"Okay, who the hell left this bowl full of molasses in the sink, half rinsed?" Abby called out in annoyance as she lifted a ceramic bowl out of the sink basin, pinching it between two fingers and holding it at arm's length.

She looked across the room at Erin, who was sitting in a booth with today's newspaper, which featured reader-submitted images of ghosts on the cover with the headline, "Ghosts: Real or Fake?" Erin shook her head.

"Wasn't me." Patty said from the couch, without even having to be asked.

Abby turned to Holtzmann, who stood behind the lab counter covered in gear and gadgets. Holtzmann, holding a screwdriver between her teeth, raised her hand straight up, not even trying to deny guilt. After setting something into place and taking the screwdriver from her mouth, she said, "Not molasses. Points for creativity."

Abby turned the bowl back to herself so she could look at the black goo dripping out of it. "Then what is it?"

"You're probably better off not knowing."

Abby dropped the bowl back into the sink quickly.

Kevin walked in from the other room, where he had been (supposedly) taking phone calls. "Hey, guys." He greeted with a smile. He walked past Abby and the sink basin. "Ooh, molasses." He dipped a finger in and raised it to his mouth.

"No no!" Abby and Erin shouted, lunging for him.

Holtzmann cringed and gave a small "ewh" as if it were already too late.

"That's not molasses." Erin said.

"Oh. Okay." Kevin shrugged and wiped his finger off on the curtain, which unfortunately hung right next to the towel rack.

Erin cringed again, knowing she was probably going to be the one who had to wash it.

"You were gonna just eat molasses?" Abby questioned in a near whisper.

Kevin nodded. "I heard it's great for koalas."

Abby and Erin shared a weird glance.

"Did-" Erin started, but was interrupted by Holtzmann starting a power drill.

Once the drill sound died down, Erin began again, "Did anyone c-"

Holtzmann started the drill again, completely unaware.

Erin gave up and shouted over her, "Did anyone call?"

"Yes, um, one person said he's coming here to be interviewed for a job." Kevin said, pleased with himself for remembering.

"A job here?" Erin asked.

"Yep."

"We're not hiring." Abby said.

"You never said that."

"When is he coming?"

"Today."

"Today?!"

"…Yes."

"When did he call?"

"Last week."

"Why didn't you tell us!"

"You asked who called! You didn't ask who called today." Kevin got a little defensive.

Erin looked at Abby and sighed. "We'll just have to turn him away at the door. We have no more room for anyone on the team."

Abby agreed. "What time is he coming here?"

"Oh, he's here."

"What?"

"He's waiting in the lobby."

"Alright…" Abby said, turning to Erin. "You wanna be the one to reject him or you want me to do it?"

"Oh… you know… you can do it." Erin shied away.

Abby walked around the corner to the lobby and Erin tip-toed behind her, wanting a peek at the guy.

Abby opened the sliding doors and addressed the sandy-haired young man sitting there, pouring over a folder of papers. "Excuse me, sir, we-"

His eyes lit up when he saw them standing there. "It's really you guys! For real! Wow."

"We're not hiring. Sorry."

"Hiring? Last I checked this isn't even an official business."

"Fine. We're not accepting new members of the team."

"I'm not here to try and join the team or anything."

"Then what do you want?" Abby folded her arms.

"Hi." Erin peeked her head over Abby's shoulder and waved.

He gave her a friendly wave back. "I'm an engineer. I saw some of the equipment you guys were carrying on television but I never saw them being used, or what they do, so I've been making some schematics of my own, there's not a lot of people who believe in ghosts, you know."

Abby looked at Erin knowingly. "Yeah, we know."

"Well, I do, and I've been designing ghost-catching equipment since I was a teenager. And now there's finally people who believe me. I came all the way from the West coast. Please. Can I at least get to see your lab?"

Erin gave Abby a look, reminding her of how it feels to have no one believe you in school.

Abby looked him up and down, and finally sighed and said, "Talk to Holtzmann. She's our engineer." She motioned for the man to stand up. "First things first. What's your name? I'm assuming Kevin didn't bother to try and take down your name or any other information."

