Work Text:
Phoebe usually didn’t give a fuck about stupid human things like sleeping. Or eating. Or…anything, really. But Melody took her hand and said stuff like “I love you,” and suddenly it was difficult to not care about those things, if she got to do them with Melody. The first time she said this, her partner shook her head and kissed her on the forehead.
“I guess that works, if it means you actually eat something, for once,” she said, and went back to working on a portfolio piece she had been working on for a while and looking up to point out the typos in the paper Phoebe was writing. According to this study Phoebe was conducting, a cause of death may correlate to how the ghost appeared in the human realm.
“I think it’s spelled P-O-I-S-O-N, not P-O-I-S-I-N…wait, poison?”
“In this specific example, the ghost was releasing what appeared to be a new kind of ectoplasm that worked as a paralyzing toxin. Usually, I can’t identify the ghost in order to get a cause of death, but here, because locals told stories about this one, I was able to get an official obituary. Now, because he was paralyzed by this toxin and then dragged into a nearby alley and beaten to death, I have no idea if it needs to be a cause of death or simply something that contributed, but I suppose there’s a chance that the poison could have stopped his heart…”
The quiet sounds of fingers hitting keys echoed through the room once her voice faded into the background, and she felt Melody shift, probably to check the time.
“It’s almost eleven..”
“Hold on, let me just finish this paragraph…”
What felt like five minutes later, she saw a hand start to lower the lid of her computer.
“It’s twelve.”
“Wait-”
“Phoebe, you need to sleep.”
“I’m fine, really, I just have to finish this. Winston wants it finished by tomorrow when I get there,” she said, and felt the same hand that got her attention slide to her shoulder.
“Phoebe…I know you want to make this the best you can, but I also know you didn’t get any sleep last night, in fact, have you gotten any sleep at all recently? You can’t keep ignoring your human needs.”
“But-”
“No buts.” She spun the swivel chair around, and held her hands out.
“I’m staying the night.”
“We don’t have a guest room-”
“Can I stay here?” Phoebe nodded hesitantly, taking Melody’s hands. She was surprised when she pulled her in for a hug, and let herself fall onto her mattress with Melody. It was nice, being in someone’s arms like this. Cozy. She was even more surprised when Melody put her arms around her, and even more still when she felt herself actually start to fall asleep.
Because Phoebe hadn’t exactly been telling her girlfriend the truth about why she wasn’t sleeping. Melody thought it was because she was working, and while that had been part of it, being a Ghostbuster was taking its toll on her.
She was frozen again, helpless as her tear ducts froze and she exhaled her last breath. But this time, Melody didn’t help, because she was dead. Garraka had silenced her once he had seen that she was developing an attraction to his target. She had failed herself, and her family, and even her lover, and now she was going to die while he won. And all she could think was that she had never even gotten to kiss her.
Phoebe had considered death, because she had almost died so many times. But here, while she was dying, she let out a tear, because becoming a ghost was actually a process so painful she would rather let the ionic separator rip apart her particles again than go through it. It pulled on her nerves from the tips of her fingers up, all while her lungs were wheezing to breathe in and she couldn’t and oh, god, this was death, and the world was going dark…
“Pheebs? Babe, please wake up-” She gasped and sat up, and she was alive. She was breathing, which her lungs were reminding her of, and Melody was here, she wasn’t dead, she was alive, and she pulled her into a hug to remind herself of that.
“It was just another nightmare. I’m alive,” she kept saying, and Melody looked confused.
“ Another? You’ve been having nightmares a lot? Is this why you haven’t been sleeping?” She asked, and Phoebe nodded.
“Yeah. It’s okay though, I feel a lot better after just a few hours of sleep. And it’s better ‘cause you’re here.” Well, that was embarrassing. Which her brain immediately chimed in to say as soon as the words were out of her mouth.
“Fuck, I shouldn’t have said that, I’m sorry-”
“You’re okay. Nothing to apologize for.” She hugged her closer.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
And they fell asleep like that, and this time, Phoebe didn’t have any nightmares.