Okay, I know I promised fluff after the angst and pain of my last fic, but this story sprang into my head almost fully formed and refused to go away until I got the whole thing out. Also, this time I promise it's a complete happy ending, none of my previous "relatively happy all things considered". We're just going to have to go through an intense ride to get there.
Abby had to admit her teenage self would have been absolutely amazed to know that as a grown-up, searching for a ghost in a haunted mansion would just be part of her daily routine. Not surprised—there had never been any other dream or aspiration she saw herself fulfilling—but delighted that life actually went her way and validated everything she had worked and hoped for. And getting to do so with Erin and two more kindred spirits she loved like family? Oh, teenage Abby would have been practically vibrating with excitement.
Granted, after more than fifty busts, it didn't have quite the same novelty and excitement as the first dozen or so, but Abby never found it boring. Sometimes cold, often uncomfortable and exhausting, but how could she ever get tired of actually witnessing the paranormal, and then getting to blast it with beams of ionized energy and take it home to study?
"Hey, Er. Dare me to lick this candleholder?"
"Ew! Holtz, why would I want you to lick that thing?"
Nope, never boring.
"Come on," Holtzmann goaded, twirling the metal candlestick between her fingers as the others scoped out the large, extravagant dining room. "You know you're curious if it's cold enough in here for my tongue to stick to it."
"Is it cold enough in here for your lips to stick shut so you focus on looking for this damn ghost?" Patty shot back. She had made it clear she was not happy about the lack of a functional heater in the house from the moment they walked into the building. Winter busts were proving more challenging than those in milder weather and made tensions run higher than usual.
"Much as I want to see that, Patty's right," Abby intervened before Holtzmann teased her back, not particularly concerned a short-tempered barb would actually sincerely hurt Holtz's feelings. "We've got a lot of ground to cover and it's only gonna get colder as the sun goes down."
It should be a fairly simple bust once they encountered the entity. The current owner of the mansion had described relatively minor phenomena going on since they had purchased the place and started renovating—odd sightings of something glowing in dark rooms of the house, noises in the night, people waking out of a sound sleep, terrified, but no real poltergeist activity or property damage. Couldn't be higher than a Type 2 haunting, easy as pie. But they still had to find the little bugger first.
"I wish the client could have been a little more specific," Erin commented, peering into the arched edges of the ceiling. "If he found our website, then he could easily have gone through our sighting identification guide."
"Girl, you know don't nobody read stuff before just calling to complain," Patty snorted.
"I'm just saying, a more educated public would make it easier for us to plan for what to expect on a bust."
"I'm still more than happy to do presentations at elementary schools," Holtzmann said, pushing a cabinet door open with the muzzle of her proton wand. "Bring a ghost or two to show off, let 'em make their own trap to take home."
"You're never too young to start educating people," Abby agreed.
"I'm not sure the principals would feel the same way," Patty said.
"Or the parents."
Erin and Patty both jumped a foot when there was a slam behind them, proton wands swinging toward the sound, only to veer away at the last second when they discovered Holtzmann standing beside the now closed cabinet, eyebrows arched at them.
"Jesus, Holtz," Erin breathed, lowering her weapon.
"You both are incredibly tense, you know that?" Holtz said calmly. "You should try some yoga, or maybe primal scream therapy. Works for me."
"You're gonna hear some screaming all right if you scare us like that again," Patty snapped.
"In my defense it wasn't intentional. These hinges have more life to them than I expected." She nudged the door again, demonstrating how easily they moved. "Hey, think maybe they could be haunted too?"
"You know," Abby interrupted, reading the mood of the room, "we've got so many places to look, why don't we split up? Erin and Patty, you can check the upstairs. Holtz, why don't we check the basement since the cold doesn't seem to be bothering you?"
"Y'all want to explore that dank old basement that's probably full of spiders and dead bodies, you go right ahead," Patty agreed.
"Abby, you know me so well," Holtz grinned, flicking her glasses down over her eyes. "Happy hunting, ladies! Call if you find something fun. Or scandalous."
As the pair descended the stone staircase to the somewhat less fancy-looking basement, Abby knew giving everybody a break had been a good choice. As much as the team all loved each other, they had been working nearly every day for the last month without much downtime and the snowy weather meant being cooped up inside a lot. Even the best of friends could get a bit stir crazy in close quarters for that long.
