robert in here with security, Casey is down the hall with the nurse."

Gail frowned and shot Andy a look. "He assaulted her?" She asked.

The school head nodded, "She says he raped her." And then she opened the door to reveal a male adult standing next to a seated boy who had his head in his hands.

"I'll take the girl." Andy informed Gail and quickly asked the secretary sat nearby how to get to the nurse's station.

Gail watched Andy leave and took a breath before stepping into the room, closing the door behind her to keep out anyone trying to listen in.

She eyed the boy, who kept his head down as Gail approached. She took her memo book out from her trousers and looked at the other adults in the room. "I only need one of you to stay." The head nodded to the security and he left them alone.

Gail leant on the desk and faced the boy. "So, Robert, I'm Officer Peck and I'd like for you to tell me what happened today?" She asked him, once they had statements from both individuals Gail would have to call in Detectives as well as both kids set of parents.

Robert looked up at Gail, tears in his eyes. "I don't know why she's saying this!" He protested.

Gail sighed as the boy dropped his head again and started crying heavily. She almost wanted to roll her eyes. The boy was big, even sat down he looked to be a good few inches taller than Gail and she thought he could probably look pretty intimidating. If it wasn't for the sobbing.

She looked at the other woman. "Have their parents been called?"

"Yes, I called them after I called you."

"Okay, well Robert, we have two options, you can talk to me here or we can wait for your parents to arrive and we can all take a trip to the station." She told him in the hopes it would get him talking.

Robert lifted his head, his eyes big as he looked between the two women in front of him.

Gail's eyes narrowed as she spotted what looked to be scratch marks next to Robert's ear. The set of three marks looked like they could have come from someone's fingernails, they also didn't look fresh. She made a quick note of them in her book.

Robert snivelled and wiped the tears and snot from his face before looking at Gail. "We were all at Harry's after the game. I was-"

"I'm sorry, game?" Gail stopped him to look between Robert and Helen the school head.

Helen nodded. "There was an away basketball game on Saturday, we won, and some of the school students got together later that night to celebrate when we arrived back. It happens all the time." She informed Gail.

Robert nodded. "I play Point." He added.

"So, what happened at the party?" Gail asked as she wondered why the party a few days prior was connected to an alleged fight today.

The boy shrugged, his eyes tearing up again. "Nothing!" He said, his eyes wide. "She came up to me and start having a go about Sandra and I told her who I dated wasn't any of her business."

Gail frowned and made a few more notes. "And why did she think it was her business?"

Robert sighed and rubbed at his eyes as he shifted in his seat. "We used to date." He confessed. "Me and Casey."

Gail nodded and made a note. "Okay, when and why did you break up?"

"A few weeks ago, after Christmas." Robert replied, then he shifted uncomfortably, his eyes flitting around the room. "We just…didn't have anything in common anymore, she doesn't really like sport."

"So why would she go to the party?"

Robert shrugged. "I don't know, she wasn't even at the game she just was there suddenly, shouting at me. I think she was drunk." He looked away again. "I tried to calm her down but she kept going on about Sandra."

Gail nodded. "The new girlfriend?"

Robert blushed. "She's not really…we just, she's…"

Gail waited but Robert didn't carry on. She looked to Helen and raised her eyebrow.

"Sandra Keefer, she's the head cheerleader." Helen supplied.

Gail almost giggled on hearing that and she covered by coughing and ducking her head down to make a few more notes in her book. When she was composed again she looked back at the boy and gestured to the side of her own face. "Is that when?"

Robert's hand went to the marks on his face. "Yeah, she just went ballistic and started hitting me, then she tossed a drink over me." He looked to Gail and gave her another shrug. "I didn't see her after that then at lunch today she came up to my table and started screaming at me!"

Helen nodded in agreement. "That's when one of the supervising teacher's stepped in, they were separated but Casey was so upset we had to take her to the nurse to try and calm her down and that's when she claimed Robert had assaulted her." She explained for Gail.

Gail watched Robert closely. "Do you understand what Casey said Robert?"

Robert nodded. "She said I hit her, I never did I swear, I'd never hit a girl!"

Gail frowned and looked at Helen who looked back at her awkwardly. The head had obviously failed to explain to Robert what he had been accused of.

"Robert?" Gail spoke softly as the boy watched her. "Casey is claiming that you assaulted her," She watched him nod but she wasn't sure he completely understood. "She says you raped her." She clarified.

