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Holtzmann didn’t give it much thought when she was thrown to the ground during a particularly rough fight with a ghost and hit the back of her head on the hardwood floor. It was just an occupational hazard, was all. She saw stars for a second after hitting the ground and it took her a moment to really remember where she even was. However, once she was able to regain her wits, Holtz was up in a second and back at it trying to wrangle the ghost into the portable containment unit. With the adrenaline pumping through her body, she didn’t even notice that the back of her head was aching. The engineer was grinning from ear to ear as the four ghostbusters manage to wrangle the ghost into the containment unit, and on three, Holtzmann put her foot down on the peddle and the ghost was trapped.
The four of them all started howling with laughter when it was captured. Honestly, the excitement of capturing a ghost never went away. It was always just as exciting and amazing as the first time they captured a ghost. It felt good to do the things that so many people didn’t think they would be able to do. But hell, now all of New York City was practically bowing down to the Ghostbusters and the girls were on fire.
“We just caught another mother-fuckin’ ghost!” Abby exclaimed as she danced around and threw her fists into the air.
“We did, ahaha!” Erin began to laugh nervously. “But let’s watch our language, okay?”
Patty ran over and grabbed Holtzmann, swinging the smaller woman around. The sudden motion made the blonde dizzy and there was some weird pounding in the back of her head that she chose to ignore because, hey, they just caught another ghost!
Patty set her down and continued to jump around. Holtzmann stumbled for a moment.
“Hey, you okay?” Erin asked through her excited smile.
“Yeah, totally fine!” Holtzmann answered with a huge grin on her face. She rests an arm on Erin’s shoulder and leans against her. “Because guess what? We just caught another ghost and we are badass! WOOHOO!”
“Hell yeah we are!” Patty exclaimed.
After their few moments of celebration, the girls decided it was time to pack up and get the hell out of the previously haunted mansion. The ride back to the firehouse headquarters would be long and they needed to get moving if they wanted to get back before dark. Holtzmann and Patty gathered up the equipment while Abby and Erin went out to open up the Ecto-1 and help load everything in. Erin picked off pieces of ectoplasm from her jumpsuit as Holtz and Patty loaded up the rest of the equipment, including the ghost. Abby decided to go talk to the owner of the mansion and reassure him that the ghost was now gone and that he could move his family back into the home whenever he was ready to. The man had tears in his eyes and quickly wrapped his arms around Abby, pulling her into a tight hug and thanking her and the others over and over again for saving his home and his family from the paranormal. Abby tried to play it off like it was no big deal, but the kindness she received from the man secretly made her smile to herself. It felt good to help others and not be labelled as crazy.
Everything was in the Ecto-1 and the owner of the mansion said his final thank yous and goodbyes to the women. They all shook his hand and told him that if any more strange things start happening in the house, he knew who to call.
The four women walked back to the hearse (yes, Patty somehow convinced her uncle to let her use another one).
Holtzmann rubbed the back of her head and got into the driver’s seat.
The Ghostbusters arrived back at the firehouse later that night and while Patty and Holtzmann were too tired to unload the equipment, Erin reminded them how dangerous it could be to leave all that equipment (along with a freaking ghost) in the vehicle overnight. With many groans and complaining, Patty and Holtz began to unload the equipment and lug it back inside. A weird wave of nausea began to wash over Holtz as they unloaded the last of their equipment. Now, Holtzmann was pretty good at talking herself into not being sick. It was something she liked to pride herself on. When she felt sick, she simply told herself ‘nope’ and that would be the end of that. She honestly couldn’t remember the last time she was actually sick. Holtzmann had a good immune system and she was thankful for that because otherwise it would be hard to get work done if she was constantly catching a cold or developing some type of influenza. She was healthy as a child and healthy as an adult.
So why did she all of a sudden feel like she needed to run to the bathroom and throw up?
Abby had begun to order takeout. Patty had collapsed on one of the couches and Erin was back at her desk reading a book. Music played softly in the background and Kevin hummed along to it as he looked for casting calls online. He was still wearing that lab coat they bought him, which was really just to shut him up about being a ghostbuster. Holtzmann was at one of her own desks and tried to fix up one of the proton packs, but found herself unable to concentrate.
