Chapter Text
I believe in miracles! Since you came along!
You sexy thing, you sexy thing, you.
Holly’s phone began to ring, playing the cheesy song Gail had set as a custom ringer for herself on Holly’s phone last week. She had rolled her eyes the first time she heard it, seeing the accompanying photo of Gail crossing her eyes and sticking her tongue out pop up on her phone. She had suppressed thoughts about how sexy Gail actually was while she laughed at the photo.
God damn that woman is cute, she remembered thinking, before scolding herself. Bad lesbian, bad! She really needed to get a grip and knock off her pining for the straight girl.
Today, she pushed those thoughts to the back of her brain yet again and answered the call with a playful “yello?”, elongating the ‘o.’
“Hey lunchie, what are doing tonight?” Gail’s voice floated into her ear. Holly chuckled at the nickname and pushed away the book that lay open on the desk in front of her.
“I have two or three dates with some models lined up, but I’m open to a better offer,” she joked, smiling to herself in the dim light of her study.
Somewhere across town, Gail smiled in spite of herself. Holly thought she was so clever. Gail herself sat on desk duty, spinning around and around in her chair with her head tilted back, eyes fixed on the ceiling.
“Well,” began Gail, “my offer doesn’t include models or dates, but there may be a beer or seven in it for you if you want to come with me to some dumb party they’re having at The Penny for one of the retiring officers.”
After several seconds of silence from the other end of the line, she continued. “You’re much better company than those losers I work with, and I promised Oliver that I’d show my face as a sign of respect.”
Holly could practically see Gail’s air quotes and the face she was undoubtedly pulling as she spat out the word ‘respect.’ She lifted her feet off the cold hardwood and pulled her legs up against her chest, wrapping her arms around them protectively. Though Gail never made her feel uncomfortable on purpose, she felt that she had to shield herself from hurt when it came to her beautiful blond friend. She was already in too deep when it came to her feelings for Gail, and the more time they spent together, the more she felt that she was hurtling at a thousand miles per hour toward inevitable disappointment and heartache.
Rachel and Lisa had warned her about this. They could tell from the first time Holly had ever mentioned Gail’s name that she was already developing feelings for the officer. Despite their advice to move forward with caution, Holly found that she really didn’t have much of a say when it came to Gail. Her feelings hit her like a freight train and she was pinned to the front of that high-speed train, barely holding on for dear life.
“Hmm…” Holly dragged out, pretending like she needed to think about it. Though Gail could not see her, she tapped her chin and feigned being in deep thought, weighing her options. “I suppose I may be able to pencil you in between my dates.”
On the other side of Toronto, Gail immediately stopped spinning in her chair. “THANK YOU,” she practically shouted, “I appreciate you squeezing one more date into your busy schedule. I will thank you for this by continuing to grace you with my presence.” She smirked at her own joke as she stuck her foot out to trip the new rookie walking by. “Ha! Forget how to walk, Gerald?”
Holly furrowed her brow as these words came through the speaker. “What? Who is Gerald?”
“He’s nobody. I’ll meet you at The Penny at seven-thirty. Later, nerd,” she said quickly before hanging up.
As the line went dead, Holly sighed. It’s not that she wasn’t looking forward to spending time with Gail, of course she was. It’s just that hanging out with her friend always came with an element of struggle. Struggling to keep her feelings in check, struggling to remember that Gail wasn’t hers, nor would she ever be. Not in the way she wanted, anyway.
Holly sighed a labored sigh as she replaced her feet on the floor and pushed herself up and out of her desk chair. As she walked down the hallway toward the bathroom, she repeated her admittedly silly mantra over and over in her head: Gail is friend, not food.
Two hours later, Holly was eating her words. Gail was without a doubt a tasty little snack. She had stopped dead in her tracks when her eyes landed on the gorgeous cop upon entering the bar. She eyed her from afar, not wanting to be caught by any of the officers as she checked her out. Holly was known amongst the officers at 15, not simply as a colleague, but now as Gail’s close friend.
Gail looked stunning. Her hair fell down in loose waves, falling over the top of a black leather jacket which was paired with a light blue v-neck shirt that left little to the imagination. Black jeans and combat boots with numerous buckles and zippers completed the ensemble. It was undeniably sexy, and Holly swallowed as she heard her name being shouted over the noise of the bar.
“HOLLY!” She turned her head to see Dov waving his arms in the air to get her attention. At the same time, two piercing blue eyes lifted to meet her own deep brown ones. Holly watched as they momentarily dropped downward to survey her outfit, and when they returned, Gail smirked and looked away, returning to her conversation with Traci.
