"Aunt Erin! Someone's knocking on the door!" The five-year-old brunette's girlish voice called from the couch in Erin Gilbert's living room.
"Coming!" Erin called back from the kitchen. She wiped her hands on the nearby dish towel and quickly made her way toward the front door, wondering who it could be. She wasn't expecting any visitors and she wasn't on call for ghostbusting tonight. She didn't have to wait long to find out the answer. As soon as Erin opened the door, she found Jillian Holtzmann leaning casually against the railing on the porch, holding a large flat box in one hand and a heavier-looking, more cubic box in the other.
"Holtzy! Hi!" Erin greeted her favorite engineer with a quick, tight hug.
"Hello, Erin," Holtzmann smiled widely at the other woman, but her gaze was quickly drawn downward. Her grin stayed in place but her head cocked to the side and her eyebrows raised with curiosity. "Hello small human who looks suspiciously like Erin."
Erin followed her line of sight and saw that Sophie had followed her and was currently peeking at Holtzmann with wide eyes from behind the door. Erin laughed and explained, "Oh! This is my niece, Sophie."
The tiny brunette smiled at Holtzmann and repeated, "I'm Sophie."
Holtzmann set her boxes on the porch and held out a gloved hand toward the tot. "Pleasure to meet you, miss Sophie."
Sophie walked out from behind the door and stood as tall as she could. She accepted Holtzmann's hand and giggled when the blonde bowed dramatically.
"I like your hair," Sophie said.
"Thanks. I grew it myself," Holtzmann deadpanned, earning her another giggle from the girl.
"I like your glasses, too," the child added, pointing to where the old school lab goggles were perched on top of the woman's head like a headband.
"Yeah? Here, take a pair. I always have a spare." Holtzmann pulled an almost identical pair of her favorite brand of yellow-tinted lab goggles out of a pocket of her khaki cargo shorts and offered them to Sophie. The child's eyes widened in wonderment as if Holtzmann had magicked the accessory from thin air. Erin laughed. Of course Holtzmann carried spares; this was the same woman who was notorious for wearing gloves under her gloves and glasses under her goggles.
"What do you say, Sophie?" Erin asked her niece.
"Thank you, uh… What's your name?"
Erin visibly cringed at the tot's tactlessness. Holtzmann chuckled and replied, "Holtzmann. You can call me Holtzy if you want."
"That's a funny kind of name," Sophie remarked innocently.
"I'm a funny kind of lady," Holtzmann countered easily.
The tot nodded in agreement. "Thank you for the pretty glasses, Holtzmann."
"You're welcome, kiddo," the blonde replied as the child ran back into the house clutching her new prize, almost bowling Erin over as a result.
Erin recovered quickly and smiled warmly at Holtzmann. "You're kind of amazing, you know that? She's usually pretty shy around new people."
Holtzmann blushed at the compliment and grinned for a moment. "Yeah? She's a real cutie. Looks a lot like you." She winked at Erin, but then the corners of the engineer's smile turned downward nervously. "Hey, if you guys are doing the family thing I totally understand. I don't wanna intrude. I just thought maybe since we both had tonight off we could do a movie night or something but it can wait."
Holtzmann moved to pick up her boxes, as if she were preparing to leave, but Erin grabbed one of the blonde's wrists. "I don't want you to leave," she said earnestly. "If you're okay with Sophie being here, I'd really like you to stay."
Holtzmann shrugged her arm from Erin's loose grasp and wordlessly picked up her boxes. Erin immediately felt heat rising in her cheeks at the thought of Holtzmann leaving so quickly. Holtzmann stared directly into Erin's eyes, her expression unreadable.
"Okay," the engineer said. After several awkward moments of silence she added. "So, uh, can I come in?"