Okay, time to throw up.
Casually and not causing a scene, Holtz walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She sat herself down on the floor and leaned over the toilet as she voided everything in her stomach. When she was done, Holtz sat back up and leaned against the wall. Everything was so dizzy and the pounding in her head was back. Okay, cool, so she had some sort of stomach flu. Her good luck was sure to run out quickly and it seemed like it was finally happening. No worries. Holtz would simply lay off the food for tonight and try and get some sleep. She couldn’t feel a fever or anything, so she was sure she’d feel better in the morning.
When she returned from the bathroom, Erin was giving her a look.
“You alright?” Erin asked her.
“What, can’t a girl pee in peace?” Holtzmann asked.
“O-oh, well, of course you can!” Erin responded, cheeks a little flushed. “It’s just, you were in there for a while and…”
“You know what else people do in the bathroom, Gilbert?” Holtz asked and Erin knew what was coming.
“Don’t say it…”
Holtz mouthed the word ‘poop’ and Erin immediately grimaced and went back to her work.
“Okay, fine,” Erin replied back sternly. “Forget I asked. Go back to your tinkering.”
Holtzmann winked at her and Erin definitely caught that out of the corner of her eye, but still went back to her book. God, she was so cute when she got all annoyed like that.
The food arrived not long after that and everyone besides Holtzmann began to dig in.
“Baby, you gotta eat,” Patty told her. “We were out bustin’ ghosts all day and you’re bound to have low blood sugar. Eat something.”
Holtzmann shook her head. “Nah, I’m not all that hungry right now. I’ll save it for later.” She walked to put her food in the fridge and Patty began mumbling something about how she was gonna stop worrying about the others’ blood sugar if they weren’t gonna care.
No one seemed to notice when Holtz stumbled as she walked back to her desk.
A day passed and Holtzmann wasn’t feeling any better. The headache persisted and she still felt like she wanted to throw up. Not to mention everything in the room was constantly spinning and sleep did not come easily for her. Making the attempt at concentrating on her latest projects was hard and she found herself moving like a snail around her lab, unlike how she usually was running around from desk to desk nonstop. Her hands felt weak when they grabbed a new tool and this sluggish feeling only made her cause more lab accidents and break things that she was working on. She hated being sick and she was going to kill whoever gave her this flu.
Maybe it was Kevin. Holtz caught him sneezing on her things the other day. Dammit. She told him not to go near her stuff, as even looking at half of her stuff would cause a nuclear meltdown.
Most of the lights in Holtz’s second floor lab were turned off except for a lamp near the desk she sat at. The light made the headache worse. The music that was usually playing was turned off too. Holtz opted for complete silence in hopes the headache would start to go away.
When lights were turned on, Holtz groaned and let her head fall into her hands.
“Sorry,” Erin apologized. “I didn’t even know you were in here.”
Erin had herself a little desk in Holtzmann’s lab. When she wanted to concentrate and not worry about reminding Kevin to answer the phone, she sat up with Holtz and read books at a desk. Next to her was a whiteboard on the wall that she used to jot down notes and equations. Patty was irritated when she learned that the entire floor that Holtz had called dibs on was being shared with Erin, but soon gave up on that fight when she learned about Holtz’s feelings for her.
“It’s okay,” Holtzmann told her. “I’m just working on a small thing. Come on in.”
Erin kept the lights on and Holtz squinted to adjust to it. The redhead sat down at her own desk and began to read. Silence fell over the two for a while.
“Hey,” Erin began. “Have you been feeling okay? I’ve noticed you haven’t really been eating and I think you’ve been up for, what, almost twenty-four hours now?”
Why did it sound like Erin was underwater as she was talking? Her blonde head slowly turned to look at Erin. She had asked her a question but… what was the question?
“What?” Holtz asked.
“Are you feeling okay?”
Holtzmann took a deep breath. She could tell her that, no, she wasn’t feeling all that great but she was sure this was no big deal. Plus, she didn’t need Erin freaking out and demanding she get into bed and not ghost bust. Well, okay, as nice as it would be for Erin to take care of her, she had work to get done and she wasn’t going to sit around while the others got to go out and bust ghosts. Holtzmann was fine.