And honestly, she had to admit she was looking forward to patrolling with Holtzmann. They hadn't had a lot of one-on-one time since the team formed up officially and while she was ecstatic to have Erin back and to have had Patty join them, Abby had fond memories of the years at Higgins working as a duo.
She was so caught up in her musings she almost slipped, her foot skidding on an icy step. Holtzmann caught the back of her jumpsuit, steadying her before she truly lost her balance.
"Careful," Holtz said, gesturing to the scattered ice patches on the stone steps. "Looks like they've got a bit of a leak going on. Apparently money doesn't buy watertight sealant."
"Thanks, Holtz. Last thing I need's a twisted ankle while fighting a ghost."
They picked their way carefully down the rest of the stairs, proton wands aiming around the room. It was as large as would be expected to match a house of this size and decked out as a gentleman's game room, complete with pool table, plush leather chairs, and hanging neon signs.
"Money doesn't buy taste either," Abby commented.
"I don't know, I could see putting together something like this in the basement of the firehouse. See which of us actually know how to play pool. I'm thinking Patty's a hustler, what d'ya think?" Holtzmann asked, wrinkling her nose.
"I don't know, somehow you're the one I trust least with geometry-based sports," Abby said, scanning the bar area.
"Eh, I'm more of a ping-pong girl. Hey, what happened over here? Somebody mad about a bad hand of poker?" Holtzmann asked, gesturing toward a half-demolished wall.
"Oh, the owner said he was working on trying to extend that side of the basement to put in a wine cellar," Abby said. "Part of the overall renovations that seem to be ticking off this ghost."
"Nice." Holtz's eyes lit up, taking on an eerie expression as she crept toward the cavernous opening it revealed. "What if he stumbled on some kind of Cask of Amontillado situation down here? Body buried in the walls? You know somebody this wealthy has more than one kind of skeleton in the closets."
"Maybe." Abby frowned at the opening, considering. "Why don't you check that out while I'm scanning over here? See if you find anything."
"On it!" Holtzmann said with a little salute, carefully shouldering her proton wand so she could squeeze into the revealed crawlspace.
Abby resumed her scan of the room, holding the PKE meter near a taxidermy rhinoceros head. They hadn't had a bust that required them to remove animal ghosts from a property, but experience had proven they were possible. Abby was just waiting for the day they had to clear something fascinating out of the American Museum of Natural History. She hoped it was a dinosaur ghost.
"Not seeing too much back here," Holtzmann called.
"Well, it was a good thought anyway." Abby smiled as she passed the scanner over the pool table. "Hey, remember when we were doing that observation at the Chelsea Hotel and you found your way into the ventilation shafts?"
"Oh yeah. That honeymooning couple didn't appreciate my commentary. But hey, if you're not gonna do it right, why do it, huh?"
"I was thinking more of the maid you nearly fell on when you found your way out. I don't think she was too happy cleaning up all that plaster and dirt."
"Yeah, not my proudest dismount. But I helped repair a bunch of stuff around the hotel and cleaned a few rooms with her, so I think she forgave us."
Abby paused, looking back at the hole Holtzmann had disappeared into. "When did you do that?"
"During the daytime, while you were sleeping. I don't sleep that much anyway so…" Abby could infer she shrugged.
"Huh." Abby felt a warm little spot of pride in her chest, similar to when she had found Holtzmann building a guitar in her lab for the rock band member's she had smashed. Holtz was prone to a lot of impulsive behavior, but she had a knack for trying to make up for things once she figured out she had actually inconvenienced someone. Up to and including gifting a newly refurbished hearse to Patty's Uncle a few months back. "That's nice of you, Holtz."
"Eh, cleaning staff aren't paid enough for what they put up with on a good day. Hey, I may have found something."
"Oh yeah?" Abby asked, turning around.
Holtzmann leaned around the remaining section of wall, holding up a tiny skull. "But if this was a person bricked into the wall, he was also transformed into a rat."
"Probably not the cause of our haunting," Abby said, turning her attention back to the lounge area.
They both looked up as they heard the crack of proton streams in the distance.
