“Woah!” Holtzmann protested, holding her hands up in front of her–in objection, not surrender. “You are not stitching me up. No needles.” She insisted, backpedaling quickly. “Y’know, I think you’re overreacting. I was bein’ overdramatic, really, I’m fine!” She said quickly, shooting out of her seat, ignoring the lightheadedness that came with it. She lent on it heavily, but remained standing out of sheer spite, even in her albeit weakened state.

Her docile phase was now officially over. She didn’t want to, but she found herself growing slightly frantic. Even though she knew that something was obviously wrong, she now refused to admit it, regretting her original decision. However, she still tried to hold a facade of indifference.

From one look, Holtzmann could tell that Abby wasn’t convinced, and that she thought she was just stalling. She huffed, “Abby, Erin, and…” She hesitated, the name on the tip of her tongue. “Patty.”

She knew that Abby was looking for more, but Holtz quickly realized that she had no more to give. Suddenly, she was on the defensive, “Actually, yeah, it does sound kinda stupid.” She said, cringing at the hurtful words that just came out of her mouth. “Just- I’m okay, Abby.”

“Holtzmann! Don’t be a baby. You’re bleeding, look!” Abby held up her hands, which were almost completely covered in dark red, semi-dried blood. Abby could tell she was having a hard time staying up right, but decided to let her try it on her own before she stepped in again. This must be a lot for her to take in, especially on top of a hangover.

“I did say last names too, you know.” She frowned, grabbing a washcloth from the counter and cleaning off her hands. Holtzmann’s words stung and she winced, but tried not to take it to heart.

Holtzmann sat bolt upright in surprise when Abby launched herself at her in response to her question. Well, there went her plan to keep it casual. 

She had always prided herself on her ability to be independent. Of course, she wasn’t dumb enough to refuse any and all help, but she liked to be able to do things on her own, without having to explain herself to others. That being said, she found it hard to let herself be taken care of; pitied was the person that tried mothering the blonde. After she had met Abby, her quote-unquote “first friend,” she mellowed out slightly in that aspect, but her stubbornness occasionally reared its head, especially when she wasn’t quite in the right state of mind.

Even though Holtz knew that Abby was just trying to help, she instinctively leaned away from the hands slightly. However, after the initial hesitation, she held herself still, allowing her friend to look for an injury. She was sure that Abby was trying her best to be gentle, but she couldn’t help wincing as a couple of particularly sensitive areas were perused. There was a disconcerting silence, which prompted Holtzmann to speak up.

“Is everything okay, or am I gonna need something a bit stronger than Advil?”

Abby knew Holtzmann was being kind by letting her check over her like this, but to be honest, she could give a shit if the blonde didn’t want her to worry. She could tell that, although she was being as gentle as possible, it still hurt. “I’m sorry.” She said softly, trying to clear the hair away from the gash in her head so she could get a good look at it.

“Uh,” She said a little too loudly. “I don’t think you need hospital stitches, I can probably stitch you up, but...” Abby turned around and opened a drawer, pulling out one of the firehouse’s many first aid kits. “You might have a concussion.” She said as matter-of-factly as she could, trying to hide the obvious concern in her voice.

“Do you now?” Erin asked, a hint of playfulness in her voice. Or, something she hoped was playfulness rather than heartbreak. Experience had taught her that people rarely frequented the same coffee shops often, let alone ‘basically lived in them’, if there wasn’t an incentive to go other than coffee. Which was fine. Erin, more than anything, just wanted Abby to be happy. With whomever happened to make her happy. “Any particular reason for that?”

Taking a sip of her drink, she decided to at least just enjoy the coffee. Once having vowed she’d never go near the stuff, she’d developed quite the addiction after one particularly terrible internship, and at this point Erin was hooked. Letting out a soft chuckle, she looked back at Abby, a small smile on her face. “It was worth it, though… In the end…” Realizing she’d just stumbled upon a very difficult topic of conversation - after all, last time they’d written a book, Erin had just up and left - the physicist sighed, looking back at Abby with an apologetic look on her face. “… I’m still sorry… You know that, right?”

