DISCLAIMER: Rookie Blue and its characters are the property of Morwyn Brebner, Tassie Cameron, Ellen Vanstone and Global. No infringement is intended.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: So I may have become slightly obsessed with Gail and Holly. So I absolutely had to have a go at writing about them. Especially when the new season is so far away. Anyway, have a read, and let me know what you think.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
FEEDBACK: To debinho23[at]hotmail.co.uk
SPOILERS: The end of Season Four.
it's a curious wanting thing
By EdenAshley
Part 1
Holly looks across at their entwined fingers. She smiles involuntary. When she kissed Gail all those weeks ago at the wedding, never in her wildest dreams did she think anything would come of it, it was an act of impulse more than anything else, she wanted to kiss Gail so she did, but now looking down at their joined hands, she has hope. Holly has real actual hope. But also fear in equal measure.
I mean look at this current situation. Yes there is hand holding involved. But there's also chaos. Gail still has red circles under her eyes from all the crying she did earlier. Officer McNally returned from seeing Officer Swarek about 30 minutes ago a shadow of her former self, from the murmurs that did the rounds in the waiting room apparently Sam had coded right then and there while Andy was in the room with him, it had knocked her for six, and the rest of 15 division too. Gail hadn't said a word since Andy's return, Holly looked over the blonde woman; her head is firmly facing the floor. The brunette shifts her weight in the seat and gets comfortable. It appears they could be here for some time.
Gail is gripping Holly's hand like she's scared to let to go. She is, she feels like if she does release it she'll fall into an abyss. Holly has been there for her without question today, and Gail can't put into words how much that means to her. Really at this precise moment in time she can't put anything into words. Fear, she can taste it, she can feel it in her throat, and not fear about Holly, about whatever this thing is, or could be with her, at the moment Holly is really the only thing providing her with comfort, no her fear is firmly planted in the fact that two of her friends lives hang in the balance.
She absolutely can't lose another friend. Luckily Oliver is fine, they're gunna keep him in overnight for observation, but he'll be out in the morning, and most probably back at work in a few days. The look of pure terror in Andy's eyes when she returned from visiting Sam, made Gail's heart lurch in her chest. It seems to have had the same effect on everybody else camped out at the hospital; they all look too scared to breathe. Then she glances down to her lap, and sees her hand, gripped in Holly's and her heart seems to settle a little, she knows she can get through this. She just prays that Sam and Chloe know that they too have hands to hold, that will pull them through this, she hopes they fight.
Holly not for the first time this evening glances down at the dead weight currently slumped to her side, head firmly resting on her shoulder. She's not sure she noticed the precise time Gail fell asleep on her shoulder, but she loves that she feels at ease enough to do so. She looks cute, Holly's not gunna lie though, as cute as she looks, she's mainly been glancing down at the younger woman to make sure she doesn't drool on her.
She smiles at the thought, before glancing at her watch, it's getting late, and she has work tomorrow as does Gail, that being said she has absolutely no intention of leaving. She starts to think about the amount of coffee she's going to be drinking to get through the next day.
When she adjusted to check the time, she disturbed the sleeping beauty. Gail lifts her head from Holly's shoulder and stretches. It takes her a few seconds to get her bearings. She glances around the waiting room. Traci it appears also decided to take a nap; she's currently wedged on Steve's shoulder. Dov is hunched forward, head between his legs, and Chris has a comforting hand placed on his back. Nick is standing leaning against the wall; it's weird that he's not with Andy, who is slumped back into her chair. Obviously it can't have been nice watching just how worked up she was over Sam, but still Nick is one of the good guys, and this is her hour of need.
Frank is at the nurses' station, it appears he's getting some form of update from one of the doctors. She completes her 360 of the room by glancing down at her own hand, still in Holly's and then up at the beautiful woman, who has come to mean so much to her, in such a short space of time.