“Yeah,” she replied finally. “I’m peachy. You know me, Gilbert. No rest until I’m finished.” Tired eyes went back to the gun she was working on.
“I know,” Erin said. “But that’s not healthy. You should really take a break and lay down and have something to eat.”
“S’fine, Erin,” Holtzmann reassured her.
Erin wanted to protest, but decided against it. Holtzmann was stubborn when it came to her work. The physicist wasn’t going to be able to get her to stop, so she shut herself up and went back to reading her book and jotting equations on her whiteboard. On the lower left hand corner of the whiteboard there was a note from Holtz that said, “Hey, hot stuff xoxo” and every time Erin looked at it, she couldn’t help but blush.
The lab was once again quiet until Abby came running upstairs.
“Guys, we got a call!” she exclaimed, causing Erin to jump in her seat. “Gear up!”
For once, Erin was moving faster than Holtzmann. It took the blonde a moment to process what Abby was saying and put down what she was working on. Erin began running for the pole and Holtz tried to keep up, but once again everything was spinning and she had to walk slow so she wouldn’t trip over her own feet.
“Holtzmann!” Erin yelled. “Stop messing around and hurry up!”
Holtz stopped for a moment as she watched Erin slide down the pole with ease. Maybe she needed to throw up one more time to feel better. No, okay, no time for that. It was time to get to ghost busting.
Lifting the equipment into the Ecto-1 tired out Holtzmann right away. The nauseous feeling wouldn’t go away and the dizziness was bad enough to make her question her ability to drive. Holtzmann was always the one who drove, though. Hell, most of the time she was insisting that she drove. The others would think it weird if Holtz suddenly gave the keys to someone else.
“Holtzy!” Patty said, snapping her fingers in the blonde’s face. “Girl, where’d you go?”
“Huh?” she asked. “Oh. Sorry. What’s up?”
“You’re just standin’ there starin’ off into space,” Patty told her. “We gotta get going.”
Holtzmann nodded her head and was about to head for the driver’s seat, but Patty put a hand on her shoulder.
“Nu-uh,” she said. “I’m driving. Don’t need you spacin’ out while driving. Have you even eaten today? Baby, what am I always tellin’ ya?”
Holtz nodded her head. “I know, I know. Eat more and sleep more. I will.”
Patty gave her a look but finally gave up and went to the driver’s seat. Abby took her usual seat in the passenger’s side and Holtzmann sat next to Erin in the back.
Erin was no doctor in the medical field, but she still was able to tell that something was going on with Holtzmann. The woman was usually energetic while working. She kept ‘80s music on and danced around like no one was watching and as if all the contraptions in her lab weren’t untested and completely unstable. Yet, after their last job, Holtz stopped doing that and opted to work in complete silence. In just twenty-four hours, Holtz had managed to start more lab accidents than she ever accomplished in a week and it was getting to a point where Abby was threatening to take way Holtz’s lab privileges. Holtzmann played it off like it was fine. Erin could not be fooled, however, and as they sat in the back of the Ecto-1 together, she took the time to give the nuclear engineer a quick look-over. The woman looked tired and as if she was trying not to be sick as Patty quickly weaved in and out of cars and took sharp turns.
As she was about to open her mouth to once again ask if she was okay, Patty parked the hearse and Abby announced that they had arrived. Erin took a deep breath and opened up the door. Patty pulled out the table that held their proton packs and each one of them strapped them onto their backs. The first time Erin ever put on her pack, it felt heavy and awkward, but Erin and the others had gotten used to it and Holtzmann had done a great job and fixing them up so they weren’t so clunky and awkward.
A woman ran out of the house and began to frantically tell the Ghostbusters about what she had been experiencing. Erin listened carefully and Abby asked all the questions that needed to be asked. Finally, once they got all the information they needed, the four headed inside.