"Sounds like the girls might have found something."
"I'll check it out," Holtzmann said, heading up the stairs. "Hey, bet I can scare at least one of them if I put this skull on their shoulder."
Abby chuckled, shaking her head. "You know you're just asking to get shot one of these days."
"Not a chance. My babies know me." She patted her proton wand affectionately as she climbed the stairs. "Oh, Erin…"
Abby just sighed, scanning a fake suit of armor—cheap tin, not even real steel—and waiting to hear Erin or Patty yelling at Holtzmann. The sound of proton wands and running footsteps came closer, though, and she looked up, reaching for her own weapon as she got ready.
Then blue light shot through the basement door above her head. She was angled so she couldn't see more than the banister of the stairs and a limited sliver above that, so she didn't directly see what happened next, but the pieces came together in her mind with instant clarity.
Holtzmann ascending the stairs. The ghost blazing in the opposite direction. Holtz's yelp of surprise. The icy patches on the stone steps. A tumble of motion, heard more than seen as Abby could barely process it in time. The clatter of metal.
And then, the crash of a body making impact and the solid crack of what Abby knew instantly and viscerally was a human skull smacking concrete.
"Holtz?!" she called, pocketing the PKE meter and rushing over. Even before she rounded the end of the stairs, she knew it was going to be bad.
Although she didn't get a response, she still hoped she would find Holtz extracting herself from where she had fallen, rubbing a bump on her head and grimacing sheepishly. Instead, Abby's heart froze as she saw Holtzmann sprawled on her back across the bottom stretch of stairs, head resting on the floor. The trajectory of the impact and forces involved as her body's momentum had halted violently played out in Abby's mind unbidden.
"Yo, it went this way!" Patty swung around the corner at the top of the stairs, freezing in her tracks when she saw Holtzmann. "Oh my god."
Abby still stood a short distance away from the base of the stairs, eyes locked on Holtz. "She was going up. The ghost came the other way. Must've knocked her backward."
"Guys, did you get it?" Erin called, nearly running into Patty's back. She peered around Patty and her eyes flew wide, hand coming up to her mouth. "Holtz?"
"Girl, please tell me she's playing," Patty said, voice shaky. "Holtz, this ain't cool. You scared us, okay? Prank's over."
Abby shook her head, kneeling down by Holtzmann's head. "She's not messing with us. Shit." She shrugged off her pack. "I'm…I'm going to check if she's breathing."
"Did you see where the ghost went?" Erin asked.
"No. I was over there under the stairs. It was gone when I got over here."
"We'll cover you," Patty said, swinging her proton wand toward the shadowed corners of the basement. "Go ahead and check on her."
Abby swallowed. "Okay."
She took in the scene nervously. To her relief there was no pool of blood around Holtzmann's head. She didn't like the angle of Holtz's neck or back where she had landed though. Abby was scared just touching her could make things worse, but made herself reach out and carefully press two fingers against Holtzmann's arched throat.
"Well?" Erin asked.
Abby waved a hand to shush them, closing her eyes. It took a moment of focusing to tune out her own racing heart and hone in on the subtle pulse pressing back against her fingertips. She breathed out a huff of relief, noticing from this vantage point the labored movement of Holtz's chest as well.
"She's alive."
"Thank you, Jesus," Patty breathed.
"I'm gonna call an ambulance, yes?" Erin said, managing to stay on a level of urgency instead of panic. "Upstairs. Better reception."
"Yeah, go ahead, baby, I got this," Patty said, wand still trained on the room even though her attention was mostly at the base of the stairs.
As Erin rushed back upstairs to call for help, Abby remained kneeling by Holtzmann's head. She wanted to move her into a more comfortable position but knew better. That kind of impact, the abrupt jerk as her pack snagged on the steps and her head whipped back—Abby closed her eyes against a twinge of vertigo as the sound replayed in her memory again. Yeah, no way she got out of this without neck or back injuries. Moving her was too big a risk.
"She's gonna be okay, all right?" Patty said from above, even though her voice was as unsteady as Abby's.
"Yeah. She'll be okay." Suddenly a new thought leapt through Abby's mind. "Shit! Her pack!"
Patty frowned at her. "Uh, yeah, pretty sure that thing's toast."