"Hey." Gail smiles, suddenly feeling very self conscious about the fact that she's just been napping on Holly. "Sorry."
Holly loves the sheepish smile that appears on Gail's face, she squeezes her hand, which is still clutching her own. "No problem, anytime."
They break eye contact at the sound of Frank clearing his throat. All eyes are immediately on him.
"The Doctor's just told me that Sam is stable, in a coma, but out of immediate danger."
There's a collective sigh of relief. Frank continues. "Right go home, get some sleep, you're all on shift tomorrow. I'll make sure you're called if there's any change in condition."
Frank turns away, and everybody else starts to move to either leave or to make plans to leave, Holly watches everyone around them, suddenly nervous, is she no longer needed now, should she just go home? Chris approaches the two of them.
"Gail, Dov's refusing to leave, he wants to be here if Chloe wakes up."
Gail just nods, understandable she supposes she knows if it was her in his situation, God forbid she would be exactly the same; she almost involuntary tightens her grip around Holly's hand. Chris apparently hasn't finished.
"I'm going to stay here with him, are you going to be okay getting home, and being there alone?"
Before she gets a chance to answer, Steve and Traci appear over Chris's right shoulder. Steve butts in.
"You can crash at mine little sister."
That really is the last thing she wants. "Actually I'll think I'll just stay with Holly." The words are out of her mouth before she has a chance to process them, she realises that she could be asking a bit too much from her friend. . . no that doesn't sound right, girlfriend? No that really doesn't sound right. Plus one? Yeah that will do for now.
"I mean if that's okay?" She glances up at Holly.
Adorable sheepishness, there it is again Gail Peck didn't strike her as someone who did insecurity, certainly not in public anyway.
"That's fine. Shall we get out of here?"
Gail smiles and nods, she hates hospitals, she wants nothing more than to escape this one's clutches, well that and escape the quizzical looks she's getting from her brother and her two work colleagues, she is going to have some explaining to do at some point. But not right now, now she wants to feel comfort, and she wants it only from one nerd in particular.
The drive to Holly's is a short one, it takes about 15minutes. Gail knows exactly where she is, this is her part of town, its relatively close to her place, the Penny and the precinct, she impressed by the convenience of the location. She's pulled from her thoughts by Holly tapping on the passenger window, and pulling a stupid face, which basically conveys 'are you coming or what Peck?'
She slides out of Holly's car, and takes in her surroundings, she recognises the building, she doesn't remember ever being inside, but she's driven past the place thousands of times. She follows the brunette into the building, and into the elevator, it's all in a very comfortable silence, which is weird, Gail is currently going back to the place of someone she's kissed for the first time, oh and the someone happens to be a chick, she thought she'd be more nervous, scared, worried. But she just feels content, she not sure if that's down to the majority of her 'worry' being used up on her injured friends, or the fact that she's dog tired and has to be up for her next shift in a few hours.
Holly had pressed the button for the tenth floor, this is the top floor of the building, the view over the city must be pretty awesome, she glances over at Holly, the view inside this elevator is pretty epic to be fair. Once again when they hit the floor, Gail follows Holly as she navigates her way to her front door and effortlessly unlocks it.
She holds the door open and lets Gail walk in first, she loves her apartment, and she hopes Gail is impressed by it too. To be fair the blonde is pretty speechless. Exposed brick, wooden floors, floor to ceiling windows, and she was right about the view, to die for. The place was very earthy, very Holly, there are huge bookcases overflowing with books, no surprise there, Nerd. She is very impressed by the large flat screen TV, and more so when she sees the games console hooked up to it.
"Nice place. Being a nerd must pay well."
Holly knows that was a pretty big compliment in Gail world, she can't help the smirk that hits her face; she's not gunna lie she loves the banter. "I get by."
"Do you want anything before we go to bed?"
There's the nervousness Gail was expecting earlier. Induced by one simple, three letter word. 'Bed'. Holly picks up on it straight away, and it takes everything she has not to burst into laughter at how rigid Gail's previously cocky frame has turned.