"Um, no, he didn't. I did find that odd. I'm Spencer Andrews, Doctor of Mechanical Engineering from Colombia University."

"How old are you, Spencer?" Erin asked, of course out of personal interest.

"Thirty. I've been doing odd jobs back in Washington for almost ten years."

"You work for the government?" Abby whispered.

Spencer laughed. "No, Washington the state."

"Oh. Well come on back, Holtzmann will give you a tour of her lab. Probably." Abby led him to the main area and over to Holtzmann's many lab tables which were actually kitchen counters.

"I would suggest not touching anything." Erin told him. "Or else we might have to stick you under the decontamination shower!" She tried to make it a joke, giving a wide smile and leaning to the side.

Spencer was too distracted by the table of gadgets in front of him.

"Holtzy, this is Spencer. He's an engineer and he wanted a look around the lab." Abby said.

Holtzmann spread her arms over as much equipment as she could. "Copyright pending."

Spencer gave a light laugh. "I'm not going to steal your ideas. Actually, I was hoping we could compare notes and you could critique my sketches."

Holtzmann made a hand motion, waving him to give her his notebook.

He handed it over, holding his breath as she flipped through a few pages.

After a long minute, she closed the cover. "Buster, you have my attention."

He let out a relieved laugh, "Thank you so much. And it's Spencer. Spencer Andrews. Not Buster."

Holtzmann suddenly seemed to have second thoughts. "Where do you hail from?"

"Columbia University."

Her eyes flickered to Erin. "Oh. So you're from that area."

"Well, no, originally I'm from Seattle."

Holtzmann took in a stiff breath. "We're not hiring." She thrust the notebook quickly back at him.

"What… Can you at least show me around your lab?"

She gestured vaguely to everything surrounding her. "It's not much. That's all we got."

"B- I really think I can help out."

Holtzmann gestured to the door with a pipe wrench.

"Hey, Holtzmann, can we talk for a minute?" Abby asked. "Group meeting?"

"I'm in." Patty got up off the couch.

"You can wait over there, Spencer." Erin said, gesturing to the booth she had been in earlier.

The girls circled around Holtzmann's worktable. "I think we should hire him." Abby said.

"As a Ghostbuster?" Patty asked, skeptical.

"No, as another engineer. Look, Holtzy, you're doing great on your own but what if you had someone who didn't ask "Da hell is that?" whenever you asked for a tool while constructing the equipment? Someone to bounce ideas off of? Someone to repair the gear so you can take a damn break every once in a while? Your doctorate is in Nuclear Engineering. He's got a degree in Mechanical Engineering. You don't even have a high school diploma."

"I read three Mechanical Engineering and two Physics textbooks in one week. Then an Electrical Engineering book. Then Astrophysics. Then Interpretive Dance… I don't need any help. I know mechanical engineering just fine."

"Wait, I thought this was really going somewhere with you two." Erin said.

"No." Holtzy said.

"I thought you were impressed with his drawings."

"Nope."

"He moved all the way from Seattle to see us."

"No. No. No."

"When I was handin' you your tools the other day you said you wished you had "more intelligent" help." Patty said.

"I asked for a compact wrench and you handed me a Snickers bar."

"And you are so welcome for that."

"Alright, alright…" Abby tried to regain some control. "Holtzmann, it's up to you but I really just wanna make sure. I don't know if we're gonna get an opportunity like this again soon. You really don't want extra help in your lab? Even just for repairs?"

"Help? Sure. Him? No."

"Why not?"

"What's wrong with him?"

"He's kinda cute." Erin craned her neck back in his direction then at the ground and twisted a piece of her hair around her finger, pretending she hadn't said that.

Holtzmann propped her palms up on the edge of the table in front of her, and looked around, making sure Spencer was out of earshot. She gave a long sigh, ending with a mumbled "He's my brother."

"What?" Erin said.

"Like your biological brother?" Abby asked cautiously.

Holtzmann nodded, nonchalantly picking up a gadget and pretending to inspect it.

Patty put her hand over the gadget and lowered it to the table. "Are you serious? For real right now? How do you know? I thought you said it's been like-"

Holtzy cut Patty off before she could do the math. "He told us his first and last name and where he's from. There can't be that many of them who look like me."

