So I am absolutely, irrevocably in love with this pairing. And I've had a few ideas floating around for a few days and this is the one that came to fruition. This is my first time writing for these characters, I hope I've done them justice. please leave a review if you'd like to :) thank you for reading :)

12:12

"Two? Really," Holly asked, tipping her head skeptically at Gail's answer to her question.

"Why not two?" Gail questioned in reply, turning her head slightly so she could look at Holly.

"Well, I think," Holly paused, "look you were one of two, wasn't everything just always a competition?" she asked the question with slight hesitation, talking about Gail's childhood was always a bit of a minefield to navigate and she didn't want to make the blonde feel uncomfortable, not now of all times.

"Yeah you've got a point there nerd, though I think a lot of that was down to my mother," Gail trailed off, refocusing her gaze back onto the seemingly endless kilometers of forest that stretched out and around the cabin they had hired for the week.

"And I was so lonely growing up," Holly sighed, "I used to write letters to the tooth fairy, to Santa asking if they would bring me a brother or sister."

Gail chuckled softly at the thought of Holly as a bespectacled young nerd in training, writing formal letters to the make believe figures she knew for a fact the brunette had believed in until she was ten years old.

"So three then," Gail exclaimed as if she had suddenly found the answer to the meaning of life.

"Mmm," Holly shook her head and Gail twisted back around and narrowed her eyes jokingly at the brunette.

"One will always get left out, trust me. My best friend in elementary school, she had two older brothers and they made her life a complete misery," Holly shrugged and bit her lip as she watched Gail reach the next logical number.

"Four? FOUR?" Gail grinned and Holy nodded enthusiastically, "and who exactly is going to be carrying these four children?"

"We'll just take it in turns," Holly smiled.

"As long as you go first, then if it's really horrible I'll have time to back out," Gail joked.

"If I go first it means you're gonna be the one up at all hours getting me pickles and ice cream and rubbing my feet."

"I already rub your feet," Gail replied, shifting her position so she was now sitting cross legged facing Holly.

"Well you're going to have to continually tell me I'm still pretty despite me being the size of a house."

"There'll just be more of you to love," Gail winked and a goofy grin spread across her face as she thought of Holly being pregnant. Of the two of them at the first scan, feeling the baby move for the first time...

Gail didn't even realise she was crying until Holly reached up and cupped her cheeks, her thumbs brushing away the tears that were falling silently from her eyes.

"Hey, hey, this was supposed to be fun," Holly soothed, but there was no denying the ache she felt in her own chest.

"I know I-I'm sorry," Gail said in a shaky voice."

"Sshh no," Holly leant forward and kissed each of Gail's cheeks, the faint tang of salt from the blonde's tears stung her lips, "don't apologise."

Gail covered Holly's hands with her own and leant forward and rested her forehead against Holly's, their noses touching in a barely there Eskimo kiss and they sat in silence for a few moments. The only sounds were Holly's soft and shallow breaths matching her own and the barely rustling leaves of the trees in the distance and Gail couldn't believe it was still so quiet. Then the blonde sighed softly. Of course it was quiet, the animals had already fled.

"So what are we naming our firstborn?" Gail asked softly, pulling back just slightly but not letting go on Holly's hands.

"Isabella," Holly smiled.

"That's beautiful, just like her mom."

Holly and Gail had been unable to decide on a vacation destination and on the end they had asked for anonymous suggestions and in the the end the one they had pulled out of the hat had been South Dakota. One thing they had agreed on was that there would they wanted to go somewhere beautiful and relaxing. So naturally Holly had suggested a cabin in the woods. Gail had been skeptical about staying in a cabin when she had spent her summers in the Peck 'cottage', which was the furthest thing away from a cottage that it could get. The blonde had made several jokes about fleece and backpacks as she'd sat with Holly one night, researching possible places to stay.

But her heart had swelled when she'd seen Holly excitedly babbling away about the streams and the forest and the wild horses and when the brunette had pulled up a picture of the interior of the cabin it was nothing like the barren building she had been expecting. It was rustic, and had no wifi or landline phone, and the nearest town was nearly 40 miles away but Holly had whispered in her ear about the sheepskin rug that sat in front of the open fire and Gail had been sold.

They had arrived Sunday afternoon, with a weeks worth of supplies so they wouldn't have to make another trip into town and as soon as they'd unpacked they'd gone for a short walk to get their bearings.

They came across the group of wild horses the website had promised, and Gail had watched, awestruck as Holly had been mesmerised by the creatures and she made a silent promise that she would take Holly horse riding when they got back to the city.

