"The sun, it burns ussss," hissed Holtzmann, coming out of the sun and back into the fire station. She and Erin had gone out on a call at a thrift store that was having trouble with a cursed object that had been donated. It wouldn't stop screaming. They had dealt with many of those in the past couple of years, but never so shrill. Erin's ears still hadn't stopped ringing.
"Now I know how you felt when the balloon popped in your ear," said Erin loudly to Holtz.
"Yell it down a couple of notches Erin!" Holtz yelled back.
"What?" Erin said back loudly.
"Okay you two," yelled Patty, walking up to the both of them. "How did it go?"
"Fine," said Erin, leaning her left ear to Patty. It was the less ringing one. "Can you put this in our cursed items inventory? It's clean." She gave Patty a stone figurine of a ballerina.
"This was screaming?" asked the municipal historian.
"Loudly," said Holtzmann. "And by clean, we don't know if there are any curses on it. But we could touch it at least."
"We should probably check it before we tag it and put it away," said Patty.
"You and Abby can look it over for us while our hearing comes back," said Erin, rubbing her ear and grimacing. "And Holtz needs to empty the trap."
"I'm letting you get your wife out of the lab," Patty said to Holtz. "She's been in there working."
"On what?" said Holtz. Patty shrugged.
"She's sketching, all I know."
"She must have thought of something," said Holtz. She really needed to get the noise out of her ears and brain. She headed up the stairs to her lab. Abby was sitting at one of the tables with her earbuds in. Patty had been right, she was designing something new. While Holtzmann did most of the creative work, Abby sometimes had ideas that they had been working on together to bring to fruition, usually with Erin's input once they had a roughed out concept. Although Holtzmann would rather her wife not be working in the lab, she was grateful to see she was wearing the apron and her radiation badges. She headed over to the containment unit, her ears still ringing, but less so. She stuck the trap in the machine and turned it on. She could barely hear the low roar, followed by the buzzing after a few minutes that let her know it was cleaned out.
Now that she was in the quiet of her lab and could only hear the low hum of her machines, she was starting to be able to hear somewhat normally again. She went over to Abby's side and found a drawing she couldn't quite understand at first. It was long and cylindrical, almost like the tall cans of soda and energy drinks they had started selling years ago. But there was a contraption inside of it that she was trying to follow. It was Abby's annotation at the end that made her excited. She tapped Abby on the shoulder, who paused her music.
"This goes into the proton pack?"
Abby took out her earbuds and nodded.
"It's risky, but I thought about it early this morning when I couldn't go back to sleep. Short bursts of energy, like my glove. It could take out a lot of PK energy in one sweep instead of a steady drain."
"This... I like this," grinned Holtzmann. "I'm so turned on right now by your handiwork Abigail."
Abby ignored Holtz's tone. "If you could get this to work, this would be helpful in the field."
"This is going to take a massive amount of energy though," said Holtzmann, following Abby's notes. "It would make the pack way, way too hot."
"It'd need venting constantly," said Abby. "It's workable... maybe?"
"Oh, it's workable alright," said Holtz. She kissed Abby on the lips quickly before going over to pick up an extra pack that she had built for experimentation. It was the first one that was going to get the upgrade. She looked back at her wife.
"But what shall we call it?"
"I was thinking it sort of works like a dart," said Abby. "Multiple darts hitting a target at once with the same intensity."
Holtzmann smirked. "So a Boson Dart?"
"If that's what you want to call it, then yes," said Abby.
"I like how you think," said Holtzmann, plopping the pack up on the table. She pushed down the goggles she had been wearing on top of her head.
"You up on your Slavic black magic?"
Abby thought about it for a moment. "Not since that brief stint in college."
"Patty could use your help on the cursed object we brought back. It's got some Russian text on the bottom. Erin-"
"Good," said Abby, not letting Holtzmann finish that thought. "I'm getting tired of this apron." She got up, grimacing at how it had bunched up her shirt. When she went to straighten it, Holtz noticed something as she pushed on the cloth around her abdomen. She knew every curve on Abby's body, and this was completely new.
