Part 24

Gail was surprised to find that she was paired with Dov after parade had finished as he was still working on Luke's case from the day before. But as it was a murder case she was intrigued enough to not complain too much.

"Shouldn't this be a Guns and Gangs case?" She asked Dov as they sat at their desks going over the case to get Gail up to speed before they set out with a team to go pick up the main suspect.

Dov looked up from the file to see if Gail was serious. By the direct stare he was receiving he figured she was.

He shrugged at her. "It's Luke's case and he's running with it. He's just waiting for the arrest warrant to come through."

Gail scowled. "Yeah, but you had his name yesterday, even before court closed. Why not get the warrant then?"

Dov sighed. How was he supposed to know any of the answers to that, he just did what Luke told him. But he fumbled for a reply as Gail continued to glare at him. "He said he was waiting on a ballistics report…and he and Traci were doing a bunch of interviews, friends, classmates, and the couple of witnesses they had at the scene. So maybe there just wasn't time yesterday." He tried to explain.

"I suppose." Gail muttered slowly and shifted back and forth in her seat.

So far there was a dead 17 year old male whose own brother had gang connections and his purported girlfriend, Angela Luiz, also 17 and whose older brother was a known gang member who had already been seen to have warned the boy away from his sister.

Put together, it was more likely a gang related shooting than just a random act with Jason Dean in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And Luke knew this, it was why he was getting a warrant for Rico Luiz and in particular a search warrant for his home to try and find the gun that fired the shot that killed Jason.

Gail was sure Luke probably kept the gang connection out of it and kept it to an older brother not liking the guy trying to date his sister, but if Jason's brother confirmed that he was involved in his gang, even just hanging around the same places at the same time, then Luke should have passed this case on.

She tapped her pen to her lip as she paused in her note taking. There had to be something, some reason for Luke to really want to keep this case.

"What?" Dov asked as he wondered what his friend was thinking. He really didn't get why she was making such a big deal out of this, all they were going to do was pick up a suspect and do a house search.

Gail bit her lip then shook her head. "Nothing." She said and wrote out the last thing Dov had told her. She then gestured for him to get back to the file.

Glad to have that settled Dov went on with getting Gail up on the same page.

"Wait." Gail interrupted again causing Dov to let out a sigh. "What's Nash up to? Why isn't she going over the case with me?"

Dov smirked at his friend. "I guess she just doesn't think you're that important to the team." He told her.

Gail huffed and rolled her eyes. Then she glanced around the station, Luke and Traci were nowhere in sight so she pulled out her cell phone, ignoring Dov's exacerbated sigh that she wasn't paying attention to him.

She heard him throw down his own pen in annoyance and sit back in his seat. He was taking it personally, thinking that she was giving him a hard time because she was working on his case and he had to fill her in, but she wasn't trying to be difficult.

Not this time at least.

Steve, do the names Rico Luiz and Ryan Dean mean anything to you?

She placed her phone on her desk then looked back at Dov.

"You finished? Can we get this done now?" Dov asked her.

Gail didn't bother hiding her smirk but she gestured to him to carry on. Then her phone beeped beside her and it caused Dov to jump up out of his seat.

"You know what, just forget it. You can stay in the squad car and I'll do all the work." He said as he moved off towards the printer shaking his head.

Gail almost chuckled but instead she just picked up her phone and read the message Steve had sent back to her.

They do, but the better question is why are you asking? I'll be in my office in 30, drop by.

Gail furrowed her brow as she read that. She wasn't completely surprised that Steve knew of both boys, but the question was then how connected was Jason.

As she was about to ask Steve if he knew Jason as well, Luke came storming through holding up his cell phone.

"Warrant just came in let's go." He said as he headed for the parking lot.

Gail watched him disappear then stood and pulled on her jacket as Dov raced over and started to gather his notes. She left him to that and called behind her as she followed after Luke, "Guess I'm driving then?"

Dov groaned and narrowed his eyes as he hurried to catch up with her. "That's just what I need." He muttered to himself. He sometimes really hated working with Gail, it always made him feel like he wasn't as good an officer as the blonde.

xxxxx

Holly did her best not to scowl at her uninvited guest but it was hard given the severe look she was receiving from him.

"Look," She started, trying to keep her tone even. "It's not my job to supervise your staff, I shouldn't have needed to step in yesterday, you should have been there." She told him.

Dr Thompson huffed and shook his head, not happy with her reply.

Holly's eyes narrowed. "Dr Thompson be grateful that your only problem is my name in your paper work and not a complaint over the sample handling of evidence in a murder case." She said forcefully. This was not how she needed her morning to go, not given the constant messages that beeped on her cell.

She needed to go over her case notes with a clear head, so to quicken her colleague's departure she got up and went to her office door, opening it and holding it wide.

"Now if you don't mind, I have my own work to get on with, perhaps you should try that?" She couldn't help but add.

Dr Thompson got up and openly glared at Holly. "My work is impeccable."

"You assistant still needs training." She retorted. Although she did have an issue with Dr Thompson's work ethic. How could he feel that leaving Allen, his lab technician, to collect such vital evidence from the body was okay? Thompson was responsible for that, that was his job, so to take off while his assistant was left to do it, alone, was a foreign concept to Holly.

Holly could almost see the steam coming out of Thompson's ears but she just gave him a steady look, patiently waiting for him to leave her office. She gestured with her hand in an effort to send him on his way.