The next two days had been deliciously lazy and both women revelled in the relaxed pace the vacation afforded them. Gail, much to her mother's relief had started detective training, though the reasoning behind it had absolutely nothing to do with Elaine Peck's misplaced aspirations.

They hadn't even started talking about having kids yet, but Gail knew that a detective position would be much safer than walking the beat. But the new role meant that Gail was busier than ever, and that's what had made this vacation so much more important. It was a whole week of devoted Gail and Holly time, and on the two days they had been there they had done a lot of reacquainting.

They had both been too comfortable to move from the soft rug the previous night so Holly had pulled the knitted blanket from the sofa and Gail had curled up next to her, content and warm from both the embers of the fire and Holly's presence.

8 hours ago

"Gail, Gail," Holly tried to shake her girlfriend awake. She had always joked that Gail would be able to sleep through an earthquake but now here she was, actually sleeping through an earthquake.

Holly, a notoriously light sleeper, had woken at the very first rumble. She had instinctively reached over for Gail, usually the source of sudden movement when she was sleeping was Gail waking up from a nightmare. But as Holly squinted in the dim light she saw Gail still sleeping peacefully. Then she felt it again and she heard the china ornaments rattle in the big dresser on the opposite side of the room.

"Gail," Holly shouted this time, the building was still shaking and Holly didn't want to chance any of the animal heads falling off the wall and onto them.

What a horrible way to die she mused as she glanced up at the moose head that hung above the fireplace.

"Gail wake up," Holly shook her shoulder again and this time she was greeted with a grunt.

"Gail."

"Ugh... we're on vacation," Gail mumbled sleepily, pushing Holly's hand away.

"I don't know if you've noticed but there's a earthquake," Holly said, emphasising the last word in the hope that Gail would take notice.

Gail rubbed her eyes, then propped herself up on her hands, "Holly it's not even light ye..."

The blonde frowned as she too felt the rumbling and shaking, "earthquake?" She sat up straighter and glanced worriedly around the room as her sleep fogged brain finally registered what was happening.

"Holly what do we do?" Gail asked, trying her hardest to keep the panic out of her voice. She'd never experienced an earthquake before and the sensation was so unsettling it was making her feel nauseous.

Holly had already stood and held her hand out to help Gail up. They walked quickly over the the door that separated the kitchen from the lounge area and Holly paused for a second, biting her lip as she thought.

"Holly," Gail prompted.

"Under here," Holly said, pointing to the kitchen table. It was sturdy mahogany and she thought it would be better than standing in the doorway.

As soon as they both got under the table the rumbling seemed to ease off, though the clinking of china and glass was louder in here. Holly found herself grateful that nothing had fallen out of the cupboards and smashed.

"Holly," Gail said, shifting slightly so her was closer to Holly.

"Yeah?"

"This tile floor is really cold on my butt," Gail whispered before dissolving into a fit of laughter.

It didn't take much for Holly to join in, the absurdity of them huddled naked under a kitchen table during an earthquake was something she definitely didn't have planned for this week.

7 hours ago

"I didn't even know they had earthquakes up here," Gail mused as she munched on a cookie. After the earthquake had ceased they had both been far too awake to attempt to go back to sleep so had just decided to start the day early.

"This whole area is quite seismically active actually. Though an earthquake of that magnitude was probably quite rare. Something to tell the grandkids yeah?" Holly smiled as she poured Gail a cup of coffee.

"You lost me at seismo- whatever," Gail rolled her eyes and gratefully accepted the mug of coffee, "what do you wanna do today?" she asked, sipping at the hot liquid, "wanna go for a hike? break out the backpacks?"

Holly kicked Gail lightly under the table as a punishment for her teasing, "that is such an unfair assumption I only ever owned ONE backpack until you insisted we buy 'proper equipment' for this trip," the brunette retorted.

"There are bears Holly, you don't want to get eaten by a bear just because you didn't have the right equipment."

"Oh really?" Holly said, raising her eyebrows and smirking, "what exactly is a backpack going to do if we're getting eaten by bears?"

"It's not the backpack, it's what's in the backpack. Like a jar of honey. The bears chasing you and you grab the honey and throw it in the opposite direction. The bear's gonna after the honey isn't it," Gail said earnestly, and Holly realised the blonde had obviously researched how to deal with bear attacks before they had set off and come across some dodgy websites.

"Honey if there's a bear it's gonna get me anyway, you're faster than me," Holly said.

"Good point," Gail grinned.

"Now I am going for a shower," Holly said, standing to and stretching, "you coming?" she called over her shoulder.

Gail shoved the last piece of the cookie into her mouth and jumped up to follow Holly into the bathroom. She was almost knocked off balance as the ground and walls around her shook again, and Gail couldn't help the yelp that escaped her lips.