"You guys do look alike…" Erin said, biting her lip about what she said a minute ago about Spencer being cute.

"Holy shit…" Abby said. "Are you absolutely certain? I mean, what are the chances?"

"What are the chances?" Holtzmann repeated. "Two people who both happen to have a natural-born knack for mechanical engineering with genius-level intelligence in their genes along with an insatiable interest in the paranormal and a desire to pursue it by inventing equipment, just so happen to end up in the same place after one of them has recently been on national television displaying a new and promising practical application of this very particular skill set and interest, and when the other one intentionally crosses the country to find them. What are the chances?"

"She has a point…" Erin whispered. "Also I think that's the most words I've ever heard her speak that didn't involve any complicated physics terms." Erin left out any mention of their recent night together.

Patty nodded, but Abby ignored her. "And he just so happens to want to apply mechanical engineering to paranormal studies?"

Holtzmann tapped her finger on the table and tapped her foot on the ground, annoyed that they weren't getting it. "It also may stem from many ghost movie marathons and a long series of ghost hunting expeditions in his childhood led by a sister he probably thinks is dead."

"Well… hm. I understand where you're coming from, Holtzy." Abby put a hand on Holtzmann's shoulder without looking at her. Though it seemed as if she were the most against Holtzmann's point right now, Erin and Patty did seem to forget that these two had worked side by side for years, and that there had to be some level of unspoken trust between them. "Let's talk to him once more, all of us, and just make sure he is who you think he is. Before we rule him out. Because if not, we're throwing away a really good opportunity."

Holtzmann looked like she really didn't want to do that, but nodded in agreement anyway.

"Alright." Abby said gently, before stepping back. They followed her over to the booth Spencer sat at. The four of them sat around him in the half-circle, with Holtzmann directly across from him on one end.

"What's going on? Am I in? Or is this a rejection?"

"We need to know a little bit more about you first." Holtzmann took over, looking at him curiously, gently.

"Sure."

"Where are you from again?"

"Seattle, Washington. Though, I got my degree at Columbia University."

"What's your education before that?"

"You mean like high school?"

Holtzmann nodded.

"Um, my high school was called Pine Ridge, it's in the suburbs of Seattle. It's nothing special, really, not really known for anything. I graduated Valedictorian." He gave a confused frown.

"What about… family? You left your parents and siblings to come here?"

"Well, just my parents, actually. I don't have any siblings."

"I see. An only child."

"…More or less."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It's… kinda personal look what's the point of these questions again?" He looked around at the other girls.

"Just to get to know you better." Abby said.

"Oh. Okay. Well, what else do you wanna know?"

"What made you first interested in the paranormal?" Erin pitched in, also trying to give leading questions.

Holtzmann pointed to her in agreement.

"Um, a childhood friend, actually. We used to go on ghost hunts in the woods behind our- behind my house."

"Our? This friend lived with you?" Holtzmann asked.

"Alright, I had a sister but she died a long time ago I don't see why this really matters?"

"She died?" Holtzmann raised her eyebrows, completely inappropriate for the question.

"I'm so sorry." Erin quickly tried to cover up Holtzy's behavior.

"May I ask what happened?" Holtzmann pressed on.

"Well, she actually went missing, but it was so long ago I'm positive she's dead by now, probably has been for a very long time. My father still thinks she's out there but I think he just wants that hope to hold on to."

"Your father?" Holtzmann asked. "What about your mother? What does she think?"

"Well, she used to take my father's side, but she has a type of brain cancer now and hasn't really 'been with it' for a while."

"She… wh-at?" Holtzmann said weakly, almost a whisper, suddenly losing the confidence of her previous questions.

"As soon as she passes, my father's gonna move out here with me. It would mean a lot to him if I already had a secure job by the time he gets here."

"She doesn't have long… left does she?" Holtzmann concluded softly.

"My mother? I mean, maybe a few months."

Holtzmann stared off to the side out the window.

"Look, how about we get back to you on this?" Patty suggested to Spencer.

"Um, okay. I genuinely hope nothing about my personal life has affected your decision."

