Chapter Text
They were all crying. Constantly, it seemed
The Ghostbusters were finished. The mayor had decided that he was done funding their research, because there hadn’t been a ghost emergency in the past year. Sure, there’s been little sightings and minor busts, but nothing severe, and he declared they were wasting precious tax dollars. Additionally, people were starting to find out that the New York City government was funding the Ghostbusters and starting to discredit the mayor, some even declaring him unfit to run the city.
After the meeting, his assistant, Jennifer, had quietly told them that if they didn’t vacate their firehouse and immediately stop their research they would be arrested and face 5-20 in prison. The mayor was clearly more concerned about what other people thought of him than the well being of his beloved city.
They’d fought their hardest against the decree, but after Holtz ended up in jail for a night, they’d agreed to the mayor’s terms and locked their equipment away in a government owned storage locker. They’d packed up their rooms in the firehouse, and found new places to live and work, some not even in the state.
And now it was time to say goodbye.
It was an awkward goodbye for some of them, Erin and Jillian, particularly. They’d finally risen to the occasion and admitted their feelings for each other and they had been dating for the past six months. But now that the Ghostbusters were over, Erin had found someplace new to work. In Massachusetts. At Harvard. Without Holtz.
“Holtz? Can we talk?” Erin said with a light knock on Holtz’s (and mostly her own, now) bedroom door. Things had been tense around the HQ since the news from the mayor, and Erin had yet to tell Holtz about the new position as a professor of particle physics at Harvard. Holtz, on the other hand, was not making a large move; she was only going to the other side of the city to work for her mentor, Rebecca Gorin, who was head of the science department at a New York public school (she had grown tired of teaching at the college level after so many years) that needed more teachers. Holtz thought she would be good at teaching kids since she basically was one, and Rebecca easily got her the job.
“Yeah, sure. Come in, babe.” replied Holtz, cherishing being able to call the brunette pet names before their relationship was shattered in pieces on her bedroom floor. Of course, she didn’t know exactly what Erin was going to say and where she was going to go, but the other woman had been so secretive this week and had barely kissed her girlfriend, that Holtz knew what was coming.
Erin slowly crossed the room and perched on the edge of the bed. Jillian was curled up at the near the pillows, almost waiting to be crushed and it broke Erin’s heart.
“Jill, Harvard offered me a job. And I took it. Please don’t be mad.”
‘Mad’ wasn’t the correct word to describe Holtzmann at that moment. ‘Broken’ was a more suitable choice. Holtz didn’t even reply to Erin’s admission. She just blinked and a single tear rolled slowly down her cheek.
“It’s not that I don’t love y—” Erin started.
“Don’t” Holtz cut her off harshly, sitting up. Her voice softened. “I don’t think I can take a beautiful let-down speech right now. I think you should just go.”
Erin bit her lip. She didn’t want to break up. Harvard was only about five hours away from the city, and they could’ve made it work. She almost said something, but it seemed like Holtz was pretty adamant that they were breaking up.
A moment later, Erin nodded, stood, and made her way from the room, not daring to let herself glance back.
The two had been amicable for the past week or so, as everyone had been making arrangements and cleaning up the old workspace, but they hadn’t shared a personal moment or spoken about their relationship since that night.
Holtz had been spending a lot of her time with Patty, who was moving to California to pursue a master’s degree in history at UCLA—she wasn’t sure exactly what time period yet. The team had questioned why she wanted to be so far away, and as Patty had put it, “I’m tired of all the damn snow.”
They all knew that wasn’t completely the truth. Everyone was reacting to the heart-wrenching news in a different way. Holtz couldn’t bear to leave New York, since it was all she’d ever known, Erin threw herself right back into what she had always been at least reasonably good at, Patty was getting as far away as she could from the sadness, and Abby, well no one was quite sure what Abby was going to do.