"It's just the aftershocks, it's okay," Holly called from the bathroom.

"Just the aftershocks," Gail repeated quietly. The shaking was over very quickly this time but the unsettled feeling in her stomach didn't disappear like it had before.

6 hours ago

"That makes seven," Gail said, adding another tick to the post it note she had been using to keep track of the mini earthquakes.

"Do you wanna take a drive down to the park warden?" Holly offered, she could tell Gail was a little apprehensive. Holly had experienced earthquakes before, she had spent a year in California between college and med school but this was entirely new for Gail.

"No, no it's fine. I just, I like keeping track of them is all," Gail replied, waving off Holly's offer, "I'm not sold on a hike today though, don't wanna get hit by any falling rocks," Gail quipped.

"How about we pack up a little breakfast picnic and take a walk where we went the other day? We know the way there and back and there's not big rocks that way," Holly suggested.

"You still wanna use the backpacks?" Gail grinned.

They set off with their bright blue and orange matching backpacks; the colours were important Gail had insisted, so that they would be easily found should one of them get lost.

Once they got to the perfect spot they laid out the blankets, content to just cuddle and bask in the glorious sunshine. Gail noticed Holly searching for the band of wild horses they had seen the other day but they were nowhere to be found. She hoped that they would have another chance to see them because the joy on Holly's face had been magical.

It was so quiet, so serene. It's was like they had found their own little piece of heaven and Gail and Holly fell into a comfortable silence for a while.

"I love you so much Holly Stewart," Gail suddenly said, her words echoing in a peculiar way. The blonde was laying perpendicular to Holly with her head resting on the brunette's stomach and she felt Holly chuckle at the proclamation.

"I love you too Gail Peck," Holly replied.

"No," Gail said, moving so she was now face to face with Holly. She propped her head up on her hand and smiled, "I mean I really," she leant forward and placed a kiss on Holly's lips, "really. Really. Love you," the blonde continued, punctuating each word with another kiss.

"If I was only allowed to spend the rest of my life with one person and that person was you, I'd be the luckiest woman in the world," Gail admitted, and she felt a blush colour her cheeks as Holly processed the words. It was an unusually wordy outpouring of adoration for Gail but she had just been so overcome with love for Holly that she'd had to get it out.

"You have me, always," Holly whispered, reaching up and threading her fingers through Gail's hair, "I love you."

"Marry me?" Gail whispered, and she fought with herself to keep eye contact with Holly. The brunette was looking at her so intently it was almost overwhelming and Gail let out the breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding when a huge grin broke across Holly's face.

"Does this mean I'm gonna be a Peck?"

Gail shook her head, "I wanna be a Stewart, I mean if that's okay I just..."

"What about your mom?"

"To hell with my mother and you didn't answer my question lunchbox," Gail said, grinning expectantly at Holly.

"I can confirm in the affirmative... of course I want to marry you," Holly smiled, "yes. A hundred yeses."

"Okay you can stop talking and kiss me now," Gail pouted.

"Why Mrs Stewart," Holly said, trying the name out, "you're so demanding."

5 hours ago

"What the hell?" Gail shouted as the ground began to shake underneath them again. Only now it was much stronger than it had been previously.

Holly frowned, "this isn't an aftershock," she yelled over the rumbling, "this is another primary earthquake."

"You're telling me," Gail exclaimed, we picked a great week to come to South Dakota huh?"

Holly smiled at Gail, who looked adorable sitting there with her hands over her head as if she was waiting for something to fall from the sky.

"Hey it's not all bad, the sun is shining, and the most beautiful woman in the world just proposed to me."

That earned a smile from Gail, "oh really? The most beautiful?"

"It is weird though," Holly said, "maybe when this is over we should take a drive down to the rangers outpost and see if he knows what's going on."

"You know I saw this thing from a British newspaper a while ago, it was some idiot politician blaming floods and freak weather on same sex marriage."

"Gail," Holly said in a warning tone.

"Hey I'm just saying, maybe Mother Earth wants to get us back for how much we rocked the bed the other night," Gail smirked and Holly bit back a laugh.

"I think it's stopped," Holly said. Her stomach was still a bit unsettled but as far as she could tell the trees and ground had stopped shaking, "we should head back before the aftershocks start up. They'll probably be stronger than before," she explained and she began to pack up the backpacks.

She caught the worried look on Gail's face as the blonde stuffed the picnic blanket into her bag and she grabbed her hand, rubbing her thumb comfortingly over Gail's knuckles.

