DISCLAIMER: Rookie Blue and its characters are the property of Morwyn Brebner, Tassie Cameron, Ellen Vanstone and Global. No infringement is intended.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
FEEDBACK: To ralst31[at]yahoo.co.uk
SPOILERS: The end of Season Four.
The Line That Shall Not be Crossed
By ralst
Life was good. Andy had reconciled with her former boyfriend - who, thankfully, hadn't died, because it's hard to get your freak on with a corpse - and managed to retain the friendship of her almost-boyfriend slash fuck-buddy slash best-friend (okay, so maybe there were times when she couldn't look him straight in the eye, and other times when she found her eyes wandering northwards to check out his ass, but overall she thought she was handling the transition back to friendship with-no-benefits pretty well). On top of which, the small grain of guilt she'd felt at jumping into bed with one of her friend's very-very-recent-exes had almost dissolved in the warmth of Gail's new friendship with the woman from the lab. Admittedly, she wasn't quite sure what was up with that, but she was perfectly willing to bask in the cessation of hostilities it had produced.
"What are you grinning at, McNally?" Gail sat down opposite, her eyes boring a hole through Andy's very soul as she scowled at the brunette. It was the kind of look that had been absent ever since Sam's shooting and whatever the hell had happened while Andy had been standing vigil at his bedside.
She tried smiling, but that only seemed to intensify the cold emanating from the ice-crystals Gail now seemed to possess instead of eyes. "Nothing." Andy's eyes flittered around the room, but the usual swarm of uniformed officers were conspicuous by their absence.
It was then that Andy noticed Gail's hands or, rather, the white tinged fists that appeared to be fighting a battle with the desk for dominion. For such delicate hands, they looked almost brutal, and for the first time in their acquaintance Andy actually felt physically intimidated by the blonde (other types of intimidation, especially those that could be employed via sharp words and home truths, were far more familiar, at least where Gail was concerned).
"You think you're something special, don't you, McNally." The corners of Gail's lips rose in the bastardisation of a smile. "The golden girl who can do no wrong."
"No. I. I don't." She thought again about Nick and the ease with which she'd dismissed Gail's feelings to jump into bed with someone she didn't even love and how that decision had dwarfed the momentary thought she'd given to Nick when she'd left him for Sam. "I've done plenty wrong."
The truth, although freely given, did nothing to diminish the intensity of Gail's regard. "There is a line, McNally, and if you cross it, nothing will ever be the same again." Andy squirmed nervously in her seat as Gail appeared to loom over her. "Holly, is that line."
It took a moment for Andy to equate the name to the tall brunette who seemed to bring out the non-homicidal side of the blonde. It was a trait she really wished she possessed, especially now, as Gail leaned forward, her fists digging into the scarred wood as she stared down at her very confused prey. "Holly?" She really wished their conversation had come with subtitles because she was sure she'd missed some subtle clue as to what the hell they were talking about.
Gail's brows lowered and her lips thinned the second Holly's name passed Andy's lips; Andy, who despite evidence to the contrary, wasn't stupid, decided there and then not to mention Holly's name again without permission, and perhaps a crucifix and exorcist on standby.
"You try and take her from me," said Gail, a trace of demonic glee entering her voice, "and I will destroy you."
Andy was more confused than ever; did Gail really think she was trying to steal her girlfriend? (whatever the true nature of Gail's words, there was one thing that Andy no longer doubted, and that was that Gail was in love with the tall lab geek). "I won't." She thought about expounding on the evidence of her straightness, but Gail was living proof that a boyfriend or two in your past didn't make you immune to falling in love with another woman. "She's besotted with you." Andy's reassurance had been cribbed from a conversation she'd overheard between Chris and Dov, although Chris had been adamant that the besotted-ness was entirely mutual; a sentiment she'd ascribed to male fantasy, at the time.
"Of course she is." A flicker of the real - sarcastic to a frightening degree but generally non-homicidal - Gail Peck shone through for a second and Andy drew in a breath of relief, until the moment passed and the warmth once again left Gail's eyes. "So don't try any of your pirate tricks, all right, McNally?"
Andy was promising before she'd even processed the words. "Pirate tricks?" She wondered, briefly, if that was a lesbian term, but there had been something in the way Gail said the word that struck Andy as significant. "I don't understand."
The look Gail bestowed upon her then was one of utter condescension; it was a look that would normally have raised Andy's hackles, but compared to the glares she'd been subjected to just moments before, it was oddly warm and almost friendly. "Of course you don't, McNally, it was my dream."
Andy blinked twice, in a manner akin to a cartoon rabbit. "A dream?" She wondered if Gail was on any kind of medication; although, last time she'd been confronted by a high Gail Peck, she'd been a lot less scary. "You had a dream about me?"
With a roll of the eyes the old Gail returned. "It wasn't about you, McNally, you're not the centre of everybody's universe."
"But I was in the dream?" Andy heard the sound of shuffling feet and thanked God that they would soon be joined by - hopefully - sane members of the police force.
The white slowly drained from Gail's knuckles as she began to relax her hands and call a truce on her war with the tabletop. "Yes." A quick smile flitted across Gail's lips as Oliver sat down in the space beside her and Andy let out a sigh of relief; not that she though Gail would hurt her in any way, but a pissed off and possibly deranged Gail Peck would have frightened anyone. "You made an appearance," said Gail, her voice loud enough to be heard, but low enough not to draw attention. "All decked out in one of Jack Sparrow's rejects and trying to flirt with someone who wasn't yours."
"Holly?" The name passed Andy's lips before she could stop it and once again earned her a look of silent fury. "I'd never flirt with, erm, her." She didn't know why she was defending her actions in someone else's dream, but with the Nick-debacle still clear in her mind, she wanted to make it clear that she had no interest in Gail's latest date. "I'm not interested in, erm, Holly, that way."
A slow second passed before Gail shrugged away her intimidation. "I know." She smiled at something Chris was saying to Dov and the anger of moments before seemed a mere figment of Andy's imagination. "It was just a dream, McNally, you've gotta learn to lighten up."
Andy tried to protest, but the words failed to materialise, and she was left to stare open-mouthed at the insanity that was Gail Peck in love.
The End