While everyone else was making plans to move on, at least in theory, Abby was just sitting at the kitchen table and staring sadly at a proton pack. This team, this research, this job had been her life. Her whole life, pretty much since she’d gotten her doctorate. She had convinced herself that she wasn’t good at anything else. As far as the others could tell, she seemed to be spiraling into a depression, and they didn’t know what to do about it.
It hurt Erin to watch her best friend fall apart like this, but she couldn’t stay here, just to help her.
She was afraid it she did, she would crumble as well. But she was determined not to abandon her friend for good.
The ladies were standing in an awkward circle outside the firehouse with their luggage. Patty checked her cell phone: 4:14. Her flight was scheduled to leave JFK at 6:30.
“I’ve got to go, you guys,” she said and everybody started crying again.
Abby was first to throw her arms around Patty. “I’m going to miss you so much,” she said into Patty’s torso.
“You too, Abs. Promise you’ll call when you’re all settled in your new place?”
“Promise. As long as you call when you get to California.”
“Deal. C’mere Erin,” Patty said, letting go of Abby and beckoning Erin toward her. “I’ll miss you, ya crazy pile of tweed.”
“Hey!” Erin laughed through her tears. “I haven’t worn tweed in at least a week. I’m going to miss you Patty. Good luck in LA.”
Lastly, Patty wrapped Holtz up in a big bear hug. Apparently, they’d already said everything that needed to be said, so they just hugged and cried quietly for a minute before Patty pulled away, saying that she had to go.
“Goodbye, you guys. Thank you for the best, and weirdest, two years of my life. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love you guys.”
The other ladies chorused back their love for their historian and waved goodbye as she got into her cab.
Erin was next, as her new car was parked outside the firehouse, all loaded up for her new life. Faced with having to say goodbye to her ex-girlfriend, Holtzmann practically curled into herself.
Erin’s tears started for the third time that day, and she decided she needed to get the hell out of there. She pulled Abby in for a tight hug. “I promise, I’m only a phone call away, if you ever need me for anything, Abby. I mean it. I won’t let you out of my life a second time. You’re my best friend, okay?”
Abby almost bitterly said that this felt just like the last time Erin had left, but instead she just hugged the taller woman back and returned the sentiments. “Call me if Harvard gets too boring.”
Erin nodded with a half-smile, and turned to say goodbye to Holtz, but found she was nowhere in sight.
“She must’ve gone back inside,” reasoned Abby. “I could go see?”
Erin shook her head, holding back a sob. “No, she clearly doesn’t want to see me. Tell her I love, will you?”
This time, Abby’s mouth moved faster than her filter and her bitterness showed. “If you loved her, if you loved us, you wouldn’t be leaving, would you?”
“That’s not fair!” Erin shouted. “I love you both so much.”
“Have a safe trip, Erin,” said Abby, and she turned around and walked back in to the firehouse, to collect Holtz and get her to her new home.
Abby made it to the second floor of the fire station in time to see Erin drive off. She then spotted Holtz in the corner fiddling with two little pieces of metal. Sliding down the wall to crouch next to the blonde, Abby spoke. “Come on, we gotta get you to that new apartment. Dr. Gorin’s going to be expecting you to be in tip-top shape for tomorrow’s classes.”
“Does any of it really matter?” asked Holtz, not looking up from her metal.
Abby bit the inside of her cheek. Holtz had just uttered her own sentiments. Precisely why she hadn’t bothered to find a new job. None of it mattered. They weren’t allowed to do the very thing the all loved, and by default, they now were being separated. Why should she even try?
With a sudden rush of will-power, the brunette snapped herself out of her self-pity. She might have lost all motivation in the world, but Holtz was going to inspire a room full of young minds the next day, and Abby wasn’t going to stand in the way of that.
“Yes Holtzmann, it does matter, because those kids need someone the way you needed Dr. Gorin. Someone to inspire them to be their best selves. So let’s get our asses off this floor, and we’ll go unpack stuff at your new apartment. Cool?”
Holtz grunted, but pushed herself off the floor and followed Abby down the stairs, out the door of their former home, and into a cab, leaving behind the best chapter of her life.