"Hey it's okay," Holly reassured her, though a bad feeling had settled itself in the pit of her stomach.

The walk back was interrupted by two aftershocks, both quite strong as Holly had predicted. Neither woman had mentioned the fallen trees that littered the boundary of the forest but they had definitely noticed them. Holly was worried about all the fixtures and fittings in the cabin, if trees had fallen then they would definitely have a mess to clean up.

"Hey your phone had signal on Sunday right?" Holly asked as the cabin came into view.

"Yeah a couple of bars why?" Gail had left her phone on but switched it to silent so they weren't disturbed unless they wanted to be. The blonde had almost forgotten she had it with her.

"It might be safer to stay put for the time being and ring the rangers outpost, I'm not sure I want to be driving if another one of those aftershocks hit," Holly explained.

"That's a good idea," Gail nodded. They came to the front door of the cabin and while the outside structure looked intact it was visible through the window that things had been thrown around.

Gail slipped her hand into Holly's and squeezed it tightly, "Hol I've got a bad feeling," she admitted. She felt Holly squeeze her hand back but the brunette didn't reply, instead she took a deep breath and stepped inside to assess the damage.

4 hours ago

While Gail went off to find her phone Holly righted some of the furniture that had been tipped over. The moose head had been shaken clean off the wall and one of it's antlers had broken on impact. She stood the now sorry looking creature up against the wall. The kitchen fared better than she'd expected. The coffee pot and mugs from the morning had smashed on the floor but it was nothing a broom and dustpan couldn't fix though she the loss of the coffee pot would make for a grumpy Gail tomorrow morning.

"Gail," she called, "is your phone working?"

Holly entered the bedroom to find Gail sitting still as a stone on the bed, the phone pressed to her ear.

"No bars," Gail said simply as Holly approached her. The brunette was taken aback by the milky white tone of her skin. She was far too pale.

"Honey what's wrong?"

"My voicemail is full, I've got about 50 texts," Gail said, holding the phone out to Holly with a shaking hand.

"What? I don't..." Holly didn't understand what Gail was trying to say. She clicked the first message she came across, it was from Steve and the time stamp was from an hour before, the time of the last big earthquake.

*911 YELLOWSTONE ERUPTED. ASH HEADED N & S DAKOKTA HEAD EAST*

Holly couldn't believe was she was reading. So she scrolled down to the next text, from Traci. It gave the same information, and ended in a plea that they get the information in time.

A cold chill ran through Holly's veins as she realised what this meant and suddenly she realised why Gail was so worked up.

Holly clicked on one more text, from Oliver this time and it kicked her into action. He had mentioned trying to listen to the radio as the ash was changing direction with the wind.

"Radio," Holly said, "have you seen a radio in here Gail? Gail!"

Holly's sharp tone broke Gail from the trance like state she had been in and she shook her head, "I didn't, I uh... the car, there's a radio in the car."

Of course, Holly thought to herself, of course there's a radio in the car. The brunette physically pulled Gail up and they made their way to the car.

The first few stations Holly tried were broadcasting nothing but static, presumably they'd been knocked out in the eruption.

"Fuck," Holly swore as she fiddled with the dial. She wanted nothing more than to just start the car and drive the hell away but she knew better than to drive blindly.

"Let me try," a surprisingly composed Gail offered from the passenger seat. Some of the colour had returned to her cheeks and as she patiently turned the radio dial Holly could barely believe she was the same woman who had been practically comatose in shock just minutes before. But that was Gail alright, whatever the situation was she would step up and help.

Gail managed to find a station broadcasting information, and though it was crackly and kept cutting in and out the bulk of the information they needed was there. Gail held onto Holly's hand tightly as they tried to make sense of the broadcast.

"Yellowstone caldera... primary eruption 5am... secondary eruption 8:30am... magma chamber much bigger... scientists predictions... -clastic flow... Montana -daho... Wyo... obliterated"

"Obliterated," Gail whispered, "Holly this is really bad,"

Holly lifted a finger to her lips as the broadcast continued.

"All highw... blocked... traffic... standstill... current wind speed... ash clou-... expected 1pm north... th Dakota... Nebra...evacuate... too thick... -al...fatal"

Holly glanced down at her watch. It was almost 9:30. If she had heard the radio broadcast right, the dust cloud was due to hit South and North Dakota at 1 as well as Nebraska. There was no way they could go west which meant the only way they could drive was east, but the highways were all blocked.

"Godammit!" she shouted, banging her fists angrily on the dashboard. She stormed out of the car, slamming the door behind her and leaving a thoroughly confused Gail behind. All Gail had managed to get from that radio broadcast was that 3 possibly 4 states had been ripped apart by a gigantic volcano and ash was headed their way. She'd seen a really bad TV movie once, and Gail had very little interest in science but she knew that they needed to get the hell away from here.

