When she had left early this morning, bleary eyed and somewhat shaken, Gail was still there, a quiet sleeping lump under the spare blanket on the couch in her suite. She hoped, dreaded, feared, longed for her to still be there when she returned. She had somehow managed to get out of the tour of the city morgue (oh the irony) this afternoon, and only had only her breakfast meeting and lecture ahead of her until the award ceremony this evening. She rubbed her eyes and went for another cup of coffee. Gail, so broken, and still so beautiful was like a drug to her. It would be so easy to forget all that had transpired between them and simply take her in, again. She hoped she didn’t look as ragged as she felt.

A voice behind her woke her from her thoughts. The young man who was her liaison to this conference spoke in a slightly nervous soft voice.

“Excuse me Dr. Stewart, I don’t mean to disturb you, but the Chief of Police would very much like to meet you…”

Holly closed her eyes, took a moment to steel herself, got up and turned, extending her hand to the woman standing behind her.

“Hello Elaine, you are looking well.” She said

“Well, well, well..” Elaine said, ignoring her hand “Look who has returned to the scene of the crime.”