Out of your prompt list would you be willing to do the Gail patrolling a gay pride event? But maybe instead of knowing Holly before the event, make it the place where they both meet?
I would be very happy to do that :)
"Holy cow, how do they do that?"
Gail raised her eyes to the sky and her lips moved in a silent plea - gods, spirits, devils (hopefully, she crossed her fingers that it would be devils because they were assholes and she wanted something moderately inconvenient to befall her parter) who or whatever was listening to rescue her from the utterly entranced Chloe Price.
"Gail, look at his abs!"
"He’s really not interested in you."
"But I’m interested in him. I wonder if he can teach me to dance like that…" Chloe’s eyes widened and she craned, using Gail’s shoulder for balance, to follow him all the way down the street.
"Three. Two." Chloe yanked her hand away before Gail made it to three. Clever. "Watch the crowd, Price. Do your job."
"You know," Chloe said, letting her eyes sweep over the crowd, "I would have thought you’d be happier to be here. I mean,"
"Don’t say it."
"You’re,"
"Don’t say it."
"But"
"No."
"There’s nothing to be ashamed of," Chloe said with a slight pout. "I would have thought you’d be having a lot of fun."
"I’m a cop. I’m doing my job. And it is hot and everyone is loud and I would like for my shift to be over."
"Right, I forgot. You don’t have fun." Chloe made eye contact with a child who was palming a cigarette from a friend and she raised her eyebrows, sending the two of them running.
"I have fun. This isn’t fun."
"But-"
"Enough, Chloe." She raised her hand, hearing the crackle of her radio. "10-4, she returned. "Come on. Chris needs some help."
"Protestors?"
"Heat stroke."
They collected the icebox from the trunk of their car and carried it to where Chris and Dov were placed. “Heard you had someone who needed to cool down?” She lobbed a cold water at Dov’s head - he caught it, much to her disappointment - and another to Chris. “We’re off now.”
"No, wait, Gail, can you just take a bottle to the girls over there? I have to hand them out to these guys." Chris handed her several bottles and Gail groaned but lugged them over to the bench where a few colourfully dressed girls were waiting. "Drink. Drink. Drink water,” she said to the third girl who looked a touch tipsy though it was only two in the afternoon. “Drink. Drink.” That one tried to hand the bottle back and say she was fine and Gail narrowed her eyes and lowered the hand with the bottle in it to point at the badge on her hip. She offered the girl the bottle again, with a less polite, “Drink. Drink. Drink.”
"Oh, I’m actually not with them."
"Lucky you. Drink anyway."
"Really," the brunette tried to argue again, "I’m not with them. My feet just hurt so I sat down for a second. I didn’t know this was the sin bin." She pulled a mostly empty waterbottle out of her bag and shook it at Gail. "See? I’ve got plenty."
"Fine." Gail turned sharply and kept a watchful eye on the rest of the girls. They seemed fine, in general. Especially the couple at the end. "Hey." They broke apart with a baleful glare in her direction. "Let’s keep an air of mystery for the rest of us, okay?"
"Are you always this cheerful?"
There was that brunette again. With the happy smile and hydrated body. “Pardon?”
"Is it the heat?"
"I’ve had plenty to drink."
"So is it the parade? Because everyone is just having a good time. And I haven’t heard of anything going wrong so you’re basically just walking around and giving out water bottles."
"Basically," Gail agreed.
"Oh do you have sore feet too?" the woman teased. Her smile faded slightly and she asked another question. "Or are you not a supporter?" As one, the girls on the benches turned to her with identical frowns. Even the couple pulled away from each others lips to glare.
Gail rolled her eyes but didn’t answer. She had half an hour left of her shift and she wasn’t going to spend it answering to strangers. Or, at least, that was what she had intended.
"Oh no, Gail is super gay," Chloe piped up from behind her. "She just doesn’t like fun. She’s basically the Grinch."
"One time, she actually took my Christmas presents because she forgot to buy anything for her brother," Chris said. "I ran out of water bottles," he told Gail.
"Then go find some more,” she hissed. “Officer Price, we’re done here.” She turned back to say goodbye to the brunette - why was she doing that? The thought made her pause and frown and she glared at the now horde of grinning women. The brunette was grinning the widest and she was looking up at Gail like there was something lovely about her and the thought made Gail uncomfortable so she threw the bottle she had in her hand and her lips twitched when the stranger fumbled to catch it. “Stay hydrated,” she said to the group sternly.
