A New Kind of Science / Holtzbert

Unwinding

Patty drove the Ecto-mobile by Riley's former apartment building just to check and see if things were doing alright and the rest of the ghosts had gone back to the right realm. When they saw that they had succeeded, they headed back to the station so everyone could get ready to go home. It was eerily quiet. 

Holtzmann took the four ghost traps upstairs, hooking them up to the containment unit. Patricia slowly forced her aching body over to the line of massage chairs, plopping down in one of them. She did not hesitate to turn it on, kicking the feet up and closing her exhausted eyes. "Is it time to go home yet?" She mumbled.

"It is...." Kevin paused to look at the digital clock on his desk. "Three, oh ten."

"You mean 3:10." Erin corrected, moseying on over to the staircase. "I am taking a shower and resting for the rest of the day. My body cannot handle anymore right now."

Patty let out a pained chuckle. "You're tellin' me!" 

Dr. Gilbert sent, a mute, Abigail a look of estrangement before ascending the stairs. Abby sat down in the chair at her desk, rubbing her forehead as if it would help rid the pain of the post possession headache. Kevin recognized the action, walking over to her and offering some aspirin. She sighed and shrugged, taking them with no drink. She took off her glasses afterward just to rub her sad, tired eyes. When she opened them, she saw that Kevin was still standing there. "That's why I take the lenses out." He softly grinned.

Yates couldn't help but let out a petite snicker with a shake of her head. "Thanks, Kevin."

"Need anything else, Boss?" He wondered with his hands behind his back.

"No, I'm-I'm good. You can go relax in one of the chairs if you want." She gestured toward the recliners.

"Only if you relax, too." He knew that they both must feel the same way, having been possessed. It was quite an unpleasant and unnatural feeling. It feels almost as if your soul had been shrunken in order to fit another and now there are empty spaces in your slightly hollow vessel while you wait for your soul to grow back to its proper size again. It's awkwardly tiring and in some ways, painful. Lord knows Abby wanted to refuse, but looking up at his sweet face and seeing him put a hand out to offer to help her stand, she couldn't resist. 

After returning her glasses to her face, she took his hand and stood. He let her walk in front of him and followed her over to sit near, an already sleeping, Patty.

"Hey, Holtz?" Erin peeked into the lab upstairs.

"Yes, Slime Buddy?" Jillian joked.

Gilbert fought the urge to roll her eyes. "Are you gonna need help with the removal of the ectoplasm?" 

"No, I-I think I can handle it myself." After engaging the last ghost trap into the containment unit, the slimy blonde walked over to the doorway to greet Erin.

"You sure? It's pretty tricky, you can't just get into the shower. It makes it worse, I've learned the hard way." 

"Hm...Really?" Holtz squinted up at the taller woman, holding back a laugh. She reached up, pushing some of the slime on Erin's eyebrow to the side just in time before it would drip into the brunette's eye. 

"Yeah. Come on. I'll show you what I've found works best." Gilbert awkwardly swallowed before turning and heading to their lockers to grab clean clothes and towels. While they grabbed their stuff, Erin talked her through it. "First, you take some baby powder...it's gonna be gross, but it works...and you just put it wherever there's slime. It'll get clumpy, but it'll be easier to just peel right off and, this is the most important part-" She stopped and made Jill look right at her. "...throw it away. Do not let it go down the drain or it will get clogged."

"So, that's why you have so much baby powder in your locker." Holtz laughed and caught a hostile look from the other woman, who then shut her locker. With wide eyes and an uncomfortable smile, Holtzmann shut her own locker as well, following Erin to the showers.

"Then after you think you've got all of it off and it's thrown away, you can hop in. One thing though, if you do find more, when you are done showering, get out, put on some more powder in just that area and then hop in to rinse off one more time." The brunette forced her to take one of the bottles of baby powder that was in her hand. "Here." 

After a moment of strange eye contact, the shorter one began to speak. "Erin, I-"

"Not right now." She interrupted, knowing exactly where she was going with this. "I just need to get this slime off." Immediately, Erin left and headed to her own shower, not in the mood for anyone's explanation as to why she never knew about Abby's engagement. 

Jillian tilted her head to the side in disappointment as she watched her frustrated girlfriend walk away from her before listening. Sighing, she brushed it off for now and began the difficult process of removing the ectoplasm. 

When Holtz was finally able to get in the shower, she danced to a song in her head, but didn't sing remembering that Erin was just around the corner from her and would probably be able to hear. Normally she wouldn't care, but the former professor was in a bitter mood at the moment and Jillian expected her to grow even more annoyed at her routine quirkiness. After the great time they had the night before, Holtzmann had expected today to be easy and exciting, but it had been the opposite...strenuous and saddening.

When she was sure she had washed as much of the slime off as possible, she turned the water off and got out with the towel wrapped firmly around her body. She headed out, turning the corner and almost bumping into, a dripping wet, Erin. Both in their towels, both still warm from the steam, both blushing. 

Erin kept her eyes down to her feet and Jillian stared at the woman's soaked hair. Clearing her throat, Holtzy darted around Gilbert with her own head down. Erin looked up when the blonde was gone and she sighed, staring at the back wall, clutching the towel even tighter to her body and swallowing hard before turning around to go into a bathroom stall to dry off and put her clothes on.