"It hasn't." Erin assured him, standing up and signaling everyone else to vacate the booth as well. She and Abby showed him to the door.

When they returned, they found Holtzmann standing behind her work table, leaning on it, staring at the gear in front of her.

"I'm assuming that's him." Abby said.

"You alright?" Erin asked, walking over to her.

Holtzmann nodded stiffly.

"I take it you didn't know about your mom." Erin stood next to her and tried to decide if putting a hand on her shoulder would help or not.

"What does it matter?" Holtzmann shrugged. "I chose to stay away from them. Why should I have a right to care about what goes on with them? I gave that right up."

"No, you didn't. They're still your family, Holtzy." Erin decided to go with the hand-on-the-shoulder. It went well.

"It's not my right. I gave that up."

Patty walked over decisively. "Are you for real right now beating yourself up for being upset that your mother is dying?"

"I'm not upset."

"Why the hell not? You didn't give up any "rights" by getting kidnapped!"

Holtzmann flinched at Patty's yelling. "No, by avoiding them for the past six years."

"Alright, you know what guys? Just leave her alone, okay?" Erin said. "Can we admit that this is a lot to deal with in one day?"

Abby and Patty nodded, taking a few steps back and returning to what they had been doing before Spencer showed up.

Erin also took a step back to give Holtzmann some space. Her hand slid off her shoulder.

Holtzmann propped her elbows on her worktable and dropped her head into her palms, running her hands through her hair and closing them into fists.

Erin watched her painfully for a minute, before giving up and stepping in. "Listen, Holtzy, It's perfectly okay to be sad about this whole thing, alright? It's a lot of pressure that you really don't deserve, but you don't have to hide it from us."

Holtzmann sucked in a frustrated breath through her teeth, then straightened up and took her hands out of her hair. "You're not getting it. Look, I know I'm just as bad as a single quark who's never even known a proton, attempting to grasp the concept of infinity-"

"What?" Patty said. "Use English."

Erin shook her head quickly. "It's physics. I get you, Holtzy. You're suddenly having to master complex social skills on a large scale when you haven't even figured out how to be social on the most basic level. Go on."

Holtzmann's eyes lit up just hearing that Erin actually understood her. She continued, "I'm not sad. Or upset. I'm…" She made the fist motion at her hair again.

"Stressed?"

"Yes! Stressed. Very. Because if I don't… reveal myself to my proton before my mother dies, I never can. They'll be mad at me for not coming forward when I had the chance to let my mother know that her quark- her daughter – is alive. Just… so she can die knowing it's – she's - …I'm safe." She turned her head away from everyone.

"…So you're saying it's now or never, basically?" Erin asked.

"Pretty much." Holtzmann said in an uncharacteristically hoarse voice.

"Hey. C'mere." Erin put her hand on Holtzy's shoulder to turn her around for a hug, hoping that Holtzy wasn't afraid of her touch or anything like that.

Holtzmann of course turned around and gladly accepted the hug, especially because it was Erin.

"Nothing's going to change between today and tomorrow." Erin said, her chin on Holtzmann's shoulder. "So how about we push this aside for now and all of us curl up with a movie or something?"

Holtzmann thought about this for a minute. She was going to ask what movie, but then she decided she was just going to grab a movie she wanted and play it without anyone else's consent. "Okay." She agreed. She could very easily stuff her worries to the back of her mind. She was used to doing that. "I need something from my office first." She lowered her glasses at Erin, and when Erin didn't get the hint, Holtz looked around and made sure Abby and Patty weren't looking, then she gave Erin a head nod in the direction of her office, indicating for her to follow.

Holtzmann retreated to her office and left the door open the tiniest crack behind her. Easily navigating her way through the dark, she pulled the chain on the dim desk lamp.

Erin pushed the door open and walked inside, closing the door behind her. "What's up?"

In under a second, Holtzmann had pushed Erin up against the back of the door and pressed her lips to hers, one hand pinning Erin's wrist to the door.

Erin sighed silently into the kiss, relieved that her move the other night hadn't been some crazy awkward one-sided mistake. Maybe they could be a crazy awkward two-sided mistake. She liked the sound of that.