It was a large house, but not quite a mansion. Objects and furniture looked to have been thrown around and there were dark marks on the walls. Erin looked to Abby with a concerned look. There was a serious haunting going on in the large home. Erin followed behind Abby and Patty as they walked through a hallway where the bedrooms seemed to be. Pictures that once hung on the walls had fallen to the floor and glass covered the floor. Some of the closed bedroom doors had scratch marks on them and Erin swore that she could hear something screaming in the distance as they continued to walk. Her hands were placed tightly around her proton gun and her finger couldn’t help but hover over the red trigger. It was hard to not be a little jumpy in situations like these and she was glad she wasn’t leading the group.
“We should split up,” Abby announced. “Cover more ground that way. Patty and I will go through the bedrooms and see what we can find. Erin and Holtzy, you guys head for the living room and kitchen. Get on the walkie if you see anything.”
Erin nodded her head. “Okay. Stay safe.”
The two women walked down the stairs and entered the large living room. It was only six o’clock at night, but given that the power had gone out and the drapes were closed, it felt like it was much later. Erin walked carefully around the furniture and tried to steer clear of the large china cabinets and glass picture frames that easily could be moved and thrown around by a ghost. Her finger was once again hovering over the trigger of her proton gun and even the smallest of noises made the physicist spin around on her heels. Everything seemed to be quiet so far, though. Erin wasn’t hearing anything odd, but just so happened to come across ectoplasm smeared against one of the walls. She made a disgusted face.
“I think this room is mostly clear,” Erin said. “Let’s head for the kitchen and see the damage in there.”
Holtzmann stopped in her tracks and seemed to start swaying. “Erin…” she mumbled. “I don’t feel so…”
Erin watched in horror as the blonde suddenly fell to her side. In an instant, Erin was running toward her and collapsed to her knees next to her. Okay, so she wasn’t wrong. Something definitely was wrong with Holtzmann.
“Holtz!” Erin said, placing a hand on her shoulder and trying to shake her awake. “Hey, you’re okay. Wake up. You gotta get up.”
There was no response from the woman and Erin was starting to get panicked. Quickly, she moved to pull the proton pack off of Holtz’s back to allow her to lie on her back. “C’mon, Holtzmann. Get up!” Her hand moved to the woman’s waist and her other hand placed itself on her cheek. Gently, she began to tap her cheek, but the blonde still was not responding. Erin began to go through in her head all the reasons as to why Holtz passed out. She immediately began to think it was due to low blood sugar and lack of sleep. Erin knew she should have pushed the engineer to take a break. She should have pulled her away by her hair and threw her into a bed (and maybe join her in that bed waitwhat) and force her to sleep. Erin should have shoved chips down the woman’s throat so she wouldn’t be working on an empty stomach for so long.
But, Erin did none of that and now Holtzmann was passed out on the living room floor and her heart was beating rapidly and her hands were shaking.
“Please, Holtzmann,” she whispered. “Please, please, please please.”
Erin reached for her walkie-talkie and pressed the button on the side.
“Guys, Holtzmann passed out,” she informed them. “I turned around and she just collapsed and she’s not waking up and I don’t know what to do so please get down here right away.”
Abby was the one who answered first. “We’ll be down there in a second!” In the background, Patty was yelling about how she was right that Holtz had low blood sugar and how no one ever listened to her. Then, there was static over the walkie-talkie and Abby swearing.
Silence again.
Erin began to gently shake Holtzmann again. “Don’t do this to me right now, Holtzmann. Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up!”
Holtzmann’s eyes finally began to slowly open and Erin was able to let out her breath. Okay, good, she was still alive but Erin still couldn’t stop shaking and for some reason the physicist found it necessary to lean down and press her lips to hers.
“Oh my god, Holtz,” Erin breathed shakily when she pulled away. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
The engineer groaned. “I-I’m fine. Where are we? Did you just kiss me?”
Erin removed her hand from Holtzmann’s cheek and her cheeks became very warm. “I, uh, might have. But you are not okay! Don’t say you’re okay because you’re most definitely not okay! You just passed out and you seriously have no idea where you are?”
Holtzmann groaned again. “Okay, okay. Sheesh.” The blonde went to sit up but Erin pushed her back down gently. The engineer was quiet for a moment, mouth opening to say something before she closed it again and sighed. “Shit. I hit my head.”
“Just now?” Erin asked, eyes widening.