"It's also full of radioactive material and explosives," Abby pointed out, digging a diagnostic tool out of her pocket. "If it destabilized or cracked when she landed…"
"Oh damn," Patty groaned.
"Yeah." Abby crawled around to Holtz's side, lying down on the steps and wedging herself in the limited space between Holtz's body and the wall.
"Don't move her! That fall probably messed up her neck something nasty."
"I won't. Just gotta…" Abby pulled out a penlight and held it with one hand while she tried to get to where she could see either of the display screens, try to get a sense how it was cycling. "Okay, looks like it shut off, so that's good. I can't check for microscopic leaks or cracks, but radiation levels are pretty normal around it. Gonna disconnect a few things just to make sure…" She flipped a few of the switches on the side of the pack, making sure even if something was leaking, it couldn't trigger a cascade or meltdown.
"So it's not gonna blow up?" Patty asked.
"It shouldn't. I think it's stable enough, but I can only see a bit from here." Holtz would know, she mused. She knew her babies so well she could tell when a wire needed replacing because the vibrations were off. God, she was going to be upset when she saw how damaged the pack was.
If she saw.
She shut out that thought, grateful for the distraction as Erin came back down the stairs. "Ambulance is on its way. They said about fifteen minutes. Has she woken up or anything?"
"No, nothing changed since you left." Patty let her arm rest by lowering the proton wand. "On the plus side, the ghost hasn't made a comeback either."
"Maybe since we're distracted and stopped chasing it it got what it wanted," Abby speculated, sitting up. She kind of wished it would show its face again. After what it did to Holtzmann, she would relish getting to blast that thing into oblivion.
"Well I think the owner will understand if we take care of Holtz and then come back to finish the job later," Erin said.
"Damn right." Patty shifted to sit down on the steps above Holtzmann. "If it comes back we'll bag it, but I'm not chasing that thing around while we're one down. We can make a special trip back and let Holtzy zap it herself, right girl?" Patty said to their unconscious friend.
None of them expected a response, but it felt a little better to at least include her as if she would.
"That's right. We're not done with you, ghost!" Erin called into the basement. "And Holtz is not going to be happy when she wakes up!"
"Erin, I'm with you, one hundred percent," Abby said, "but not sure the best time to antagonize the ghost is when we're stuck down here and distracted."
"True. But that ghost tries anything else with us right now, it's now got three angry people to get through," Patty said, resting her proton wand in her lap.
Erin settled in to sit on the stairs next to her. Unable to join them around Holtz's sprawled body, Abby rested her back against the basement wall, keeping her vigil by Holtz's head.
"She'll be okay," she murmured, as much to herself as the others. Hang in there, Holtz. You'll be okay.
It probably only was about fifteen to twenty minutes before the ambulance arrived, but the wait felt interminable. Part of Abby desperately hoped Holtzmann would wake up, but she knew it was safer if she didn't try to move. Probably kinder too if she got to sleep through the pain and confusion.
The arrival of the EMTs on the stairs snapped time back into fast motion. They gently directed Erin and Patty back upstairs, but since Abby was still stuck at the bottom, they asked her to move over into the main room of the basement as the young medics hopped over the banister to maneuver a flexible stretcher down to ground level.
Abby paced restlessly, staying out of the way, but still craned her neck to watch as much as she could see between the bustle of bodies. The care with which they extracted Holtzmann from her position on the stairs and strapped her into the immobilizing stretcher reinforced her fears of a neck or spinal injury. What if the fall had paralyzed her? Abby knew immediately they would take care of her no matter what and Holtz would probably design a kickass wheelchair for herself, but it would still change their lives. What if she was completely paralyzed from the neck down and couldn't build anymore, or even speak? What if she didn't make it at all?
"Ma'am?"
Abby jumped.
One of the EMTs was in front of her, very cautiously holding out Holtzmann's dented proton pack by the straps. "I wasn't sure if this needed any kind of disarming or anything like that."
"Oh. No, it's…it's stable. Thanks." Abby accepted it, feeling an odd emotion and protectiveness as she gripped the heavy metal device. She could almost feel Holtz's touch in every weld and piece, even though they were as damaged and inert as their builder.