Holtzmann wasn't exactly gentle about it either. When she pulled back quickly, Erin tried to search her frantic blue eyes.

"Stressed?" Erin guessed again.

"So much." Holtz said, kind of out of breath.

Erin wanted to make a joke but this was a side of Holtz she hadn't seen before, and she didn't seem in the joking mood. She was aggressively passionate and focused and intense in a way that made Erin kind of hot and bothered.

"Are you alright?" Erin asked.

She roughly grabbed Erin's shoulders. "Do I look alright? Do you know who that was out there?" She pointed at the wall.

"Your brother?"

"Spencer. My Spencer. My little baby Spencer was right on the other side of that wall."

"Um. That's actually the bathroom on the other side of that-"

"Do you know how long it's been since I've had a brother?"

"I don't think that's how siblings work-"

"Whose side are you on!?"

"Yours! I didn't know there were sides!"

"…There aren't. I just thought of the first dramatic thing to say, because I can't make my own words right now because I don't know how to fucking deal with this." Holtzmann whispered the last part as if admitting to something. Then she cracked a small smile because she saw she had made Erin smile with that line about being dramatic.

Erin didn't think she'd ever heard Holtz swear before. She wasn't really a fan of expressing yourself with cuss words, although she herself swore at inanimate objects and sometimes people multiple times a day. But when Holtz swore Erin actually found it kinda hot.

"How am I supposed to make a joke out of this?" Holtz asked seriously, pressing Erin against the door again to show how serious she was about this question.

Erin linked her fingers together behind Holtzy's lower back and pulled her closer by the hips. Now that they were close enough for Erin to really see Holtz's darkened eyes in the dim light, she saw the real heartbreaking pain so evident there. She remembered she was currently holding a woman who was just told five minutes ago that her mother is dying.

She released Holtzmann's waist and instead reached up and pulled her into a real, tight hug.

Holtz dropped her head to Erin's shoulder and Erin expected her to start crying, but when she was pushed away a minute later, Holtz's eyes were dry and her complexion normal.

Holtzmann stepped away from Erin and turned her head away. "Sorry for kissing you."

"Why would you apologize for that?"

"That's not something casual friends do." She quoted Erin from the other night.

"Well... we don't… really have to be casual."

"…We don't?" Holtzmann sounded like this was the best news she'd heard all day. Which wasn't exactly a high standard to beat right now.

"…No. We don't." Erin tried to think if she really wanted to be in a real relationship with Holtzmann. Well, she was trying to think of a reason not to be.

"You just called my little brother cute. In an attracted-to-him sort of way."

"Clearly it runs in the family. Either that or I'm just a sucker for… " Erin was about to say Spencer's last name in plural form but then she realized for the first time that she now knew Holtzy's real last name. "Andrews'" She tried it out.

Holtz gave a small smile, hearing someone say her real last name for the first time in years.

"That's your last name. Andrews."

Holtz nodded.

"But your first name isn't Jillian?"

"No."

"You probably aren't going to tell me what it is, are you?"

"Probably not."

Erin had a funny idea. "It's not Erin, is it?" She joked.

Holtz grinned. "No, it's not. I promise."

"But if you reveal who you are to your brother… He'll call you by your real first name."

"It would be weird if he called me Holtzmann."

"So when you come out to him, then I'll know your real name?" Erin liked playing this name game with Holtz, and she could tell Holtz was enjoying feeling superior knowing something Erin didn't.

"Most likely."

"Will you still want me to call you Holtzmann?"

"That's my legal name. So yes."

"So if I go to Spencer, and I ask him what his sister's name was…"

Holtz seemed to realize this work-around for the first time.

"Kevin took down his number. I could call him and ask him right now."

"You wanna know that badly?"

"Sure."

"How about I tell you… later?" Holtz suggested, with no real intention to do so.

"Later when?"

"Later at your house." Holtz still hadn't quite grasped the concept of not inviting herself over places. Though after seeing her apartment, Erin, Abby, and Patty agreed that it was safest to stay away from there.

Erin realized she still hadn't decided if she wanted to be in a relationship with Holtz. She thought about Holtz's soft lips and the kind of high she got just when their bodies and faces were close to one another. So how the fuck could she say no?