Thompson walked up to her then paused and met Holly gaze. "I will be taking this to David." He warned her.

Holly clenched her jaw and said nothing, and as he calmly left her office it was all she could do not to slam her door closed behind him.

She stood there for a good minute or two until she had composed herself enough to be able to get back to her work. As she took her seat again her phone beeped once more. Reading her sisters teasing comments on her sex life with Gail was the last thing Holly needed right now so with a touch of annoyance she picked up her phone and dumped it into a drawer where she hoped she could leave it for the rest of the day.

This time she did slam the drawer closed and strangely it went some way to making her feel a little bit better.

She sighed again then logged back into the computer system. She clicked into the internal email programme and typed out an email to her boss David Jenkins. She had a relatively good personal relationship with him and he was the one that had convinced her that Toronto would be the perfect fit for her in her career, and that she would have plenty of opportunities for advancement and still have time to pursue other interests in the lab including her own research if she wanted.

She hadn't took full advantage of that yet but she had been here less than a year.

After giving her side of the incident and explaining that procedure had been followed to a T she then sent the email on its way. She didn't give any comment on her thoughts on why she had needed to step in, she just laid the facts out for her boss.

Just as she was getting back to where she had been in her notes before Dr Thompson had interrupted her, a knock came at her door.

Holly bit her lip and glared hard at the wooden door. She doubted very much Thompson would have bothered to knock but it was possible David had sent someone to come fetch her if he'd gone straight up stairs.

Taking a deep breath she invited the person in.

One of the interns opened her door and Holly graced her with a smile, figuring it was something much easier to deal with. But Haley, the recent graduate, opened her door further with a hesitant look in her eyes.

"Dr Stewart? This officer is looking for you." The girl said softly but Holly was already on her feet and heading for Oliver.

She paled at the anguish that was written all over his face and it made her feet and heart stop.

Her eyes tracked over his uniform and she spotted several stains that almost knocked her to her knees.

"Is she alive?" She choked out in a whisper, the fear of the answer stealing her voice.

"Yes." Oliver replied quickly, nodding his head in emphasis to his words. "Yes, she'll be okay."

With a shaky hand Holly covered her mouth and let out a shuddering sigh of relief as her eyes began to tear up.

Oliver swallowed down his own emotions and gestured into the hallway. "Come on, for you I'll even turn on the lights and whistles." He said trying his best to keep the situation calm.

Holly wiped at her eyes and looked around her office. She had to think. Gail was hurt, and given what looked like blood stains on Oliver's clothes, there was a chance it was bad, but she was alive.

That was all that mattered.

As long as Gail was breathing, they'd get through it, Holly would help Gail get through it.

With that determined thought at the front of her mind, Holly grabbed for her jacket and left her office, storming quickly ahead of Oliver wanting to get to her girlfriend as quickly as possible.

Oliver let Holly go then turned his head upwards for a moment, feeling a flood of relief that he hadn't been here to deliver worse news to Holly.

He looked at the girl that had led him up to Holly and gave her a quick smile in thanks before saying that she should probably let someone else know that Dr Stewart was likely be away for the rest of today.

The girl nodded and quickly scurried off.

Oliver started after Holly but took the chance to get on his radio while Holly was out of range to listen in. "Diaz, update." He ordered his partner.

He walked to the staircase Holly had taken and took the stairs quickly in an effort to catch up.

His radio came to life just as he was stepping out of the stairwell and out into the buildings reception area.

"Well, she's cursing up a storm so I think we're good here." Chris answered into the radio.

Now Oliver managed to smile for the first time since he'd heard Gail's voice over the scanner calling in the emergency.

"Good, good." He talked back to Chris. "I'm on my way now, warn her if she doesn't behave and let the doctors do what they need to then Holly will make her."

There was a pause and then Chris came back over the radio with a quick, "Will do." But you could hear the laughter in his voice.

As Oliver pushed through the front door and spotted Holly standing by his squad car he stopped again and lifted the receiver to his mouth.

"Any word on Nash?"

This time there was a much longer pause from Chris.

"No."

Oliver bit his lip and nodded even though Chris couldn't see him, and then he made his way over to an anxious Holly and they both got into his car.

"Let's go see that girl of yours." He said to Holly as he gave her what he hoped was a reassuring pat on her leg.

"She's is really going to be okay, isn't she?" Holly asked, still terrified Oliver was trying to break it to her gently.

Oliver did as he'd told her in her office, he switched on his lights and used the siren as he sped through the streets in an effort to get to the hospital as quickly as possible.

"She is." He confirmed as he kept his eyes forward and concentrated on his driving as he weaved in and out of rows of cars. "She's pretty beat up though, just to warn you. She took hits to the face so just…"

Holly slumped back in her seat and pulled her glasses off to wipe the tears clear from her eyes. She didn't care how hurt Gail was she really didn't, she just needed the blonde to be alive and breathing.

Gail could take however long she needed to recover.

"What happened?" She asked, finally feeling like her world wasn't on the brink of collapse anymore.

Oliver let out a breath then pursed his lips.

That he couldn't answer.

"I wish I knew," He blinked as the scene he and Chris had arrived at flashed to the front of his thoughts. It left him with more questions than answers. "I wish I knew."

Holly stared at him, wanting him to explain further, but then the car was stopping and they were there.

And as she raced from the car all she cared about was getting to hold Gail in her arms again.