"Holly!" she yelled as she ran towards the house, "we need to leave, we need to get out of here."

Gail heard the smashing from the kitchen before she'd even set foot inside the cabin and when she got to the kitchen door the sight before worried her beyond belief. Holly was angrily hurling plates around, hot angry tears streaming down her face.

"Holly," Gail approached her with her hands out in a defensive gesture, "sweetie we've gotta go."

Holly didn't respond verbally, she just smashed another plate and a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob tore from her throat.

"I picked this cabin," Holly seethed, "no TV, no wifi, godammit if it had even had a phone!"

"It's not your fault, this is not your fault. This a fucking natural disaster Holly okay, and we need to go," Gail pleaded desperately.

"We stayed up all night having the best sex of my life on a $5000 rug, the sun was shining this morning, we got ENGAGED Gail."

"I know," Gail said softly, wondering where Holly was headed with this, "we got engaged and I'd really like to get married so we need to GO."

Holly shook her head, "we're too late," she whispered.

Gail's lungs tightened at Holly's words. They couldn't be too late. She hadn't seen a single speck of ash yet. The car had a full tank of gas.

"But, but we, the car..."

"The highways are jammed, and even if we followed a back route out east, we can't outrun it," Holly had calmed down a little, but her pain was still obvious through her hitched breaths.

"Oh my god," Gail whispered as she realised what Holly was saying. Now she understood why she had been in here breaking plates.

"The ash... it's too thick," Holly said, and a fresh wave of tears began to wash down her face.

Gail swallowed the nausea that had risen from the realization and took a deep breath. She walked over to Holly, her boots crunching on the shards of porcelain that littered the floor.

"Holly," Gail whispered, "do you remember what I told you earlier? she asked, prising the plate that Holly still had an iron tight
grip on and placed it softly on the table.

She held Holly's face tenderly and forced the brunette to meet her gaze, "I meant every single word. If I am meant to spend the rest of my life with only you, then I am the luckiest..." Gail struggled to talk because of the lump that had formed in her throat, "luckiest woman in the world."

"We were supposed to have time Gail," Holly cried, and Gail couldn't bear to watch the tears rolling down her face any more so she pulled Holly into a hug.

"I know," Gail whispered, as Holly clutched the back of her shirt. Her face was pressed into the crook of Gail's neck and Gail could feel the hot tears as they ran off Holly's face. and on to her skin.

"We're going to die," Holly said, this time breaking into a round of tears that was almost hysterical.

Gail tightened her grip on the sobbing woman, "I know," she said softly. She didn't have anything else to say. The usual platitudes didn't even remotely apply here. They were going to die. It wasn't going to be okay. She wasn't going to lie and tell Holly that it was.

"I'm right here sweetheart," Gail soothed. That at least was a truth she was sure of.

3 hours previously

Holly had cried herself out in that kitchen. Surrounded by the shattered remains of what was once probably a very expensive dinner set. Surrounded by the strong arms of the one person in the world she loved the most.

She didn't want to move from that place, from that safe place in Gail's arms where the was the possibility that she might just forget was was going to happen in a matter of hours. But Holly knew she had to move, she'd had her time to process, to accept what was happening. Gail had been an unwavering tower of strength even though she had been faced with the same devastating news at the same time.

"Gail," she whispered in a voice that sounded like it didn't belong to her. It was sniffly and hoarse and thick with the effort of sobbing.

"Mmm," Gail mumbled in reply, but she didn't loosen her grip on Holly.

"That's why the horses weren't there. This morning. They knew," Holly mused sadly, "the animals always know."

"That's why they'll have this planet after we're gone. I mean, not just us, when the whole human race dies out. We should have been horses Holly. What a simple life."

Holly couldn't help it as a giggle rose up and escaped her mouth. It was the way Gail had said 'we should have been horses'. It was sarcastic, so normal and for a second Holly forgot herself. Gail pressed a kiss to the top of Holly's head and pulled back to she could see her better. It was so good to see Holly laugh.

"Gail I thought you were a cat," Holly said, the laughter dying down but it had broken some of the tension in the room. Already the conversation felt lighter.

"I stopped being a cat when you built me a ladder for that tree," Gail smiled, "I guess if I'm going to chose another animal analogy it would be a horse. A wild horse. You set me free Holly, you let me run with you. I'm so grateful for that."

