Work Text:
Holtzmann made an agreement with herself to never talk about the day Abby hung her out a window by her neck. She didn’t even like to think about her best friend becoming possessed by a ghost and hurting her. So, she kept her mouth shut about it. She never brought it up to Abby and Patty, and they never brought it up either. It was never spoken of again. And Holtz wanted to keep it that way. So, in order to avoid the attention the bruise on her neck would bring, she began to wear turtlenecks underneath large overalls.
The bruise was bad at first, but it was slowly beginning to fade. Holtzmann was gaining back the ability to swallow and she was able to stop lying about having a cold because her voice was finally back. She drank small sips of water and ate foods that were easy to swallow. A couple times she was offered food that she knew she couldn’t swallow and had to turn it away, no matter how good it looked. Abby and Patty never protested when she had to turn something away, as they already knew why. Erin liked to protest, though. She practically shoved food in her face when Holtz went too long without eating. Just to make her happy and worry free, she would eat it and try to hide the pain as she tried to swallow. Erin would then give a satisfied smile that made it all worth it.
Jillian Holtzmann would do anything to see Erin Gilbert smile.
Holtzmann didn’t sleep much. It was hard to when there was so much running through her head. The engineer was working on a million weapon upgrades and there was no way she was going to sleep until she finally finished them and got them off her mind. Holtz had a habit of staying up for a couple days straight working on something and then crashing until someone finally got her up. That was just how Holtzmann was. Abby was used to it, Patty was getting used to it, and Erin was still convinced that it wasn’t healthy and constantly tried to get Holtz onto a regular sleep schedule.
At four o’clock in the morning, Holtzmann didn’t expect anyone to come up to her lab at the firehouse. The others should have been asleep, and Holtz took the opportunity to finally take off her turtleneck that seemed to be even more constricting that day and replace it with a t-shirt. She took a mirror that sat on one of her desks and looked over the large bruise. The finger marks that Abby left were still very visible and seeing them made the engineer sick to her stomach.
She remembered Abby dropping her and Patty immediately grabbing her hand. Holtz remembered dangling there, feeling Patty’s hand begin to slip from hers as Abby put up a fight. That was the moment Holtz really thought she was going to die. Her possessed best friend was going to kill her.
Holtzmann dropped the mirror on the desk and quickly moved away from it. The blonde made her way to the stereo and turned up the music to help her concentrate better on her projects. Hands began to tinker away at a special proton handgun she had made for Erin. It was working fine before, but then during a rather difficult fight with a ghost, it got ectoplasm lodged in it and thrown against a wall. Holtz thought back to how heartbroken Erin was when she realized it was broken and how much she apologized for breaking one of Holtz’s creations. The engineer had told her not to worry - that she would fix it in a jiffy. Now it had been a few days since then and for some reason it still was having issues with it not having enough power in it. She was taking the whole thing apart, now, trying to find any last bits of ectoplasm that were in it or find anything that was loose.
Thunder could be heard in the distance. She looked up and readjusted her goggles. Without thinking about it much, she rubbed her neck and winced at the pain.
She continued on working and lip syncing to her favorite songs.
Holtzmann didn’t even notice the sound of footsteps in her lab. The blonde was hunched over the desk, fingers full of grease and tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. She was determined to get this thing to work again.
“Good morning, Holtzmann,” a voice said.
Startled, the engineer jumped a little and dropped the wrench. She spun around in her seat, ready to grab the nearest weapon (which was just a screwdriver), when she saw Erin sitting a couple desks away from her. The redhead looked tired and was wearing plain denim jeans and a sweatshirt. Holtz raised an eyebrow curiously and looked the physicist over once more. Greased-up hands reached up to push her goggles up onto her forehead as she continued to stare.
“W-what?” Erin asked nervously. She had a book open in her lap.
“What are you doing here?” Holtzmann asked curiously, eyes squinting. Her eyes glanced over at the clock. It was four-thirty in the morning. Erin usually didn’t get to the headquarters until eight at the latest.
Erin cleared her throat. “Sorry, am I bothering you? I-I can totally go downstairs if you want to… be alone while you work.”
She was already beginning to close her book and Holtz stood up quickly.
“No, it’s okay. I don’t mind,” she reassured Erin. “I’m just fixing up your gun. Make yourself at home, Gilbert.” Her butt was back in the chair, the goggles were pulled back down, and she turned away from Erin to get back to work. Her hand grabbed a bottle of water that was next to her and she took a small sip before attempting to clear her throat to speak again. “But really, what’re you doing here so early?”
“Couldn’t sleep,” Erin replied. “Figured if I couldn’t get myself back to sleep I might as well get back to work.”
Holtzmann nodded her head. “Why couldn’t you sleep?” She quickly jerked her hand away from the weapon when a small shock was sent through her fingers. Dammit.
“Oh, just, um, wasn’t tired, I suppose.”
As Holtz readied herself to ask another question, a larger, audible shock was sent through her hand and she quickly jerked the hand away again and stood up. She shook it out but she could still feel the shock lingering.
“Goddammit,” Holtzmann muttered under her breath.
“Holtzmann?” Erin asked. In an instant, the redhead was at her side and reaching for her hand. “Are you okay?”
She nodded her head. “Yeah, fine. Just a small shock. Happens all the time.” Her eyes went to the proton gun. “You really did a number on my baby, Gilbert. You gotta start treating them better or you can say buh-bye to more gifts.”
Erin looked incredibly sorry for a moment until she saw the smile on Holtzmann’s face. Oh, okay. The engineer was just kidding.
“Nah, I’m sure I can get this thing to work properly again. I think the ectoplasm did something to screw up it’s power up abilities. It can’t seem to hold a charge anymore.”
