I wasn't going to do another Abby and Holtzmann friendship fic soon. I have like six other Ghostbusters fics in progress (plus a post Civil War chapter of my "Sister in Arms" fic) that I should be working on. And yet when I saw some of the deleted scenes people are posting from the extended edition, Holtz's reaction to Erin's response to "We're dating" made me sad and I wound up doing this. I just love Abby being there for her not-quite-neurotypical friend.
The Ghostbusters stayed on the roof basking in the glow of the city's acknowledgment until the chill of the evening air started to set in and they remembered there were still things to be done inside. By the time they separated to head back downstairs, Holtzmann was close to her normal personality, but Abby had seen the tears that nearly overtook her as they stared out at the skyline. She couldn't help but wonder how much was due to the city's outpouring of affection and how much was from what had happened in the lab minutes before. Holtz didn't handle emotions easily at the best of times and she'd just had a bit of a roller coaster thrown at her, intentional or not. The embarrassed, over-exaggerated tone of her "Back to the drawing board" quip lingered in Abby's mind.
Erin and Patty returned to the first floor, chatting about printing out the pictures of the skyline they had taken on their phones and putting them up in the lobby. Dr. Gorin looked up as they returned, but seemed to notice Holtzmann's energy shift with a knowing expression Abby appreciated and said she would continue perusing the lab equipment on her own for a bit. Holtzmann herself said she had some toys that needed her attention and disappeared into the storage room at the back of the lab.
On a hunch, Abby followed her quietly.
Holtzmann was indeed calibrating a shelf of sensors as advertised when Abby peered in the room, but in a much more subdued mood than usual. No humming or dance moves to music playing in her head.
Assured there was nothing too explosive around, Abby leaned in the doorway. "How you doing?"
Holtzmann looked back, surprised, and flashed her a passable smile. "Good. Lab's shaping up real well. Should be able to work on even bigger stuff in here than our old place. And once we get another car, I've got some ideas for how to fit a proton catapult on the—"
"Holtz," Abby interrupted gently. "How are you doing? Got a little awkward down there for a moment."
Holtz's grin faltered and she focused on the PKE meter in her hand, adjusting a dial. "Yeah, sorry. I, uh, apparently jumped ahead in my assumptions a little bit again. Or misread the data I thought I'd been picking up." She shrugged, voice catching slightly. "Oh well, on to the next thing, huh?"
Abby watched her sadly as Holtzmann went back to unnecessarily tuning the already-calibrated sensors. To be honest, she was a bit confused too. Not long after they started the move to the firehouse, Holtz had changed slightly. Nothing dramatic, probably only noticeable to Abby who had known her day in and day out for the last few years, but she seemed a bit less desperate to entertain, maybe more focused in both work and social time. Her energy felt steadier. Like she was…content.
At first Abby just thought having the team and the stability of the firehouse and their job funding was making her feel more at home, but she noticed a certain increased familiarity in how Holtz interacted with Erin too. It could be the bonding of going through a life-threatening battle together, but there was something different about how she talked to Erin than to Patty or even Abby herself. Abby was still relearning Erin's tells after decades apart, but she knew how to read Holtzmann enough to recognize how the younger woman behaved when she was in a relationship, however short-lived her past ones had been. Honestly, Abby had just figured something had gone on after-hours between Erin and Holtzmann and one or the other of them would eventually slip and tell her in their own time, unless she or Patty walked in on them first.
But the way Erin reacted when Holtzmann said they were dating… As much as the woman was the queen of denial, she'd seemed genuinely surprised and confused at Holtz's assertion. So if she really didn't know…
A thought struck Abby.
"Holtz, don't take this the wrong way, but…you did remember to actually tell Erin how you feel in reality, right?"
Holtz frowned, the ectoplasm detector in her hands lowering as she gave it some genuine thought.
This was something Abby had caught on to within her first year of working with Holtzmann. Her brain ran so fast sometimes that it didn't always slow down enough to interface perfectly with the real world. Her gift for visualizing through an entire schematic before physically building it also gave her a tendency to play out conversations she was nervous about having in her mind as well. Unfortunately, she could imagine these scenarios in such detail she sometimes forgot to actually then do the activities in reality, especially if she was distracted with a lot of projects at once. With inventing, she typically figured out when she'd skipped a step or two because she could physically see what was missing—or if she didn't notice, the larger-than-expected poofs that resulted usually cued her in to what had happened. With social situations, these missing steps often just led to awkwardness or her appearing even weirder than she naturally was.
Holtzmann's tongue stretched out her cheek as she pondered the question. "Huh."
"Do you think maybe that was one of your head conversations?"
"It's a possibility." Holtzmann focused on her, head cocked. "Did the dinner on the roof lit only by blowtorches actually happen?"
"No, I'm pretty sure if it did, we would have gotten some calls about the fire on the roof," Abby said calmly.
"True," Holtzmann nodded. "Plus that ended with some spectacular naked time in the kitchen. This does explain why Patty isn't mad about what we did with her coffee mug."
She decided not to think about that. "Well, sounds like that could be an important factor to account for."
"Hm." Holtz's face suddenly split into a broad grin. "This is excellent!"
"It is?" Abby asked.
"Of course! It means I haven't actually tried any of those plans on Erin yet! So she has yet to prove immune to my full-intensity wooing!"
"Okay, that's good," Abby nodded, not sure what to think about that, but relieved Holtzmann was feeling better. "Just if you're going to go ahead with that, make sure you're really clear about what you're doing, 'cause as brilliant as Erin is, she still hasn't figured out Kevin's not interested." Or at least hadn't accepted it yet.
"Please." Holtz pulled her goggles back down over her eyes and grinned rakishly. "I don't know the meaning of the word 'subtle'."
"That I absolutely believe. Hey, come here." Abby pulled her in for a hug. "You know however this works out, we love you, right?"
"Yeah." Holtzmann hugged her back. "Love you too, Abby."
"Jillian," Dr. Gorin's voice called from the main lab. "What color is this diode array intended to be radiating?"
"Yellow would be ideal, red is marginal," Holtz called back, making Abby flinch from the yell in her ear.
"It currently appears to be a blue-violet."
"That's my cue." Holtzmann grinned. "Thanks for keeping me on track, Abs. If things work out, I'll name our first child after you."
Abby just waved as she left, shaking her head. Between Holtz's eccentric tendencies and Erin's residual hang-ups, this was probably a recipe for a lot of messes and miscommunications yet to come. But then, their entire career was built around dangerously explosive energies and highly unlikely phenomena, so if anyone could find their way to make something beautiful out of that, she believed Holtz and Erin could.
Either way, things were probably going to get very interesting in the coming weeks. She figured she probably ought to give Patty the heads-up in case she wanted to take advantage of her vacation time already. If Holtz's envisioned outcome of her rooftop dinner idea was any indication, subtlety was never going to have a place in any part of their relationship.
"It's a good thing I love both of you this much," Abby muttered as she made her way out of the lab, wondering if Patty would be game to start a pool on how long the courtship would last before Erin finally caught on and took the bait.