For a brief few seconds, for Holtzmann at least, it was just her and her brother. She grinned at him and hugged him again.
Abby, Erin and Patty stood gawking at the pair. The man who stood before them for all intent and purposes was essentially a male version of Jillian- slightly older. Abby was the first to step forward. She awkwardly stretched out her hand and took Pete`s hand. He smiled and shook it.
"Abby Yates." She said. He nodded and looked behind her. Patty waved once to the left and introduced herself before elbowing Erin in the ribs, Erin stumbled forwards. She still had her arms crossed against her chest. She mumbled her name. She was feeling slightly miffed- she thought she knew Holtzmann pretty well, yet she had never mentioned him, it was evident that the pair were close.
"I was in town, thought I pay a visit to the famous HQ and meet your friends." Pete said. He was holding Holtzmann against him. Holtz was considerably smaller than her brother and only came up to just below his shoulder. Holtzmann took him on a tour of HQ, she showed him the proton packs, the overalls, her work station and even the ecto.
"You've certainly come a long way from using our bedroom as a lab." Pete turned to Erin and laughed.
"You wouldn't believe the amount of times I had to redecorate my side of the room after one of her experiments went wrong." Erin smiled a little, the idea of Holtz as a child was always odd. Erin had always imagined her just as she was just smaller. She could clearly imagine Holtz in her bedroom casually blowing thing up.
Pete stayed the remainder of the afternoon, Erin gradually warmed up to him. Later on he scooted over to Holtzmann and asked if he could stay with her for the night. Holtzmann quickly agreed. She had however been having trouble with her plumbing, which may or may not have had something to do with misfiring a new invention. She remembered this and said he should shower at HQ before coming home. Whilst he was up on the third floor Erin cornered Holtz.
"Why didn't you tell me you had a brother?" Holtz frowned and put her hands in her pockets.
"Why didn't you tell me what you had for tea yesterday?" Erin was taken back, was she making a big deal out of nothing? She knew Hotlz was secretive.
"I don't see him all that often if that's what you think. He lives way out of town. When he's around its great, but it always brings back memories that's why I don't talk about him too much."
"Memories?" Erin asked. She gulped, she knew that Holtz`s childhood was icy territory. Holtz usually brushed it off with a joke and changes the subject. Holtz`s eyes shot up and locked with Erin`s. She bit her lip and paused for a second. Erin was about to open her mouth to tell her to forget it.
"He was the best thing about my childhood. Which to be honest wasn't hard to be with the childhood I had, but he was amazing. He... well he saved me." Erin took Holtz by the hand and sat her down on the couch.
"See my mam died whilst having me. It hit my dad pretty hard, he didn't want her to go to hospital, he wanted a home birth. See Pete`s birth didn't run smoothly and a doctor made a mistake, Pete almost ended up going home with a different family. So that's why my dad wanted me to be born at home, but my mam went into early labour and she had to go to hospital." Erin squeezed Holtz`s hand- she knew that Holtz had lost her mother but this was the most detail that she had ever been given.
"Then my Dad stopped going outside, which meant that we didn't go outside. He pulled Pete out of school and we were homeschooled. At first I was too young to know any better. I thought it was all perfectly normal. Dad had a real bad case of agoraphobia. It only got worse- he would order groceries online and he barricaded the door. Child services found us when I was six. I was so pale- almost see though. They took Dad to hospital and Pete and I were put into foster care."
"I remember the first time I stepped outside. It was so bright my eyes burned. I hated it. Over the course of a couple of months I had to spend more and more time outside each day before I got used to it. Pete was there every step of the way. They were going to split us up, people didn't want two head cases to look after. Pete chained me and him to a park fence until they let us stay together- he made sure it was in a shaded part of the park. Then we got placed with the James family. I thought it would all get better."
"And did it?" Erin asked. Holtz scoffed and shook her head. Pete had bound into the room. His hair was damp from the shower.
"Good to go?"
Holtz took her hand out from Erin`s and stood up. She nodded and started to walk towards the staircase.
"I'll ring you later Holtz." Erin shouted. Holtzmann paused and turned on her heel, she sighed and saluted to Erin. Pete said his goodbyes to Erin, Abby and Patty. Pete and Holtz stepped out onto the street. Pete slipped his hand through Holtzmann`s arm and they walked to her apartment. Pete had only been there once before. He set himself up on the couch and looked around the room. Holtzmann was trying to fix her plumbing. He ignored the scorch marks and focused on the pictures that hung on the wall. One was off Abby, Erin, Holtz and Patty. There were grinning- Erin was covered in slime. The picture below was of Holtzmann and Pete. He ran his thumb over it, he was eighteen and Holtzmann was nine. She was smiling. It was the day he bought a flat and took custody of his little sister.