Holly, for her part, didn’t look too shabby either. She had opted to leave her hair down and allowed her eyes a break by wearing her glasses rather than contacts. She wore a fire engine red blazer over a low-cut silky black top. Her own black jeans looked like they could have feasibly been painted onto her long legs, and her heeled black knee-high leather boots gave her an extra inch and a half in height that she probably didn’t need.
Feeling confident, Holly sauntered over to the table. She voiced her greetings to Traci, Dov, Chloe, and Chris before sidling up alongside Gail.
“Hey you,” she said playfully, smiling her trademark lopsided smile.
“Helloooo,” Gail replied, catching the small straw in her drink with her tongue and pulling it into her mouth.
This action almost caused Holly to choke on her own saliva as she watched Gail’s tongue chase the straw for a moment before her lips closed around it.
“You claim that this is a party, but this is pretty much what the Penny looks like on a regular Thursday evening,” Holly remarked, noting several officers she recognized from crime scenes. She began fidgeting, starting to worry about her outfit. She wanted to look good, but now she was wondering if she was overdressed as she looked across the bar at the cops who were primarily in jeans and casual shirts. She didn’t need to worry for too long, though, as Gail spoke up.
“You look good, lunchbox. Who knew the sexy librarian thing was real,” she commented as she ran her eyes once more over Holly’s outfit.
She hadn’t done it in a flirtatious way, or even a way that indicated interest of any kind, but the fact that the word “sexy” had just come out of Gail’s mouth in reference to her was a little too much for her to handle. Suddenly, her mouth felt dry.
“So where is that beer or seven I was promised?” she asked, trying to sound casual. She lifted her eyebrows in question as Gail narrowed her eyes at her.
“You’re just using me for alcoholic beverages!” Gail accused. “That’s nice Holly, that’s real nice,” she teased, even as she was moving toward the bar. Holly followed, eager to get a couple drinks into her system.
As Gail leaned over the bar to get the bartender’s attention, Holly stole a glance at the general area of her chest. She immediately regretted this, hearing Gail clear her throat exaggeratedly. Knowing she had been caught but not wanting to have to look Gail in the eye, Holly looked beyond Gail to the other end of the bar at nothing in particular.
What, or rather who, she found there took her off guard. She wanted to turn around and hide her face, but it was too late.
“Holly?!” said a voice from the end of the bar.
“Fuck,” the pathologist muttered under her breath as she feigned a smile. Gail looked up at her and furrowed her brow, a question in her eyes. Holly only briefly widened her own eyes in response, attempting to communicate to Gail that she was not happy to see this woman.
The woman picked up her drink off the bar, whispered something into the ear of one of the other women she was with, and pushed her way past several people on her way over to Holly.
She panicked. She didn’t think. If she had, she certainly would have made another decision. It was a horrible idea, but it was the only idea she had. She hurriedly whispered “I’m so sorry, please just go with it” into Gail’s ear before the woman reached them.
What the hell is she talking about, Gail thought to herself. Go along with wh—
Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt a warm hand slide along her lower back. She looked around momentarily, ready to slap whatever asshole guy dared to touch her, before realizing that the hand belonged to Holly.
It took her several long seconds to put two and two together and realize that this is what Holly wanted her to go along with.
“Hi Trish, how are you?” Holly asked kindly. Gail was slightly taken aback by how genuine Holly seemed, knowing that she was not in fact pleased at all to see the woman. She only pondered this a moment before deciding that she was feeling generous. She leaned her weight into the side of her friend’s body to assist in Holly’s charade.
The woman, admittedly very pretty, smiled back at Holly, ignoring Gail completely. “Better now that I’ve seen you. I’ve been thinking about you.”
“Oh, is that so?” Holly asked, willing this conversation to be over as quickly as possible. She shifted her stance and slid her arm further across Gail’s back until it settled at her waist, further out in the open for Trish to see.
Trish glanced down at the tan hand draped across Gail’s slim waist and back up at Holly. She continued on as though she hadn’t seen anything at all, flirting unabashedly with the tall doctor.
For reasons unknown to her, this pissed Gail off. Holly was giving clear signals that she was not interested, and yet this woman persisted. Without much thought, Gail turned to Holly so that they stood face to face. She pushed her body flush against her friend’s and stood on her tiptoes to whisper in her ear, steadying herself by resting her hands on Holly’s hips.