"We've got her braced for transport," the EMT said. "I'll give you the address for the hospital we're taking her to so you can head over there."
"Thank you," Abby managed, trying to see Holtz, who was now swaddled in the stretcher. "Is she going to be okay?"
"I can't give you any diagnoses," he said apologetically. "You'll have to wait for a doctor to let you know after they've looked her over. I'm sorry."
"Okay. Right."
Despite the weight of her own gear, Abby clutched Holtz's proton pack against her chest as she watched them carry her up the stairs, finally free to leave the heavy atmosphere of the basement and rejoin her teammates.
Patty and Erin jumped up from a bench in the hallway, looking shaken to see how Holtzmann was being moved.
"Oh god," Erin murmured.
Abby just nodded, standing with them as they watched the EMTs carry her out and away for treatment.
Patty's arms wrapped around their shoulders, pulling them closer. "She's gonna be okay."
"Yeah," Abby nodded, choosing to believe it.
Erin leaned into Patty's side, threading an arm around her back to squeeze Abby's arm. After a moment, she said, "You know when she wakes up she's going to be disappointed nobody filmed her fall."
Despite everything, Abby gave a bitter chuckle. "As long as she doesn't try to recreate it, she can pout all she wants."
What she wouldn't give for it to be tomorrow and for them all to be looking back on this and goofing around.
"Come on," she said, gently pushing out of Patty's embrace. "Let's clean up and get going."
OOO
Loading into the Ecto-1 always felt weird when they were one short. Usually it was because of a sick day or mild injury, but this was different. All three of them felt in a bit of a haze. There was a moment of confusion when each automatically headed for their usual seats, only to realize they needed to decide who would drive. Ultimately, Patty offered to, glad for something to occupy her mind. Abby settled into the passenger seat, resting her head against the side window. The lights and bustle of the city made a background blur of color her eyes could pass over, unfocused, as they made their way to the hospital, her mind an unsettled haze of worry.
Rather than answers, arriving at the emergency room just meant more waiting in a new location. They managed to park in the garage, assured the car would be secure, then were directed to a waiting area where they at least had the distraction of filling out paperwork before being left alone with their thoughts and overactive imaginations.
Abby had certainly been to hospitals with Holtzmann before over their years as coworkers, but that had always been for burns or cuts, where she got to stay in the room joking with Holtzmann as she got stitched or bandaged. Ever since starting the Ghostbusters, they had had sprains and bruises and, yes, more burns and cuts, but no injuries serious enough to need surgery. Abby had to conclude she didn't like this version of an ER visit. Maybe she should go demand information from the employee at the check-in desk again.
"Hey, we're getting some attention," Patty said quietly, nudging Erin's arm and nodding across the room.
Abby followed her gaze and saw the people sneaking glances their way and whispering to each other. She could almost hear them doing a headcount, figuring out who was missing, and wondering why. The rumor mills would be in motion in no time on social media, speculating on Holtzmann's condition.
"We should've left our jumpsuits in the car," Erin said.
"If they ask for an autograph right now, I might have to smack a bitch," Patty grumbled.
"They already know I'll punch someone. Hopefully they'll leave us alone," Erin agreed.
"I know if I was in a waiting room with somebody kind of famous, I'd be more worried about my own relatives to bother them," Abby said loud enough to be a pointed comment at the nosier of the onlookers.
"It's okay," Erin said softly, patting her arm. "Save our energy, right?"
Abby leaned back in her chair, still cranky. "Yeah."
A nurse walked over, gesturing for their attention. "Ladies? If you don't mind, we have another waiting room to have you move to."
"Oh, it's okay," Abby said. "We can handle unwanted attention."
"Actually, we have a lot of new patients coming in and since you're going to be here a while, we have other waiting rooms for family and friends of inpatients."
That knocked the remaining wind out of their sails.
"Oh. Okay." Abby and the others got up and followed her out of the room.
They got on an elevator in awkward silence. When the door opened and Abby saw signs for the ICU, she swallowed hard. This probably wasn't going to just be an overnight stay.
A few other groups of people were scattered around the waiting room. Heads popped up when they walked in, then immediately lowered again with disinterest or, at most, mild confusion. Apparently being a Ghostbuster was far less interesting here than a doctor with news on their loved ones.