"You set me free. You make me a better person Gail, you make me whole. You make the pieces fit right," Holly smiled, "I'm grateful for every single second I have had with you... normally you'd have changed the subject by now because it's too mushy," Holly teased lightly, pressing a kiss to Gail's lips and felt Gail smile against her own.

"I think mushy gets a free pass when we're dying right?" Gail asks, and Holly expected to feel that horrible deep ache again, the one she had felt in the car when she had realised what was happening. But it didn't come. Instead Holly was so full of love it actually surprised her a little bit.

"Right," Holly smiles.

Gail and Holly were cuddled up in the bed, and they hadn't bothered with the sheet as the heat had risen as the sun had gotten higher in the sky and Gail sighed contentedly as Holly ran her fingers through her hair.

"This is going to sound really awful, but I'm so glad we're not in Toronto right now," Holly admitted quietly.

"Why?" Gail asked. She was slightly taken aback by the admission but she was ready to give Holly the benefit of the doubt.

"Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are all going to be directly affected by the ash cloud, Ontario, Montreal and BC will get it too, just not as bad. It'll be a state of national emergency back home and you'd be on the front line," Holly explained, and as the words came out of her mouth she felt a little bit ashamed. It was the most selfish thought she'd had in a long time.

"I'm glad we're not there either," Gail agreed. She loved being a cop, and though Holly had never ever asked her, Gail knew she loved Holly more. She wasn't entirely sure when that had happened, but it had happened somewhere along the way.

"What's gonna happen to them?" Gail asked softly. At first it had been easy to just ignore the fact that all of her friends and her family were going to be caught up in this too, but the closer it got to 1pm the harder the denial got.

Holly cleared her throat before she began to speak, "well I'm not an expert, and I don't know for sure, but Toronto is gonna get the ash cloud, but it'll be much, much less than here or even in Alberta," Holly explained. Holly had gone out to listen to the broadcast again and had found another station, this one much clearer information than the first. She had taken one semester of geology in undergrad but that had not prepared her in the slightest to be able to explain this properly.

"The ash will keep being pumped into the atmosphere, eventually it'll travel around the globe. And it'll probably block out the sun, and the temperature will drop. There'll be a food shortage, because things won't grow, all of the farms in the Midwest will be gone anyway. There will be hundreds of thousands of people who have been displaced by the ash, they'll either go north to Canada or South to Mexico," Holly said gravely, "but because of the food situation, both countries are going to be reluctant to take refugees."

"It almost feels like we've been given the easy way out," Gail said, "we weren't burned like Pompeii, and we're not going to die over a tin of sweet corn,"

"Yeah I guess you're right," Holly replied. She neglected to enlighten Gail that the 'dust' in the dust cloud was actually tiny needles of volcanic rock that would shred your lungs and drown you in your own blood. That much she remembered from a documentary and she was glad that Gail seemed oblivious.

"I'm sorry the phone isn't working, maybe if we had a landline it would..."

Gail shook her head, "stop it. I don't wanna hear you blaming yourself again okay," Gail knew that Holly felt guilty that they hadn't been contactable earlier or hadn't had a TV to see the news. The truth of the matter was that even of they had left after the first earthquake, they would have gotten stuck in traffic halfway out of the state. And the dust cloud would claim them while they were sitting in a metal box, surrounded by other people suffering the same fate. Gail could almost imagine them weeping and crying and screaming and it was too much to bear. No this was better. At least they had had some time. Some warning.

And if Gail was honest she was relieved the phone wasn't working because it meant she didn't have to go through the agonising process of saying goodbye to everyone she loved. This way she only had one goodbye. And they had the time to make it count. Holly's parents had died a few years ago and she was an only child but Gail briefly wondered who she would have called. Lisa maybe. Gail had tried her absolute hardest to get along with her over the past couple of years but they were like chalk and cheese, still Gail wouldn't have deprived her of a phone call. She wasn't that callous.

"Penny for your thoughts," Holly said, bringing Gail out of her thoughts and back into reality.

"I'm absolutely starving," Gail said, and as if on cue her stomach grumbled.

2 hours ago

They had made, by anyone's measure, a spectacular lunch. Grilled steaks and fries, hot dogs, all kinda of veggies, cheesecake, fruit salad and sarcastically dumped in a gold bowl was an entire share bag of cheese puffs. There was no way they were going to eat everything between them but cooking it all had served as a great distraction.

Holly had suggested eating on the porch, the sun was still brining brightly in the sky and it was a beautiful day and it seemed a shame to waste it. Their plates piled high with a mismatched helping of food they went out to the bench on the porch and sat down.

It was surprisingly easy to make small talk, it almost felt like it was a normal day, except for the fact that neither woman couldn't help but glance down at their watch every ten minutes or so.