The blonde looked over at Erin and pulled her goggles up. She gave a quick wink to the physicist. Erin was smiling gently at her until her expression turned to horrified.
“Oh my gosh, Holtzmann!” she exclaimed. “W-what the heck happened to your neck?”
Holtzmann’s eyes widened and her hands reached up to her neck. She winced at the pain and quickly removed her hands. Shit. She completely forgot that she had turned in her turtleneck for a t-shirt to let the injury breathe a little. No one was supposed to be up here around this time. Holtz thought she was safe. Feet moved to take a small step back from Erin and she couldn’t help but try to hide the injury by quickly turning away and bringing her hands up to her neck again. It hurt to touch the bruise, but she didn’t want Erin to see it. She didn’t want Erin to know that Abby almost killed her.
Of course, Erin simply walked around Holtz to face her and grabbed her hands.
“What happened?” she demanded. “Who did that to you?” Erin was trying to pry the greasy hands away, only making it hurt worse for Holtz. “Holtzmann, tell me who did that to you right now so I can kick their butt!”
“Whoa...," Holtz breathed.
"What?"
"Did you know you’re kinda sexy when you get all demanding like this?” Holtzmann couldn’t help it. It was true, and she was hoping that by making light of the situation, she could get Erin to calm down a little.
“I-I,” Erin stuttered, blood rushing to her cheeks. “Don’t do that! You tell me right now what happened. Who the heck hurt you?” Her eyes showed just how worried she was.
Holtzmann finally gave in and removed her hands. Erin gasped and fingertips gently brushed against the bruise. The blonde gritted at the pain and took Erin’s hands to lower them.
“Who did that?” she whispered.
“It was Abby,” Holtz finally confessed. Erin’s eyes widened and she quickly began to explain the context. “Well, it was Abby, but it wasn’t Abby. Rowan had possessed her.”
“Rowan possessed Abby?” Erin asked, mouth agape. “Why didn’t you guys tell me?”
She pointed to her neck. “This is why. Abby grabbed me by the neck and broke the window with my body. She dropped me, but Patty grabbed my hand and saved my life.”
“Oh my gosh,” the redhead whispered. “H-how… w-why didn’t you tell me? Holtzmann, why didn’t you guys tell me about that?”
Shoulders shrugged. “I don’t know. We just never brought it up. I didn’t want to talk about it and I highly doubt Abby wants to talk about it and I think Patty is too scared to mention it.” Erin still looked horrified. “Really, it’s fine. It’s getting better now. Don’t worry your pretty little head.”
Erin wasn’t amused. “How can you tell me not to worry? You were dangled out a window! You could have died, Holtzmann! I… could have lost you.”
Holtzmann put her hands on the redhead’s shoulders. “Because I’m fine. I didn’t die because Patty saved my life. The bruise will go away and then it’ll be like it never happened.” Erin still looked terrified as she stared at the injury. Forgetting that her hands were covered in grease, she reached up and placed a hand on Erin’s cheek. “Hey. I’m alright, aren’t I?” When the physicist nodded her head, Holtz smiled gently. “See? That’s all that matters. I’m alive and Abby isn’t possessed anymore. The bruise will fade.”
Erin finally let out her breath and nodded her head, placing a hand over hers. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get all freaked out but, okay, I care about you a lot, and you really should have told me that my best friend got possessed by an insane ghost who almost killed the woman I l-” She stopped her rant there and her cheeks grew red. Quickly, she removed her hand from Holtzmann’s as she took a couple steps back from the engineer.
Holtzmann’s eyes widened as her hand fell to her side. Her heart was beating rapidly and it really felt like it was about to jump out of her chest. However, she couldn’t help the grin that was slowly sliding its way onto her face. “Gilbert, were you about to say that you-”
“Just forget I said anything, okay? I’m just happy you’re okay and I think I’m gonna go downstairs and make some coffee. Do you want some coffee because I really need some and then maybe I’ll-” She finger gunned in Holtz’s direction (and Holtzmann found it so freaking adorable), laughed nervously, and then saw the look on the other woman’s face. It was too late. Holtzmann knew. “...go throw myself into traffic.”
The blonde lept forward, hands falling onto Erin’s cheeks again. Her lips pressed themselves against the redhead’s and stayed there. Erin, startled at first, brought both hands up. She didn’t really know what to do with them until finally they found Holtzmann’s waist and planted themselves there. A noise escaped her, something Erin thought might have been a moan of some kind, and there was a growl deep in Holtz’s throat when she heard it. The engineer’s fingers entwined themselves in Erin’s soft red hair and she pulled slightly, which makes Erin moan once again and Holtz smiled a little through the kiss when she heard it.
Erin raised a hand and her fingers trailed along Holtz’s jawline. A small gasp came from the other woman and she jumped back a little, breaking the kiss.
“Ow, my neck, Erin,” she groaned.
The redhead gasped and removed her hands quickly. “O-oh gosh. I’m so sorry, Holtzmann!”
Holtzmann laughed and patted Erin’s shoulder. “Nah, I’m totally kidding. You didn’t even touch my neck.”
“C’mon, Holtzmann, that’s not funny!” Erin pulled away and shook her head. “Stop laughing.”
A snort came from the engineer as she continued to laugh. “I’m sorry, you just look so cute when you’re all worried.” She finally stopped laughing after a moment and wiped her tears. “Also, did you really threaten to kick someone’s butt earlier?”
Erin crossed her arms over her chest. “Yeah. Why?”
“Oh, Erin Gilbert. Sweet, precious little Erin. You’re too cute.”
“I-I could fight someone! Did you forget that I kick ghost butt for a living? I could fight someone.”
Holtzmann laughed again. How was it possible for Erin to be that freaking adorable?
She grabbed Erin’s face again and said against her lips, “Shut up, Gilbert.”