A/N: Hello again folks! Please forgive me if I'm a little rusty at this. I lost my inspiration for this marathon fic somewhere along the way, but my muse and I are on speaking terms once again so I'm going to give it a go. LOL Thank you for your patience since Let Me Help You wrapped up some time ago, your support for that story was unbelievable and I can't tell you how much I appreciated all the kind reviews. I hope you enjoy this one just as much.

This fic takes place about 8-12 months after episode 3 of Season 5 when the writer's decided to pretty much nuke the Gail/Holly storyline. For the intents and purposes of this story Holly was never offered the job in San Francisco, Gail never met Sophie, and Steve didn't bomb the evidence room. Basically everything after episode 3 didn't happen.

Rated T for now, but will probably get upgraded to M in future chapters

All right guys, here we go. I hope you enjoy. :)

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Chapter 1: Prelude- "How We Got Here"

Every couple has their story.

It's full of ups and downs along the roller coaster known as a relationship and without these lows the highs wouldn't feel quite as exciting.

Holly Stewart and Gail Peck have certainly had their share of both.

What started out as an average, run of the mill friendship eventually evolved into something more. Deep down Holly had known she was screwed the moment she laid eyes on the blonde while Gail had done what Gail does and assaulted the brunette with her patented snark and sass. It was the same snark and sass that ultimately held Holly's interest throughout the afternoon and then some as Gail lingered around the morgue while Holly examined the bones of Robbie Robins, a missing person's cold case turned murder mystery. Sure it was true at Peck had been "assigned" to morgue duty in order to funnel information to the detectives as soon as it was uncovered, but after a while it became clear the forked tongue officer felt a sense of serenity in the sterile, steel room.

As their day drew to an end, Gail mentioned that she was like a cat who created emergency situations to get out of trees- Gail's brilliant metaphor for running from relationships. What Holly didn't realize at the time was that this analogy would come into play a few months later after their friendship progressed into a full blown romantic relationship. Holly had always worried that the act of dating a woman would send Gail running, but to the blonde's credit it was natural to her as breathing. She didn't care what people would think because she knew in her heart what she felt for Holly was real and never shied away from it.

Unfortunately for the pair, the catalyst that caused Gail to lace up her track shoes came in the form of a close, long-time friend of Holly's; a plastic surgeon named Lisa who had an elitist attitude and not a shred of tact. Somehow Lisa managed to voice all of Gail's insecurities about her relationship with Holly as if she had gotten into Peck's pretty little head and read them out loud like a book. When Gail overheard the pair talking at the bar she'd been hurt by Holly's lack of defense and her apparent dismissal of what they had together. Upon hearing Holly say "I'm having fun," Gail had quickly collected her things, made some purposely hurtful comments, and stormed out of the Black Penny both literally and figuratively walking out on the brunette.

Weeks of radio silence from Gail's end ensued and after receiving the silent treatment for so long, Holly felt she had no other option and folded; taking Gail's silence as confirmation they were through. After all, how can you mend a relationship with someone who won't even speak to you?

So in an attempt to safeguard her own heart from any further pain, Holly tried to move on. She let her good friend, Rachel, set her up on a blind date with woman she worked with at the hospital, a physical therapist named Jenn.

It wasn't until a week after being introduced to Jenn that Gail showed up at the morgue with a severed thumb and Oliver Shaw's delinquent teenage daughter, Izzy, that Holly finally had the opportunity to talk to her. Holly tried to keep everything as professional as possible, but couldn't help but notice the butterflies she felt in her stomach at having the officer in the same room, memories of the first day they'd met coming back to her in droves. So when Gail had asked to take her out for a drink to give Holly the explanation she deserved and to try to make amends, the brunette had been up front with her and told her she was seeing someone. The look on Gail's face made Holly instantly want to take it back and agree to go out with her, but luckily for the doc, Peck did what she usually did; she got angry and found an excuse in the form of Izzy's absence to leave the room.

Truth be told, Holly thought Jenn was sweet and easy to talk to and definitely found her attractive, but she couldn't stop herself from comparing the woman to a certain snarky blonde police officer. She realized there was no comparison to be made and as it turns out, you can't start a new relationship if you're not over the last one so Holly regretfully broke it off with Jenn, knowing it wasn't fair to the PT since her heart wasn't truly hers to give.

What Gail failed to mention that ill-fated night at the Penny, but luckily came to realize later was that Holly's lack of defense really had nothing do with defending Gail's career and everything to do with deflecting Lisa's desire to dig into their relationship. Holly hadn't felt right laying her feelings for Gail out on the table for Lisa when she hadn't had the opportunity to tell Gail first.

In the end it had taken the masterful planning of an intervention by Gail's pals at 15th Division locking the pair in the drunk-tank together at the station and refusing to let them go until they managed to sort everything out. After hearts were bared and tears were shed the couple decided to give it another try, but not before Holly made a single stipulation requiring Gail to talk to her instead of shutting down and running when things got tough. The brunette even agreed to give Gail time and space if she needed it as long as she let Holly know what was going on in that head of hers. To Holly it felt like an eternity before Peck agreed to the terms (though in reality it was only a few short moments of pondering), but Gail accepted, promising to do her best to talk to Holly when she was feeling cagey.

Months went by and things were going quite well, Gail had really put the effort into expressing herself more clearly and not turning tail to run for the hills when things got tough. That's not to say she didn't have her minor freak-outs along the way.

The next test came 8 months after the horrible misunderstanding at the Penny when Holly asked Gail to move in with her since the officer spent the majority of her time at the Nerd Lair as she'd deemed it. A good portion of Gail's clothes and possessions had migrated with her each time she stayed the night so Holly being the rational person she was thought it was the logical next step.

The good doc was taken aback when she mentioned it to her girlfriend one night at the Penny after work and the already pale blonde turned white as a ghost before downing the remainder of her drink and using the empty glass as an excuse to quickly leave the table for a refill. Not wanting to push the issue, Holly had let the question drop so they could enjoy their evening and opted instead to simply slip a key to her apartment on the officer's key ring later that night instead.

The following morning Gail had been on her way into parade when she'd noticed the shiny new silver key and instantly stopped dead in her tracks almost causing Chloe to walk right into the back of her.

"What the hell is that?" she'd asked to no one in particular, Price had just glanced at her as if she were crazy and continued on into the conference room. Peck's eyes had been glued to the set of keys on the table throughout the morning rundown and barely heard Oliver assign her to ride with Nick for the day. Once the group was dismissed to begin their patrol Gail had asked Collins for a moment and quickly made a beeline to the locker room to call Holly.

As soon as her phone rang Holly knew the purpose behind the call and to her credit played it cool, simply stating it was just so Gail could come by after shift without waking her or her neighbors at night when Peck worked the third watch. To Holly's surprise Gail simply told her she was as smart as she was beautiful and hung up, never to be daunted by the key's presence again and eventually moved the rest of her stuff in over the course of the next few months.