The thing she had always feared, the one thing that terrified her actually, was the thought that she would end up on Holly’s slab, and Holly would find her there before anyone had a chance to warn her that her lover was waiting for her at the lab – on ice. And this is why she had to protect Holly, to push her away, to finally go leaving a gulf of silence and hurt between them.

It had almost happened too. Just over a year ago, on a beautiful, warm fall day, she and Oliver had gone to investigate a strange man wearing a trench coat hanging around an elementary school. Her last clear memory was of Oliver singing Ziggy Stardust off key as the got out of the car. Later, they told her that she had thrown herself and a cafeteria table in front of a small group of first graders just as the suicide bomber had detonated his device. She had saved their lives. The blast had flayed her open, it left shrapnel in her skin, broke her pelvis, and her back, and a number of other bones, wrecked her left hand and almost removed her left leg above the knee, only to have it reattached. Three months later, she had been released from the hospital feeling somewhat like a Tim Burton creation. Traci and Steve had taken her in as she had gone through six more grueling months of rehab and several more operations. She had moved into her own apartment near by just as soon as she could climb stairs. Thank God she had ditched Holly long before this happened. She knew she had hurt her, but not like this would have. She wondered why she still cared.

”Hey Peck, it’s late. I should get going.” Oliver said, downing the last of his scotch.

”Good night Oliver” she replied.

She watched him make his way across the crowded bar and warmly greet a couple who had just come inside before disappearing out the door. The shock wave hit her like a slap. She felt herself go from cold to hot to cold as all of the blood seemed to drain from her. Holly. Not the apparition of Holly she sometimes saw out of the corner of her eye in the crowd, but Holly in the flesh. Holly standing in the doorway of the Penny with Chris standing close behind her.