The team settled into a group of chairs near one wall, speaking only softly so as not to disrespect the somber atmosphere. Patty went to the little refreshment table and came back with a cup of coffee for each of them. Abby accepted hers, even though she didn't feel like drinking it. The expressions of the other relatives were making her fears worse; the same worried, impatient helplessness amplified in each face.
Time passed even slower in the quiet hush. Every time a staff member entered, everyone sat up expectantly, then slumped back if it wasn't for them.
Abby wasn't sure how long they sat there, but her coffee was cold on the table and she had started drifting into a stressful doze when Erin nudged her arm. She jerked awake, seeing a doctor approaching with a nurse at his side.
"Family of Jillian Holtzmann?"
"Yes, that's us," Erin said, standing to meet him. Abby was slightly pleased no one was arguing with their connection to Holtz.
"I'm Dr. Sieber," he said, extending a hand to shake each of theirs. "I'm the primary specialist handling Ms. Holtzmann's recovery."
"So she's still alive?" Patty asked.
"She made it through the initial surgery and exams, yes. It looks like the majority of the damage from her fall is concentrated to her head, neck, and back. She has some broken ribs and a bruised kidney from where I understand she landed on her backpack?"
"Proton pack," Abby corrected automatically, earning an incredulous look from Patty.
"Proton pack," the doctor amended, unbothered. "On the plus side, the bracing of the pack actually protected her spine from worse damage, so we think she avoided permanent thoracic or lumbar injury."
"Well, that's good," Patty sighed.
"But…?" Erin prodded.
"Unfortunately, her head and neck weren't so lucky," he confirmed. "The back of her skull has an impact fracture and her brain took a hard shake. There's significant swelling around her brain, but the fracture is allowing it some room to expand, relieving a bit of the pressure so we most likely won't need to temporarily remove a section of her skull."
The drastic imagery of that last statement barely registered with Abby. Brain swelling. Oh god.
"She doesn't appear to have broken any of the bones in her neck," Sieber continued, "but the impact of the landing did cause her neck to whip backward sharply and we're seeing additional swelling there as well. On the ride over and as we were doing her exams, the swelling did become severe enough it is pressing on her brainstem." He touched the back of his head, indicating where the brain and spinal cord met. "Since the brainstem controls a lot of things like breathing and heartrate, we had to put her on temporary life support until the swelling goes down."
"Life support?" Erin breathed. Abby's knees felt weak.
"But the swelling will go down, right?" Patty pressed.
"We expect it to, yes. We're giving her anti-inflammatories to help the process along and monitoring her progress over the coming days to make sure the tissue's healing. Once the swelling's subsided, then we can assess whether there's been any permanent brain or nerve damage."
Any slight relief Abby felt from his first assurance chilled with the second. She knew it was a risk—you didn't take a fall that bad and walk away with no side effects at all—but she had been really hoping Holtz's bizarre luck would carry her through again.
"I know this is a lot to take in," Sieber said kindly, confirming Abby's suspicion that the others looked as shaken as she did. "And I wish I had more concrete answers for you, but we're at a wait-and-see stage now. Our team is giving her the best care we have and are ready to guide her recovery however we need to proceed. For now, we just need to let her body rest and do its job."
"Can we see her?" Erin asked shakily.
"Of course. They're getting her set up in an observation room now and a nurse will let you know when it's clear to go in. We do have her in a medically induced coma to help her brain heal, but once the swelling's eased, we'll try letting her wake up."
The girls nodded, not sure what else to say.
"Okay. I'm going to turn you over to Alyssa here," he gestured to the nurse, "but I'll be involved throughout Ms. Holtzmann's care, so if you have any concerns, feel free to ask."
Oh, Abby had more concerns than she could voice, but she nodded again and murmured a goodbye as the doctor left.
The nurse stepped forward, holding a clipboard. "We'll give you all a chance to take a break, walk around if you want while we get your friend situated, but I just wanted to confirm a couple things. Dr. Yates?"
Abby jumped slightly. "Oh. That's me, yeah."
"You're aware that you're listed as Dr. Holtzmann's emergency contact, yes?"
"Yeah." That had certainly come into play throughout their years of friendship, yes.