"Whoa," she said softly. She put down the screwdriver and went over to Abby's side. She put a hand over Abby's, stopping her from moving.
"You're showing." Holtzmann rubbed a hand down Abby's middle. Her uterus was sticking up just enough to be noticeable just about at her navel, making a definite pooch that wasn't there before. Holtz had to admit, she hadn't expected to see anything for a few more weeks, so this was definitely a surprise.
"Been a day or two," said Abby. She made a face. "I thought I was just bloated at first."
"You need to gain weight," said Holtzmann. "25-35 pounds. You're still not eating enough."
"You can do it for me," said Abby, grimacing. "The eating and the gaining weight thing. I've already gained three pounds and I throw up practically everything I eat."
"Next time around," said Holtz. She laughed softly. "I can't believe you're showing." She smiled happily at Abby, rubbing a hand over her tiny baby bump.
"I'd better get to Patty," said Abby. Holtz looked up and realized Abby was blushing slightly.
"Abby?" she said. Her wife shook her head, smiling ruefully.
"It's nothing. Sometimes I forget how love can be so big sometimes."
Holtzmann grinned, but she made a mental note to ask Abby about it later. Right now she wanted to get to the pack design and she knew Abby would enjoy helping Patty find a reference to the cursed statue and why it had been screaming so loudly at them.
"Shoes," said Abby loudly towards the bathroom. Holtz came back towards their bedroom, toothbrush in hand, a little confused at her lover's comment.
"Shoes?"
Abby pointed down to her Chucks with a sigh. "They are too tight." Holtz grimaced.
"We'll get you another pair Abs. You can't help the ankle and feet swelling," said Holtzmann.
"Yeah, but they're like my security blanket," Abby said with a grimace. "I need them." Holtz had to stop herself from being annoyed at her wife. She was stalling, and Holtz couldn't blame her for that. Today was the first real appointment with the obstetrician and Abby really didn't want to go at all. It didn't help that she had already been nauseated and throwing up since she had been awake. Breakfast had been an adventure.
"We'll get you another pair of security blankets," said Holtzmann, trying to be sympathetic. Abby had her moments of frustration for the engineer, but pregnancy hormones were a very real and short-term personality altering thing. Normally her wife was independent, fierce, and took shit from nobody. But the constant assurances and the fearful tears she had before the ultrasound were something Holtz hadn't been expecting. It made her wonder what she really would have been like pregnant. She had quietly marveled at how Abby was holding together, even if she was being a little aggravating at the moment.
"I know," said Abby quietly.
"Converse should be paying you to wear them anyways," said Holtzmann, squeezing her hand and putting her toothbrush back in her mouth. "Seriously Abby, we need to look into product placement deals."
The idea made Abby laugh, which was a blessing to Holtzmann's ears.
"I see that going over with the city really well."
"We should be getting better contracts," said Holtz, waving her hand in the air. "I mean millions."
"And what would we do with millions?" Abby said, pulling a pair of brown boots out of their closet and going over to the bed and putting them on. Holtz gestured to her chest.
"You could buy me that cute pregnancy t-shirt I showed you online that read: 'She's carrying the baby, I'm carrying the beer.'"
"In where? Your proton pack?" Abby interjected, straightening her clothes.
"A pack that carries beer," said Holtzmann, looking starry-eyed. "That's genius!"
"Very warm, slightly nuclear beer," snorted Abby.
"The system needs more coolant anyways," said Holtzmann. "I've been thinking too, Abs. We need to make a trap compartment so we all can carry one."
"They could just strap on to the belts," said Abby. "Like you were doing with the grenades."
"And the PKE meters," said Holtz. "That's a good idea." She started back towards the bathroom to finish her teeth.
"We've got to go, Abs or we'll never catch the train."