"Yes ma’am,” was the fervent, adoring reply.
Gail strode away as quickly as she could, enjoying the sound of Chloe goddamn Price struggling to keep up with her longer legs. “Why did you do that?” she growled.
"They were looking at you like you were next on their hit list. Their collective hit list. Gail - you were going to die. You’re my partner.” Chloe patted her shoulder and flinched away when Gail growled again. “I couldn’t let that happen?”
"You had no right!"
"It’s fine, it’s not like anyone is going to insult you for it. We’re at a pride parade, Gail. You could relax, maybe smile a little, you know. It wouldn’t kill you. And it might make you a teeny bit nicer to work with."
Gail pinched her nose and let out a slow breath. “Okay, Price. Here are the differenced between you and me. You,” she jabbed her finger towards Chloe, “annoying. Me,” she touched her chest with her thumb, “awesome. You,” again, jabbing towards Chloe, “big mouth. Me,” thumb to chest, “I like my privacy. You - thoughtless. Me - I don’t care and I don’t blab about people’s private lives. You - requested this shift. Me - was put on it because my mother decided it would be good publicity. You - were already working today. Me,” Gail growled, right at the end of her rope, “had today off. So excuse me if I am not as super happy,” she mocked, “as you are but I had plans and they are all ruined. So.” She looked at her watch. “Look at that. It’s the end of my shift. Now let’s go back to the precinct so I can actually do some of what I was hoping to do today which is sleep because at the end of four incredibly long shifts this week, the absolute last thing I wanted to do was this. Okay?”
Chloe bobbed her head in a nod. “I’m so-“
"Save it." Gail held her hand out for the keys. "I’m driving."
"Gail-"
"Really, Chloe? Fine. I accept your apology or whatever," she said as she stomped away. "Just get in the car."
"No, Gail, someone wants to talk to you." Looking back at Chloe, the woman was pointing to her right and Gail followed the finger to the brunette from before. "I’ll be in the car," the preppy monstrosity smiled, sneaking the keys away from Gail.
"Can I help you?"
"I couldn’t help but overhear," the woman started and for once, Gail didn’t feel the urge to interject with ‘yes you could’ or ‘it’s really not that hard, just don’t butt in on people’s conversations’ or anything like that and she swallowed hard because that was a bad sign.
Or maybe a good sign.
Who knew?
"Sorry that your friend outed you to us. I talked to the girls and they aren’t going to say anything. Promise. We all know what it’s like for a well-meaning friend to say something you didn’t want them to say so," the woman shrugged. "I just thought you might like to know."
"It’s fine. But that was thoughtful. Thank you."
"Sure."
A moment of silence, Gail wiped her suddenly clammy hands on her pants, the woman was looking anywhere but Gail and then, “She’s looking at us.”
"Huh?"
"Your partner." The woman nodded to their parked car and Chloe was more or less pressed up against the window, eyes wide as she watched the two of them talk. "Is she always like this?"
"Yes," Gail gritted out. "Yes she is."
"Wow. I guess I’ll…leave you to it then."
"Yeah."
"Okay, no, wait," the woman said as Gail turned to leave. (She should be embarrassed by how quickly she turned back to face her but she wasn’t.) "I heard it was your day off - I know, I’m sorry, I was kind of eavesdropping and that is such a bad habit but I wanted to talk to you before you left and-"
"I really do have to leave, actually," Gail said. "End of shift, shift changeover and all that."
"Right - I’ll be quick." She nodded once, sharply, and her eyes focused on Gail. "I’m Holly. I knew your name, I thought it was only fair that you knew mine. And this might be totally out of the blue and you might have a girlfriend, you probably do actually so this is silly but, it’s your day off, my friends dragged me here and ditched me, do you want to do something together?"
Gail blinked. “Do you like donuts?”
The quick question threw Holly for a moment. “Yes?”
"Do you like coffee?"
"Yes."
"Do you know how to get to the 15th?"
"Also a yes."
"Good. I’ll be done at quarter to three. Here are the rules: other than getting out of a car there is to be no walking. No exercise." She paused. "And I reserve the right to make up more rules as they are required."
"I guess I’ll see you then," Holly said, getting a quick wave over Gail’s shoulder as she jogged to the car.