"And are you familiar with your responsibilities as her power of attorney?"
Patty sucked in a little gasp.
Abby laughed a bit mirthlessly. "I don't think Holtzmann's going to be suing anybody over this, much less need me to act as an attorney."
"Power of attorney refers to your ability to give approval on any treatment choices that need to be made during the course of her care," Alyssa explained without condescension. "Since she's in no condition to be able to give consent herself, she's entrusted you to make those decisions on her behalf."
"Oh." Abby hadn't realized she still had room left to be stunned, but there you go.
"Hopefully we won't need to ask you too much, but we may consult you before adding a treatment or have you sign off on medications. That sort of thing."
"Yeah. Whatever she needs, go for it," Abby waved her hand.
"For now, give us a few minutes and when your friend's ready we'll come get you, okay?"
Abby was too in her head to muster a reply.
"Yeah, thank you guys," Patty said for her.
The nurse gave a sympathetic smile and walked off.
Abby sank into a chair, a weird haze settling over the world.
Patty blew out a breath, pacing away a bit. "Damn."
"She'll be okay," Abby said, as if just saying it could make sure that reality came to pass.
"Yeah," Erin agreed shakily, easing into the chair beside her. "It's Holtz. She's gonna be fine."
"Probably gonna freak out the doctors by sitting up all 'a sudden right in the middle of a scan or something," Patty added.
Their words were hollow hope, prayer masked as humor, optimism to defy the fear. Like a flashlight in a haunted house.
There was another little stretch of waiting, shorter than the previous ones, then a different nurse came over and gestured for them to come with him. They were led to a room that had a series of smaller rooms with glass walls radiating off the central area. Each room contained a bed with a patient in it. Abby peered around, but couldn't spot Holtzmann right away.
"This is the nurse's station," the young man said, stopping at the round desk area. "We have rotating shifts of attending staff twenty-four hours a day. We just need you to sign in here whenever you visit."
He waited as the three robotically signed the sheet. "And Ms. Holtzmann's room is right over here," he said, leading them to one of the bays.
For a second, Abby thought they had been brought to the wrong room, nearly stepping back out awkwardly. Then the recognition clicked. They had taken Holtz's hair down. It made sense since they had to check for head injuries, but it was still jarring seeing her out of her signature look.
But Abby only had a moment to register that before the rest of the situation set in. A plastic breathing tube was attached into Holtzmann's mouth with medical tape, the thick tube leading to a machine beside the bed. It hissed in sync with the movement of Holtz's chest, weirdly consistent as it made her lungs inflate in a mechanical rhythm. Her head and neck were stabilized with foam padding, preventing any accidental movement and hiding any visible signs of damage. There was no other bandaging, no blood or obvious bruising anywhere above the clean white sheets that covered everything else but her arms, with their trailing IVs. The majority of the damage was internal, which made the whole situation somehow more unsettling, Holtzmann looking basically okay, but so profoundly not fine at all.
The nurse stayed back to let them have time to themselves. None of them were sure exactly what to do in the small room.
"Can she hear us?" Erin asked.
"Right now, no. She's sedated in addition to the unconsciousness from her injuries. But once the medications and swelling are reduced, she might be able to. Still, there's no harm in talking to her now. There's speculation patients can tell when someone's with them even before they start coming out of comas."
Erin nodded.
Patty took the first step and moved closer to the bed. "Hey baby. I know you're not probably hearing much right now, but we're all here. You get some sleep and we'll be here when you wake up, okay? Just…rest up and…feel better, okay?"
She reached out, moving to run her hand over Holtzmann's head, but stopped, thinking better of it, and let her hand rest on Holtz's shoulder instead, where it probably wouldn't cause any more pain.
Abby took the chair near the head of the bed on the other side, Erin joining her in the next chair. Nothing felt quite real, the shock and exhaustion of the last few hours hitting Abby fully as everything caught up. Erin's hand wrapped around hers, providing at least one anchor of familiarity which she clung to with as much need as Erin clearly was seeking from her.
The room was filled with the steady hiss of the respirator and the unchanging pulse of the EKG, the only signs that Holtzmann was still with them despite her otherwise lifeless state. They settled into the uncomfortable chairs for a long night.
"She'll be okay."