"The closer it gets to 1 the quicker time feels like it's going," Holly said as she finished her second slice of cheesecake.

"Nah it's just the stellar company of Boris," Gail replied, pointing to the moose head she had dragged from the living room into the porch.

"You're insane you know that right?" Holly smiled and all of a sudden Gail's stomach twisted. She was hit with the memories of the last two years. The laughter and the kisses and the tears and the fights and the make up sex. Suddenly two years wasn't enough. It wasn't nearly enough.

She stood up and her plate fell from her knees onto the floor. The potato salad splattered up the side of Boris' head and at any other point during this completely fucked up day Holly would have laughed but she caught the complete and utter devastation in Gail's eyes. She knew that feeling exactly, she'd sobbed it away a couple of hours earlier.

"Gail," she said softly, but Gail put her hand up to stop her from speaking any further.

"Don't follow me, I'll be out soon," Gail explained, and Holly could hear the tension in her voice.

Not a minute after Gail entered the house, Holly heard the first smash. It continued at a fast pace, Gail angrily shouting cursing to every god she could name and then some. The blonde actually returned a lot quicker than Holly had expected her too, but she had a suspicion that it was because she had run out of things to smash.

"There's nothing left to break," Gail announced as she flopped back down next to Holly.

"What about the little ornaments in the dresser?"

"The rabbits? I couldn't." Gail said with a shake of her head. Her eyes were puffy and red but Holly could tell she had made an effort to stop crying before she had come back outside.

"You feel better?" Holly stretched out her arm so Gail could snuggle in close.

"A little... it's so unfair Holly. Every time I think I've wrapped my head around this I realise I haven't. We came here on vacation, we're going to die today, the world is gonna go to shit and our friends will probably die too."

"I know," Holly said, echoing Gail's words from earlier, "and I guess, well we've had more of an action movie than a fairytale, but I wouldn't change a single second for anything."

"Me neither," Gail agreed, "hey Holly,"

"Yeah?"

"Boris has potato salad on his face."

"I was waiting for you to notice," Holly said.

"I'm sorry Boris," Gail apologised, before collapsing into a fit of hysterical laughter, "I just... I just said sorry to a dead moose that's already dead."

"You're such a weirdo. I love you," Holly said, chuckling softly.

1 hour ago

"What's your wedding dress like? Describe it to me," Gail said before taking a large slurp of the margarita through the oversized straw she had stuck in the blender jug. Holly had managed to convince her that drinking straight from the jug was not okay, and the straws were a compromise.

"Huh?" Holly replied, confused.

"We're not gonna get a wedding let's imagine it, right now." Gail grinned. The tequila had worked wonders on them both.

"It's, it's ivory, really classy with lace sleeve and a lace train, not too poufy you know, I don't wanna look like a marshmallow. And I have a veil, lace again but no tiara because I I think they're really tacky. And pale pink peonies in my bouquet. Tied with a gold silk ribbon," Holly replied, a dreamy look on her face.

"Oh you haven't thought about this at all," Gail rolled her eyes and passed the jug to Holly.

"Well I may have once or twice," Holly blushed, "what about you?"

"Well it's not a dress," Gail smirked, "do you remember that suit I wore to the police ball last year, the one that almost gave my mother a heart attack?"

"You looked so hot in that suit," Holly bit her lip thinking about it, "I literally thought your mom was going to collapse in fury," Holly giggled at the memory of Elaine Peck almost foaming at the mouth because Gail had dared to defy her mothers wishes and wear a suit and bow tie to the ball instead of the dress she had had delivered.

"It was worth it for that reaction alone. But yeah, something like that, with one of your pale pink peonies pinned on you know."

"And I would make sure we had a really artsy photographer and you'd grumble through the photos but when they come in the post you'll love every single one."

"Yeah that would definitely happen," Gail admitted, leaning over and taking another sip of the cocktail.

"Little wedding, big party?" Gail grinned.

"Little wedding, little party, BIG honeymoon," Holly countered.

"Maybe we could come to South Dakota," Gail said and then winced, "too soon?"

"Nah you're getting soft in your old age Peck," Holly teased. Gail's 30th birthday was coming up and she knew the blonde had been fretting about it, though she would never admit it.

"You realise now I'm gonna get to die young and beautiful," Gail said, batting her eyelids over at the moose head.

"I think I just got insulted," Holly said with an indignant smirk.

"Hey I never said you weren't beautiful, nerd."

"You know I fell for you the minute you called me lunchbox?" Holly said, "I turned around and I knew, I knew I was gonna fall in love with this straight girl and I thought you were going to break my heart."