"Go get Patty to call her friends at the MTA," said Abby. "Wait, I'll go downstairs and find her."
"Now I know you're stalling," said Holtz, groaning. She rinsed her toothbrush and mouth quickly and marched back over to the bedroom. "Abigail Leslie Yates, you-"
"Oooh, whole name. Someone's in trouble," said Erin, knocking on the open door. "Letting you know Patty and I are going on a call, then out to the cemetery that Patty wants to go look at that supposedly has some peculiar Gypsy graves. We'll see you later for our weekly dinner, okay?"
Holtzmann took that moment to wrangle her wife by the collar of her shirt or Abby would have tried to follow Erin and Patty out on the call just to get out of going to her appointment.
"I don't think my body can take much more blood loss," said Abby. "Just exactly how many tests are they running?"
"Enough," said Holtzmann, reading a text from Patty. "Was it just me, or did the doctor seem a little confused when the nurse introduced us as Doctor Yates AND Doctor Holtzmann?"
Abby laughed at that while Holtz responded to Patty. She heard Abby sigh after a minute. She was behind a curtain getting changed. A physical exam was part of the process, and it wasn't something Abby was looking forward to since it was slightly invasive.
Holtz had already made the joke earlier that morning that she could do that part and just tell the doctor, but they both knew that wouldn't work. Abby came around the screen, the lower half of her body wrapped in a sheet, which delighted Holtzmann because her lover seemed so unsettled. She rubbed Abby's arm, hopefully taking off some of the anxiety.
"At least the doctor is well qualified and is not judgemental."
"That doesn't make it much better Jills."
"It's necessary?"
"The whole thing's just uncomfortable," said the brunette, sitting back down on the exam table. She glared at the stirrups hanging down on the end.
"Again, it's necessary. He'll check to see to make sure nothing's going to hinder the baby's arrival, make sure there's room to grow, and see if your cervix is nice and tight."
"I know that, but does it help my nerves any?" said Abby.
"No, because a medical professional will be all up in your hoo-ha and it's not even slightly erotic."
"Yeah, the last guy who had his fingers up in there was trying to search for his heterosexuality and failed miserably," grimaced Abby. Holtz looked perplexed.
"Wait, you dated a gay man?"
"Not at the time, no. He has since become a karaoke king at all the gay bars in Michigan, apparently. I know I've mentioned Reyland before."
"I need to see this," said Holtz, looking intrigued.
"You live in New York and see other members of the LGBT community every day," said Abby, cocking her head sideways to look at Holtzmann. "New York Pride Parade next year, you can see thousands if you want."
"Not the saaaaame," said Holtz. "You dated him."
So you want to meet my exes now?" Abby said, shifting her legs so she could cross them at her ankles.
"Just curious to see in person those who came before me," said Holtz, smirking.
"It's a short, but varied list?"
"You know, I am still surprised Erin wasn't on it."
"I love her, but no."
"I know you've said it before, but still. Why not? You two were close."
"Erin... she's... Erin. We needed each other as friends. I think any further and the whole book thing would have been more explosive than it had been."
"She burned the only two copies of your book, Abby. I don't know how that could have gotten any more explosive. Or did it implode?"
"Both... really," said Abby, thinking. "She was scared, I was furious she up and disappeared without a word. I became the laughingstock of the campus and I'm sure most of Ann Arbor. I didn't care, obviously, but what hurt was that she didn't care at all. About any of it. Including me."
"Good thing it all changed," said Holtzmann.
"I don't know if it's better or worse," said Abby. She looked around the room. "Right now I'd say it's worse."
"That's only because you're about to be on your back and with your feet in those stirrups," Holtzmann commented as the door swung back open, letting the nurse and the doctor back into the room.
"This is why I generally avoid physicians," said Abby with a sigh in Holtz's ear as the nurse directed for her to do just what Holtzmann had said. The blonde couldn't help but grin as the nurse gushed over how cute they were holding hands.