“Sure,” Abby smiled, taking a sip of her own drink again after blowing on it to cool it down. “They’re the only place around here that has a loyalty card. I’ve almost earned my free muffin.” She laughed. Although, sure, that was a good reason for her to always go there, she kept the real reason to herself. It was too painful for her, to sit in HQ and watch Erin. Every time she looked up from her desk and saw the physicist smile, or laugh, or get lost in her equations, it broke another piece of her heart. Abby used to make Erin happy. She missed that.

Holtzmann scoffed through her smile. Of course that was the song she sung, naturally. However, her smile faded slightly as Abby went on, talking about their recent excursions.

“Um, yeah,” She lied, “course I remember the bust. It was, uh, Spencer Mansion, right?” She asked. Her brows furrowed in thought, the faintest hint of fear creeping in on the edges of her mind. “No, that wasn’t…” She muttered to herself, glancing down at the table as she tried to remember what had happened. There had been a big ghost. No, big dog. No, little dog big ghost? For some unknown reason, she could not for the life of her recall anything that had happened on the trip.

“There was a chihuahua?” Holtz tried, but that didn’t seem to be the right answer either. She brought her hand up to rub the back of her head, but pulled her hand away with a wince right after it made contact. 

“So, Abs, um…” She paused, clicking her tongue lightly as she thought. She didn’t want to worry her, because they both knew how she got when a fellow friend was hurt. “Did I, oh, I dunno, hit my head or anything on the bust. Just out of curiosity.”

Abby’s eyebrows furrowed, listening intently as Holtzmann tried to recall their latest bust. A part of her wanted to just blame the memory loss on the night of drinking, but... something wasn’t right. Holtzmann never forgot a bust. Abby shook her head. “No, Blondie, there wasn’t a Chihuahua.”

The tone of Holtz’s voice immediately let her know something was wrong, and she only got a confirmation on that theory when she saw the engineer wince as she touched her head.

“Not me; stomach of steel.” Holtzmann reassured her, patting her belly in emphasis. “Never could look at grape juice the same way, though.” She noted, reaching over to grab the bottle, shaking it a few times out of habit, to make sure it wasn’t empty.

“So, do tell, what songs did I sing?” She asked, trying to twist off the cap, which just clicked quietly in response. “My mind’s drawing a blank, but I know something happened. I-” She paused, looking down at the unopened bottle in her hands. “What the hell?” 

Bringing it closer to her face, she read the print on the cap. “Child-proof cap,” She scoffed, rolling her eyes at her own lunacy. Pushing down this time, she managed to successfully remove the cap, tipping two tablets into her hand. Popping them into her mouth, she downed the pills dry, making a face at the unpleasant taste.

“So, what happened?” She asked with a grin, “Cos if Kevin thought to record it, it must’ve been pretty gnarly.”

“Grape juice? Ew, of all the juices.” She joked, watching in amusement as she had trouble with the child-proof cap, asking her jokingly if she needed any help.

“You know, I’m not the Avril expert, but I’m pretty sure you sang a song called Girlfriend? You also tried to serenade every single one of us with it.” Abby laughed at the memory.

Erin’s joints ached. She wasn’t built for action, no matter how much her job demanded it. She probably would have headed to bed by now, if only for just a lie down, but slaving away and finishing off equations was more important than sleep sometimes.

She had only just stood up, cricking her back after a long day, when Abby called her over. She went over to join her old friend, sitting across from her at her desk. The exhaustion was already starting to leave her, the sound of the other woman’s voice having seemed to give her a new spark of energy out of sheer concern.

“Sure. Of course. Everything okay, Abby?”

Abby looked up from the book she had been pretending to read, and smiled as the other woman sat down across from her. This was a conversation she’d always meant to have, but even still, her stomach was tied up in knots. They were doing well with their rekindled friendship so far, did she seriously want to jeopardize it by bringing up old issues?