"Relax Gail. I have a spare room." She pats her on the arm as she speaks before moving past the confused woman into the kitchen to grab them both a bottle of water.
Gail feels less nervous more disappointed. She doesn't let her brain process her next sentence. "I don't wanna sleep in the spare room."
Holly almost stops in her tracks at Gail's words, but she manages to get the bottle of water to the blonde and then waits for an explanation.
"I want to sleep with you." She clarifies, but as she says it, she knows it hasn't come out right, Holly's quirked eyebrow is testament to this, she really is finding this all rather too amusing. Gail doesn't appreciate the smug grin, and smacks her on the arm to show as much.
"You know what I mean, I want to sleep in your bed, with you and not have sex." Gail is satisfied that she's explained herself correctly now, and starts to remove her jacket and utility belt.
There's the Peck confidence back in abundance. "Okay then officer Peck, whenever you're ready, I will escort you to my bed, to sleep, but no sex. Any other demands."
Holly is teasing her, they both know it. Gail lets it slide and shakes her head 'no', to her question. She places the cap back onto her water bottle, and moves towards her, Holly holds her breath, having Gail in this close proximity does something to her, makes her heart do somersaults, she's not disappointed when the police officer places a hand on either side of her face, much like she had done earlier in the interrogation room.
"Thank you for today."
"You're welcome." It's all Holly can manage before Gail's lips are on hers, she enjoys the kiss this time, earlier it was kind of sprung on her, and was over before she really had a chance to process. This time she was very much involved. Gail pulled back eventually, satisfied when Holly didn't open her eyes immediately, that definitely had the desired effect.
Grinning she moves to the hallway where she assumes she will find the rest of the apartment.
"Where's the bathroom nerd?"
Holly has just about recovered from the kiss, she was going to get Gail back for that, over and over again she hopes.
"Down the hall to the left. Oh and Gail if you keep kissing me like that, the 'no sex' rule will be out the window."
Gail smirks, yep it definitely had the desired effect.
After Gail had changed into to some comfy clothes provided by Holly, they had both hit the bathroom to brush their teeth, luckily Holly had a spare toothbrush, they barely made it out of the bathroom, they had so much fun teasing each other, well each other's reflection in the bathroom mirror. Flirting, that's what they were both doing, and they were both enjoying it.
Now the mood turned a little tenser. They had made their way to Holly's bedroom, Holly just dived into the bed, it's her bed after all, no need for her to be nervous, she glances across at Gail who's still loitering in the doorway.
"You know you're not that hot officer Peck." Holly smirks as she's says it.
Wow that was quite offensive. "Excuse me?"
Her words have the wanted effect on Gail. She decides to have a little more fun with her explanation. "Well you obviously seem to think that if you get into bed, I'm going to be so overcome with attraction, lust, I don't know what you want to call it, that I won't be able to keep my hands off of you."
She steadies her voice again, and makes sure she pronounces each word clearly. "You're not that hot."
Gail smirks, Holly had this amazing ability to calm her down, say exactly the right thing to get her over her stupid fears. She climbs into bed next to Holly; she makes herself comfortable resting her head against Holly's shoulder, and allowing the other woman to place an arm around her, before she hooks her leg over the brunette's. Amazed at how easy it was to just drape herself across her.
"Good night Holly."
Holly's not sure if Gail is trying to kill her, she's definitely not complaining, but this no touching rule is proving exceptionally difficult, when they're y'know, touching so much. Holly takes a deep breath to try and get her hormones under control; this doesn't go unnoticed by Gail, who can't help the smirk.
"Holly. I am that hot." Triumphant.
Well that confirms it. This current position is all part of Gail's game, and boy is Holly enjoying playing it so far.
"Yes you are." Holly has to agree, she gently kisses the top of the blonde's head. "Now get some sleep."