"And here we are two years later with our hearts mostly intact," Gail smiled. Yep, the tequila was absolutely helping

"And here we are."

Holly tightened her hold on Gail as the younger woman curled back around her side, "so how many kids have we got?"

12:41

"Can you imagine how sarcastic and harsh you would be to absolutely everyone at 80?" Holly laughed. Imagining Gail as an 80 year old with a cane was hysterical and Gail had gotten just as much pleasure out of imagining an 85 year old Holly.

"I wouldn't even need an excuse then, people would just accept it. So these kids of ours have put us in one of those cushy homes right? With the hair salon and the golf course."

"Oh yeah, they know they're not getting their inheritance unless we're well looked after," Holly replied.

This game which had started with Gail's tequila fuelled question about a wedding dress had morphed into a condensed version of their life together. Of their life with four kids, 3 girls and 1 boy. And a dog named Boris. 5 promotions, 9 graduations (Isabella became a doctor), 3 weddings and 13 grandchildren later Gail and Holly had tracked they life to the assisted living home where they would live out the rest of their days. It was bittersweet to think of all of the potential memories that they would never have, but Holly was thankful that they'd played this make believe game. That they had had their little lifetime in an hour.

Holly surreptitiously checked her watch. 12:44, then got up, leaving a space by Gail that felt suddenly cold, despite the heat of the day.

"Where are you going?" Gail asked, not even bothering to hide the panic in her voice.

"I'm going to make some tea, I'll be two minutes I promise."

Gail was about to make a remark about needing tea at a time like this but she remembered that Holly's very british grandmother had instilled in her the mantra that a cup of tea fixes everything.

True to her word, Holly returned 2 minutes later with two steaming cups of tea; Gail had absolutely no idea how she had managed to find two unbroken mugs, and the red blanket from the sofa slug over one arm.

"Let's go sit on the grass," she suggested, and Gail rose on slightly shaky feet to join her.

"Come here," Holly said as she settled into position, her back resting against the porch deck. Gail sat with her legs bent over Holly's and her body pressed against Holly's right side. Holly wrapped her arm around Gail's back and Gail cuddled in closer. She always marvelled at how well they fit together.

"Here," Holly said, passing her a cup of tea. Holly lifted her own cup to her lips and hesitated before she drank it.

"Stop. Wait. There's some crushed up ambien in there. And in mine. I'm sorry I just, I wanted us to just fall asleep," as much as Holly wanted to protect Gail from what she knew would be a quick but agonising death, she couldn't bring herself to do it without Gail's consent.

"I understand why you did it. I love you so much Holly. Even if you were gonna drug me," Gail teased. But the guilty look was still plastered across Holly's face.

"I'm kidding, hell I saw that bottle on the sink earlier and I had the exact same idea. I get it Holly. Please, please don't feel guilty," Gail pleaded. She took a generous sip of the tea and pointed to Holly's cup. "You wanna be the only one awake?"

"Absolutely not," Holly said, and they clinked their tea cups together before quickly drinking the rest of the tea. Holly knew that the fact they had been drinking would speed up the action of the sleeping tablets, and the drowsiness hit her almost instantly. There were tears streaming down Gail's face now, but they were silent. Holly wondered if she was even aware of them but she kissed them away anyway.

Gail pulled the blanket around them both and hugged Holly closer to her, breathing in her scent, revelling in one final moment of intimacy with her.

A blast of impossibly hot air hit them, and though they were both groggy, Gail and Holly looked up to see where it had come from. Out on the horizon they all they could see was grey. Dark grey dust. Smothering the trees and everything else in it's opaque cloak.

There was another blast of hot air, but neither woman wanted to uncover themselves. And then they could hear it. It rumbled, not unlike the rumbling from the earthquake earlier. It crept ever closer, the sky darkening by the second and when it finally swallowed the sun Gail sucked in a sharp breath.

"I didn't think it would be this dark," Gail whispered and Holly tightened her hold on the blonde.

"I'm right here honey, just close your eyes, go to sleep." Holly soothed, though she was barely able to keep her own eyes open.

"Holly is it gonna hurt?" Gail asked, her voice so tiny and vulnerable that it caused tears to spill from Holly's eyes.

"No baby it's just like going to sleep," Holly reassured her but the first of the ash particles were already lodging themselves in her lungs and she fought she urge to try and cough them out. It would only make the process longer.

"Holly," Gail said before coughing lightly.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for giving me forever today, I love you so much," though she was incredibly drowsy, and gasping for breath, Gail lifted her arms so she could embrace Holly properly, "go sleep... I'm here."

"I love you too," Holly replied, before finally succumbing to sleep.