She watched as Robert paled so quickly she thought he was going to faint, but instead he looked at her in disbelief and when she nodded back to him that she was here because he was suspected of raping Casey he leapt to his feet and lost his lunch in the waste basket by the door.

"Oh yeah, real hard man." Gail muttered quietly to herself as she reached for her radio. There was no way she was sorting out this mess.

xxxxxxx

Gail and Andy stood in the hallway in front of Detective Emily Wilson and her partner Duncan Moore.

"So what's your take?" Emily asked Gail after Andy had given the Detectives a run down on the situation.

Gail shrugged, just glad she wasn't going to be responsible for sorting through all the information to get to the truth. "I think she's lying." She said to Emily.

"What?" Andy rounded on Gail and shot her an angry look. "How can you even say that, you didn't even speak to Casey!"

"True." Gail replied softly. "Anyway, his parents just got here so you might have some trouble speaking to him without a lawyer." She offered.

Emily digested that and eyed both officers before shooting her partner a look of her own.

Sighing Duncan glanced at Peck. "What makes you think she's lying?"

Gail shrugged, mostly it was her gut, but she also knew enough about relationships and bad breakups. "They both dated, he dumps her, becomes the star of the basketball team and starts seeing the head cheerleader. It's not a big leap to suggest Casey Sanders got jealous that her ex left her behind."

Andy snorted and crossed her arms over her chest, clearly on the girl's side.

Gail eyed her colleague then looked back at the detectives. "As my partner said, I haven't spoken to the girl, in fact I have no idea what's happened to her or what condition she's in, but Robert says she was drunk at the party."

"He would." Andy grumbled.

Gail frowned at her long enough to make Andy glance away.

Shrugging at the detectives Gail continued. "All I'm saying is that she found out her ex-boyfriend was now sleeping with the most popular girl in school and got jealous enough to verbally and physically assault him at the party, I have no idea what state of mind she was in after that but I don't think he touched her."

Emily nodded, they'd have to speak to other student's that had been to the party. She then looked at McNally. "What about you?" The other officer was clearly unhappy with Gail's assessment of the situation.

"That girl is a mess and she's clearly not faking it." Andy said then lifted her hands up unable to say any more without saying something out of line.

Duncan looked at his partner then back at the two uniforms. "Well, it's our problem now."

Gail nodded and put her memo book away.

"EMT's are on the way for the girl." Andy added.

Emily smiled at Gail and then gave the pair a respectful nod and then she and Duncan started to make their way to the Head's office to take the boy to the station. Guilty or not they had to gather the facts first and while the girl was at the hospital with her parents they could question the boy.

Andy stormed out of the school ahead of Gail as they started back for their squad car.

Gail watched her friend wondering why she was getting so worked up over the case. Bad things happened all the time and rape between ex's wasn't unheard of, in fact it was statistically high compared to rape from a stranger.

Trailing after Andy Gail let the brunette try and work it out on her own, she didn't need to get into an argument when she still had a few hours left of shift to go.

As they reached the car Andy turned to Gail and walked into her personal space. "I can't believe you said that in there?!" She hissed at the blonde. "You didn't see her, she was a mess, and you think she's just making it up? No one would do that." She insisted.

Gail guffed and rolled her eyes, stepping around Andy to get to the driver's side door. "Women have been doing that for years Andy, and it's up to the D's to work out who's telling the truth now."

"What would you know?" Andy huffed.

Gail froze and glared at Andy over the roof of the car. "Yeah, what would I know about rape?"

Andy paled as her friend slammed the car door closed after getting in. She winced and lifted her head skyward wishing she could have the last few moments back.

"Move it McNally, I don't have all day!" Gail called out.

Gingerly Andy got into the passenger seat and fastened her seatbelt. "Sorry." She muttered to Gail.

"Whatever." Gail replied as she backed the car up and got them heading away from the school, they'd have to go back to the Barn to write the report up first before they could continue with their shift.

She wasn't too upset with Andy, she was more annoyed that her happy mojo had disappeared.

Maybe a stop at the morgue would bring it back, Gail thought with a grin.

And then she could tell Holly how she'd handled talking with her mother, maybe it would even earn her cheese puffs for dinner.

xxxx

AN/

Okay, seriously guys, 22 episodes? 22!

Can not WAIT for the new season.