She decided to wait until Holtz brought it up again, and Holtz seemed to have forgotten now.

"So do you wanna go back out there and watch a movie with everyone? Maybe you'll feel a little better?"

"I'd rather just stay here and hibernate." Holtz muttered. "But hibernating is for bears."

Erin was starting to catch on to another piece of Holtzmann lingo. She figured "bears" is essentially equivalent to any bad guy. She tried to test this theory. "Is Lex Luthor a bear?"

Holtzmann gave her a comically confused frown. "Are you feeling alright?"

Erin burst out a short laugh. She saw Holtz's knuckles were white, gripping the edge of the desk she was leaning on.

"Are you still stressed? Because you can take it out on me if you need to. Or it's really satisfying to like hit or kick something, believe me, I know a g-"

Before she could get any further, Holtz had pushed her back against the door again, her same hand pinning Erin's wrist gently, their faces an inch apart. This time there was a certain fire in Holtz's eyes. "You said I could take it out on you. I thought you meant this."

"Well, this, this works too." Erin said, her voice light.

Holtz's eyebrows turned apologetic for just a moment while she begged, "Tell me if I'm doing something wrong." except she phrased it as if she were referring to everything in the entire world. Without waiting for an answer, the fire returned to her eyes and she leaned in, capturing Erin's lips against hers once more.

This time Erin pushed back, showing Holtz that she wasn't doing anything wrong. Or if she was, then they both were.

Where had this been all her life? This experience of kissing women? There was definitely a more soft satisfaction in it than kissing men, Erin decided. She kind of always knew she wasn't entirely straight, that much was never really a question. But if you were to ask her two weeks ago if she would ever kiss a girl, her answer would be no. And when she asked herself why not, her answer was always that she was too shy.

Holtzmann certainly wasn't shy, she decided as Holtz bit Erin's lower lip, eliciting a small, involuntary noise from Erin.

Erin's free hand found Holtzmann's back, needing something to grab onto and eventually landing on her small waist.

Just as it had been last time, as soon as Erin was starting to get into it, Holtz stepped back, releasing her. Holtz looked at the floor off to her left and wiped her mouth on the back of her wrist, almost hiding behind her hand.

"Get out." She said hoarsely to the floor.

"…Wh- what?"

"Not- I'm not mad at you, Erin. I'm sorry. I just need a minute. Please. I'm sorry." Her voice was hard and almost scared Erin. Though the fact that she actually addressed Erin by her first name was enough to make note of. For some reason, she didn't really use proper nouns often.

"Don't apologize, H-"

When Erin didn't leave right away, Holtz grabbed the doorknob right next to Erin's hip and shoved it open. Erin shot Holtz a concerned look as she stepped out into the hall.

Holtz flung the door shut hard behind her, pacing her way to the back corner behind the desk, cursing herself under her breath, her fist jerking in the air with each frustrated syllable.

Of course, this is how it would go. She finally gets something nice; someone who wants to be her friend, who is nice, who is attractive and doesn't mind Holtz's quirks, someone who's smart like her, and gets along with the only other friend she has. Holtz finally found this mystery girl, who happens to be Erin, and now Erin wants kissing to be more than casual.

She had been told that kissing was for people who have a special connection, beyond just physical. But that's the complicated thing about normal people and their normal ideas about love and sex: to them, kissing was always supposed to lead to more, emotionally. It wasn't like a handshake or a hug.

It's not that Holtz didn't want more of Erin. But how much would Erin want of her? She was already pressing her about her real name. She had already gone behind Holtz's back and googled human trafficking, which pissed Holtzmann off. Nothing Erin could read online would match what Holtz has lived through, and some stories online were probably much worse than Holtz could imagine or fake altogether. The internet, just overall a bad source to go by when you want to learn about someone's life.

Maybe, just ask them?

But that's what Holtz was even more afraid of. She didn't want Erin to ask questions about her past. Between the handcuff scars and the freaking trafficking thing in general, Erin already knew too much, in Holtz's mind.