“Damn, nerd, what did you do to this woman to make her throw herself at you like this?” She drawled it out slowly, dropping her voice low to make it appear as sensual as possible to the offending woman.
Holly was trying her best not to let her eyes flutter closed, Gail’s voice slithering into her ear and wrapping around all her senses. She could feel Gail’s breath on her earlobe and an image of Gail’s tongue sliding along the outside of her ear arrived uninvited.
Trying her best to keep her voice even, Holly tilted her head closer to Gail’s own ear, dropping her voice low, just as Gail had. “I would tell you… but then I’d have to kill you.”
Gail smirked, biting back a laugh, and Holly smiled at having achieved the reaction she was hoping for. There were few things she enjoyed more in this world than Gail’s smile and laugh.
“I guess I’ll come back later, Holly. We can talk then,” the woman said suddenly.
“I’m not sure that…” Holly trailed off, not knowing what to say to get rid of Trish.
At this, Gail jumped in, heated. “Actually, you won’t. You’re going to go back over to the other side of the bar to your little friends and you’re going to leave my girlfriend alone,” she spat out with as much nastiness as she could muster.
In her peripheral vision, she saw Holly’s jaw drop. Trish shot them both a dirty look before turning on her heel and pushing people aside on the way back to her posse.
Holly immediately dropped her hands from Gail and took a step back. “Oh, my gosh, thank you so much,” she said, immediately re-closing the distance between them and wrapping her arms around her friend. “I went out with her a few times last month and she’s been practically stalking me since.”
Gail hugged her friend back (Holly was strictly the only person allowed to hug her outside of family) and held on a little longer than was entirely necessary. Holly was warm. It felt nice to have her body pressed up against her. What the hell, Gail, she thought to herself. What a weird thing to think.
Just then, Traci and Chloe came bounding up to them.
“FINALLY!” they both shouted, arms raised in triumph.
Gail separated from Holly and looked at her friends (she used that term loosely) confusedly. “What the hell are you two on about? Finally what?”
Traci beamed from ear to ear. “It’s about time you two got together! We’re so happy for you both.” She took a couple steps toward the pair and wrapped them in a hug. Chloe, never one to miss an opportunity for a hug, wrapped her arms around everyone, bouncing up and down as she did.
When they were finally released, Holly and Gail looked at each other. Holly’s eyes were wide, and her head was shaking very slowly back and forth as if she wasn’t aware that she was moving it at all.
Gail stood still. Her eyes narrowed and darted between Traci and Chloe. When she finally found her voice, she tried to explain. “Um, I don’t know what you two are thinking, but we’re not—“
“—there’s no point in lying about it, Gail. We saw you guys hanging all over each other over here. It is so cute!” Chloe jumped up and down, clapping her hands in excitement.
Gail looked to Holly for help, but she remained still and looked like her mind was racing a mile a minute. Just as Gail was about to try again, she was effectively cut off by Traci.
“Seriously guys, why are you trying to keep it a secret? You two have been giving each other googly eyes since you met. Gail, I’ve never seen you look at anybody the way you look at Holly. At the risk of being punched, I’m telling you that it’s sweet. We just want you to be happy. Same with you, Holly.”
When neither woman responded with more than a blank stare, Traci gave up. “Let’s go, Chlo. These weirdos clearly don’t want us around.” She grabbed the younger woman’s hand and pulled her back toward their table.
Several moments passed, and neither woman said a word.
Just as Holly was gathering her thoughts and beginning to form sentences in her mind, Gail spoke.
“What the fuuuuuuuuuuuck!” she exclaimed in a high-pitched voice, her eyebrows raised in disbelief and a laugh bubbling out of her chest. “What the hell was that?! Oh my gosh, they seriously think we’re together! Like dating! Ha!” she slapped a hand over her knee like a cartoon character, bending over to hold her stomach.
She continued to laugh, fragments of Traci’s sentences coming out every few seconds. “Googly eyes at each other… ha… just want us to be happy.. oh boy.. sounds like they wouldn’t know a real friendship if it bit them in the ass, am I right?”
She finally lifted her eyes to Holly’s face, and what she saw there caused the laugh to die in her throat.
Holly stood perfectly still, her mouth set in a straight line. She was not laughing along with Gail. She wasn’t even close to smiling. She simply stared at Gail for what felt like an eternity. Just as Gail thought she saw Holly’s eyes begin to glass over, the brunette turned away, walking through the bar and out the door without a word.