“No. I hit my head yesterday when that ghost threw me. It didn’t hurt at first, but now…”
“You have a concussion!” Erin told her, irritated that Holtzmann hid the injury from her. “And you’re only making it worse by staying up and trying to bust ghosts. Why didn’t you tell any of us? We should have taken you to a hospital right away! This is so dangerous, Holtzmann!”
Holtz smirked. “Hospitals are for dudes.” When she saw Erin’s unamused look, she sighed. “I didn’t really think anything of it, I guess. I thought I was just getting sick. Did you know that Kevin’s been sneezing on all my stuff?”
Erin hung her head for a second. “We gotta get you home. Screw the ghost. You gotta get home and rest up. And when you’re better, I’m gonna kick your butt into the next century for hiding this from me.”
One of Holtzmann’s hands reached up to wrap around Erin’s wrist. “I’m sorry. But hey, don’t freak out. Just… get me out of here and I’ll let you play doctor on me.” The wink that Holtzmann sent Erin’s way let her know that she was going to be okay. “Do I get to take my clothes off so you can give me a physical examination?”
Erin removed her hands from the blonde. “Alright,” she said as her cheeks grew warm. “You’re feeling better.”
“My head is actually aggressively pounding right now and I see two of you,” Holtzmann said nonchalantly. “Also, you kissed me.”
Yeah. She definitely did.
Abby and Patty had barged into the living room not long after that with the ghost hot on their trail. Erin managed to drag Holtzmann off to the side so the three of them to capture it in a trap. When it was safely contained, Patty and Erin helped Holtz out to the Ecto-1 and sat her in the backseat. They then went and packed up the equipment and Patty drove back to the firehouse. Before even thinking about unloading the equipment, the three of them practically dragged Holtzmann up the stairs and to the top floor that they had basically turned into a bedroom. Holtz was put into a bed and Erin went to get her an ice pack.
Erin returned with the ice pack and placed it under Holtz’s head. “Twenty minutes on, twenty minutes off.”
“We called a doctor,” she told her as she sat down on the edge of the bed. “Told him your symptoms and he said you have a mild concussion. It should be safe for you to sleep, but we’re gonna have to wake you up every couple hours to check on you. If your symptoms don’t go away, we’ll have to take you to the hospital.”
Holtz gave a thumbs up. “Thank you, Dr. Gilbert.”
“I brought you some saltine crackers too,” Erin told her. “Easy on the stomach. And some water.” She set the glass of water down on the bedside table and watched as Holtzmann took the box of crackers and held onto them. “Get some rest, okay?” Erin was about to get up to leave, but Holtz grabbed her wrist.
“You’re mad at me.”
“Well, yeah,” Erin said, looking away. “You didn’t tell me that you got hurt and you could have died, Holtzmann. Head injuries are serious.”
The blonde pursed her lips briefly. “I’m sorry. I thought I was okay. Don’t be mad.”
Erin sighed and patted the other woman’s shoulder. “I care about you and I like to know that you’re okay. So, for future reference, don’t hide head injuries or any other injuries from me or any of us, for that matter.”
A two-fingered salute came from Holtz. “You got it, hot stuff.” Her hand then shot up to grab Erin as the woman tried to leave again. “You said you have to monitor me, right?” Erin nodded. “Well… instead of having to go up the stairs every hour, why not just hang out up here with me?”
“You want me to…”
“Yes, cuddle with me. I want you to cuddle with me.”
Erin didn’t have much time to answer, for Holtzmann already was grabbing the woman and pulling her down next to her in the bed. The physicist didn’t really know what to do at first (it had been awhile since she cuddled with someone, okay?) and simply laid there for a moment until she finally caught her breath again. Slowly and very carefully, she moved to lie on her side and wrapped an arm around the engineer’s stomach. Holtz’s arm draped itself over her shoulders and she sighed happily.
“You kissed me.”
“Yeah, I did,” Erin replied quietly.
“Why?”
“Because I thought you were going to die and I was freaking out and then you woke up and I just… had the urge to kiss you. So I did.”
“We should do that more often.”
Erin smiled. “Yeah, we should. Now go to sleep.”