A New Kind of Science / Holtzbert

Promise?

"Benny!" Abby said with excitement. "You finally got it right! Good job! You...you actually get a tip this time." Yates set the food down on her desk, happy that she had finally gotten a good quality of her order from the Chinese place she constantly ordered from. Though she had no clue why she continued to order from them when her order was never satisfactory. She reached into her pocket book, pulling out her wallet and paying the delivery man she now knew very well. "Hey, Holtzy." She smiled at her friend who walked into work right after her. "Benny got it right this time." Abby playfully punched Ben in the arm as she said it and Jillian gave her a smile and a nod. 

"It's about darn time." The blonde looked back at them as she continued to head for the stairs with her bag.

"Alright." Abby said with contentment. "You get out of here and keep doing what you're doing." She patted Benny on the back when he turned to leave with the money.

Holtzmann made her way up the stairs and into her office. Upon entering, she saw that she had company. "Oh. Hey, Patty." She set her bag down next to the door and went further into the lab. "What can I do you for?" The blonde wondered, setting her hands on her hips as she moved to stand behind her counter.

"Nothin.' I just wanted to hang out." Patricia folded her hands on the table in front of her and looked around the room.

Jillian leaned to her right, as if doing hip stretches and when she stood up straight again, she slammed both fists down on the counter like a gorilla with a grunt. The action, surprisingly had no reaction from Patty. Clearing her throat, Jillian spoke. "You want to talk about yesterday." She talked, barely moving her lips and Patty just looked at her.

"Mhm." Tolan admitted, waiting for the blonde to speak. It was silent for a moment.

"Well," Holtzmann began, "...I don't want to talk about yesterday."

"Why not?" Patty sort of whispered. "Now you have someone who knows that you can talk to. And I'm a good listener, man. I know I'm a talker, but no one knows this about me...sometimes I just love to listen."

Jillian retracted her neck, giving herself a small double chin for a moment before she extended her neck and opened her mouth as if she were about to talk, but nothing came out. She rested both hands on the table between them and retracted her neck once more before looking down at the floor beneath her. When she looked up again, she almost shouted, "There's nothing to talk about!" Though she shouted, it was not in frustration nor anger, but just in the manner that she felt like it...and she was weird. 

"That's bull." Patty shook her head, not buying it. She knew that if it was enough to change Holtzy's mood...then there HAD to be something to talk about. "Look, maybe I can help you." 

"Jillian Holtzmann never needs help." The blonde stated and she pulled the goggles that rested on her head down over her eyes.

Patty sat in disbelief for a moment as she just looked at her friend. "Alright, fine. Then at least answer me a question." Holtzy opened her eyes some more, not wanting to tell anybody anything. But she stood and waited for the question anyways. "When did it start?" 

"Hmmmmmmmmm, what?" The blonde haired, blue eyed, idiosyncratic genius responded.

"You getting all sweet on Gilbert. When did it start?" 

Jillian nervously looked to the door, hoping no one was standing there and Patty looked as well. When they both saw nothing, they looked back to each other. "I wouldn't really...call it that. Is that what you'd call it?" She made a strange face and looked to the ceiling as if she were thinking of another phrase, but Patty interrupted her thoughts.

"I'm serious, Holtzy." Patty looked to the door one more time, then back to Jill.

The shorter woman squinted her eyes, looking at the wall behind Patty. "I don't see why it even matters-"

"Just answer the question." 

Holtzmann sighed and leaned against the table once more, looking down at her feet. "Well, to be completely honest with you," she looked back up at Tolan, "...it's been since the day we met. But it only got bad a couple weeks ago and-" She stopped herself.

"And what?" Patty tilted her head, hoping she'd go on. Jillian didn't want to mention what happened last night with her emotions and she let out a long sigh with an irritated groan. "What?" Patty repeated.

"Something happened last night." The blonde kicked at the floor before letting go of the table and putting both hands in her pockets. She swayed back and forth on both feet, looking to Patty and hoping she would just catch on without her having to say another word.

"What? What happened?" Patty wondered.

Jillian opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted when Erin walked in with a question. "Hey, uh...do either of you know where Kevin is? His stuff is here, but we can't find him." 

"No. I ain't seen him." Patty answered. 

"Nope. No idea." Jillian, with her hands still in her pockets, began to move her arms as if flapping a pair of wings. Patty noticed she never looked to the woman in the doorway.

"Huh? Weird." Erin looked to the floor as if trying to think of somewhere he could be. "Thanks, guys." She turned and left.

Patricia shrugged her shoulders, still wondering why Kevin was ever hired in the first place. She shook her head and turned to see the blonde, completely still. Her hands were still in her pockets and the only thing that moved was her head. She slightly tilted it up, looking back to Patty through her yellow lenses. A thick strand of her wavy hair covered her left eye, however, and Patty saw the woman's throat as she swallowed hard and let out a loud breath of air. This is when Tolan realized.....Jillian was in love. And she now knew what 'taking evasive action' meant in the poor scientist's context the other day. She was trying to avoid this falling in love thing by staying away from Gilbert as much as possible. When Holtzmann bit her bottom lip, Patty stood up from her stool. "I gotta tell her."

"Don't you dare!" Jillian ripped off her goggles and over-dramatically slammed them down on the table.

"Holtzy, you're in love. If you don't say something soon, I'm-I'm afraid it's gonna slip out." Patty's hands were thrown up in defense and she backed away from the table.

"It might not even be love." The blonde smiled as if it were ridiculous. "I've never been in it, so maybe I'm just pulling my own leg." She laughed as if that was the true case and picked up her goggles from the table again. She began twirling them around her finger and kept a smile while looking at Patty, who just stared at her. It was silent for quite a while and Jillian's smile began to fade the longer Tolan stared at her. She stopped twirling the goggles and begged, "Please, just don't say anything? To ANYONE...not even Abby."

The taller woman snickered and shook her head. " Yeah, alright. Fine." 

"You promise?" Jillian asked in one of her strange voices. 

"I won't!" Patricia swore and the shorter ghostbuster let out a sigh of relief and a playful yelp for joy before oddly raising her hands in the air as a celebration of victory. Deep down, however, she was still a mess of emotions and she forced herself to be a logical scientist and completely ignore them. Tolan tried her best not to roll her eyes at the stubborn woman and she turned to go downstairs. 

The moment she was gone, Jillian brought her hands back down and she sighed, leaning one against the table. She looked down at the hammer beside her and picked it up. After staring at it for a moment, she hit the table with the end of it once and sat back down in her stool. "Oh, Jillian, Jillian." She spoke aloud to herself. "You've gotten yourself into a new kind of science."