As much as all of this may seem like coherent thought, it was a little overwhelming for Holtz when it all came at her in 2.7 seconds. Even the dim light from the desk lamp was making her lightheaded, another product of the car accident. She shut her eyes and crossed the room from memory, dropping to the floor where she guessed she was behind her desk. She brought her knees to her chin and speared her fingers through her hair, fighting off the knowledge that after knowing Erin for only a month, she was already failing at keeping her old life from contaminating everything.

She's not Jillian Holtzmann. She's the same trembling girl in the back of a van believing she had been rescued from the creek, whose biggest concern was the slight mud stain on her mother's sweater. The same girl who had once used her school copy of "Macbeth" as kindling for a science experiment on the bus. The same girl who had literally set the kitchen cabinets on fire trying to "reinvent" breakfast cereal.

She bit her shirt collar and sniffled, aware of the wetness that already covered her cheeks. She prayed that Erin never saw her like this. She wanted Erin to know Jillian Holtzmann. And she was having a really hard time being Jillian right now.

Not to mention she didn't want Erin knowing her real first name. The last person to call her that was her mother, nearly eighteen years ago. Even in the ring, they called her "Mave", because when they first asked her name, she was trembling so hard all she could get out was "Ma-". She never did tell them her real name, though they must've known, given all the information they obtained on her family to blackmail her with repeatedly.

She took a few last shuddering sighs, the end of a good cry, and wiped her face on her shirt sleeve. Reaching up for her cell phone on the desk, she let it tumble to her lap. She skimmed through the group chat the girls had going until she found Abby's text with Kevin's phone number attached.

Knowing he probably wouldn't answer the phone at the reception desk, she entered his number into a new text conversation. Right now everyone out there had probably forgotten about the movie and were packing up to move their operations to the fire house.

She typed: "DID SPENCER LEAVE A NUMBER"

Then, thinking over how Kevin might interpret that, she added: "TO REACH HIM AT"

Less than a minute later, Kevin replied with all the contact information Spencer had provided, then, "WHO IS THIS?"

Her hands shook as she dialed the mobile phone number with that Seattle area code she recognized.

Her finger hovered over the green send button as she felt more tears sting her eyes.

/flashback. /

"What do you mean, "freelance?"" Sivan asked, intrigued by what the older woman was telling them.

"It means I don't have an agent."

"An agent?" Mave said, looking at Sivan in mutual curiosity.

"Yeah?" The woman said condescendingly. "You know? Like you two have Mr. Nox?"

"…Oh." Sivan said. Neither of them ever considered Nox an agent. "So what do you do?"

The woman looked at the two young girls, who looked not even old enough to drink legally. Their faces were hollow but their eyes curious; still filled with life. She pretended to ignore the situation she knew they were in. Whoever Nox was, she knew he wasn't an agent. He was an owner. "It means I set the rules. If a guy is gonna pay for my services, he has to follow MY basic rules. Nothing more than two hours; Nothing I didn't agree on beforehand; and No kissing on the mouth."

"What." Mave spat. "And they listen to you?"

"They have to."

"Why?" Sivan asked.

This woman was getting really sick of the girls' questions. "Because I have people." Actually, all she had was the threat of people to back her up. But it worked. Besides, she was enjoying blowing their young minds with all the privileges of consent. She had been in their shoes before. And someday, when they outlived their cash value, they too would be in hers. Selling themselves on the streets.

"You can tell them not to kiss you on the mouth?" Mave asked.

"Honey, mouth kissing is a privilege. That's reserved for the people I really like. For that special someone. Well, at least for people who don't have to pay for me."

A man stepped into the doorway of the dressing room. Sivan and Mave clasped each others' hands in fear. He called a name.

"That's me, girls." The woman dismissed them, lifting her chin with a sort of beaten dignity as she followed the man out the door.

Mave turned to Sivan. "I didn't know kissing was sacred, Seven." She snorted a laugh, using her nickname for her friend. "Of all things."

"It's not. Don't listen to her."

Mave added the woman's advice to her list of things to forget (she could tell you everything on that list, though). The more she thought of kissing as special, the harder it would be when she was forcefully kissed. She didn't need yet another thing to feel bad about herself, and the possibility of ever getting free and finding someone who loved her was getting more bleak by the day.

~/~