Every member of the Ghostbusters team left the apartment building silently. When they reached the Ecto-3, Erin finally spoke. "Thanks, guys for what you did back there. Sticking up for me? You didn't have to do that."
"Yes, we did." Patty shook her head. "We've always got your back, girl."
"Thank you....very much. I appreciate that." She nodded, holding back tears. "Holtzmann, I'm glad you came."
"Quick question?" Abby spoke up. "How did you get here so fast and how did you know that this was the place?"
Hesitant to speak, Jillian sighed. "I've been working on some new gadgets at home. I call them ghost pagers."
Abby and Erin looked at each other with large grins on their faces and Yates held up hers. "Yeah, we know. We found them when we..." Gilbert cleared her throat, reminding Abby that they illegally trespassed and broke into Holtz's apartment. "...when we found them." Abby's smile faded and she slowly brought the beeper back down to her side. Holtzy was not surprised at all, but she still closed her eyes as she'd hoped they wouldn't see the pagers until they were finished.
"Well, anyway...that still doesn't explain how you knew to come here." Erin tried to get Holtzmann to continue.
"Right. Well, yours are not as advanced as mine is." Jill took hers out of her pocket and held it up for display. "I've added more features to mine, including the ability to track the location of the client's phone when they call into the station, sending a signal to our pagers and typing in the address which shows up on the screen here." She pointed to the small screen. "I haven't perfected it yet, but that is why I have not told you about them nor have I continued this feature and added onto the other pagers themselves." Proud of herself, she did a small fist bump in the air before putting her pager back in her pocket. "Which is why I must ask to take all of yours back now please." She held her right hand out as if waiting for the other women to hand their pagers back to her...and they did.
While Jillian put the other three beepers into the duffel bag on her shoulder, Abby looked up at Kevin. "I'm sorry we didn't get to catch a ghost today, Kev."
"Oh, that's alright. There's always next time." He smiled down at her and she sent him a fake grin before turning away from him to glare at Patty with an 'oh no' expression.
"Well, we better get back to the station." Yates spoke, not wanting to open that can of worms at the moment. She opened the car door to the passenger seat and stepped in, followed by Kevin who got in the back seat behind her. Patty walked around the car, getting in the driver's seat and Erin turned to notice Holtzmann was no longer amongst them.
She looked further down the street and saw the blonde hopping into a cab. "I'll see you guys later!" She yelled as she ran down the sidewalk, away from the hearse.
"Where you goin?'" Patty yelled to her.
Gilbert didn't answer, however, as she focused on catching the taxi Jillian had stepped into. She reached the yellow vehicle and opened the door, getting in. Holtzmann's eyes widened when she turned to see the brunette beside her. "Where to?" The cab driver asked.
Erin gave him the address to the former fire station and she turned to smile at Jillian. Though when she looked to her left, the eccentric inventor was getting out of the cab on the other side. "Wait, no. Holtzmann!" As Gilbert attempted to catch her friend getting out, the yellow door was slammed shut and she pressed her face to the window, calling for her coworker. "Holtz!" Before she was able to open the door, the cab driver pulled away and Erin looked out of the back window, watching Jillian call for another taxi.
The Ecto-mobile pulled up to the garage of the old fire station and Erin's cab pulled up right behind it. She paid the driver and got out, accidentally slamming the back door shut with frustration.
"Yo! Where'd you go?" Patty asked the brunette when she walked into the station after them.
"Well...I was trying to catch Holtzmann, but she got out of the cab and the driver pulled away before she would even let me speak." Both Abby and Patty sighed before setting their equipment and jumpsuits back into their lockers upstairs. "Who knows where she went now." Erin sadly shook her head while she put her own stuff away as well.
To their surprise, they heard the door downstairs open and Abby and Patty walked over to the staircase, looking down to see Holtzy walk in. Erin watched them while she still stood by the lockers and she gulped, feeling her nerves going crazy. After looking down to the first floor, Abby turned to nod at Erin as if telling her it was Jillian and she was heading for the second floor. Patty backed away from the staircase and almost into Holtzmann's lab area as the blonde ascended the steps. Reaching the top floor, she pretended not to see Yates or Tolan and she walked her equipment right on over to her locker.
Still standing inches from her own locker on the end, Erin watched the engineer while she threw her stuff in the maroon colored metal cabinet. The brunette opened her mouth several times to say something, but nothing ever came out and the heat that spread throughout her body almost caused her to scream in frustration. Holtz shut her locker door and headed back for the stairs. The moment she stepped down the first two, she instantly turned back around, going back up and into her lab to grab her cell phone, which she had remembered she'd left there earlier.
Patty, Abby, and Erin watched her do so and the tallest of the three looked back and forth between her two colleagues. Abby and Erin were confused at Patty's tension until they soon realized what she was thinking. Tolan took a very deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment before clenching her fists and walking into Holtzmann's lab after her. Erin finally walked closer to Abby who had turned to see what was going on and joined her in watching what was about to go down.
While Jillian was in the room, she had decided to check on the Ecto Containment Unit before leaving as well as a couple more of her inventions for good measure before deciding to leave again. During her quick examinations, Patricia ineptly stood in the center of the room, deciding on what she would say. The best she could come up with was, "Holtzy?" Though she spoke, her words did not stop the blonde. Patty was a bit hurt at being ignored, though she understood it was necessary and well-deserved. She continued. "I know what I did was wrong and it hurt you. And I'm sorry. I just want you to know that." Still, Jillian continued to pay more attention to her technological advances. "I'd understand if you never did forgive me, but I'm just wondering...would you ever consider accepting my apology?" She waited for an answer, but still nothing. "That's cool." The darker woman turned to leave, but halted at the door and turned back to face Holtzmann, who had finally stopped moving around. "You know what? I get that you don't wanna talk to ME...but there's no need for you to ignore Erin, man. She's done nothing wrong in this whole situation."
"I'm not ignoring her." The wacky woman almost whispered, but her friend still heard.
"Well, it sure seems like you are. And it ain't right."
Suddenly, Jillian slammed the metal box meant to temporarily hold caught ghosts down on the desk beside her. "How could you, Patty?" She tore her goggles off her head, gripping them tightly in her right hand.
"I know." The former MTA employee muttered. "But I gave you a chance to say something and I told you it would slip out eventually. All I was doing was trying to help. And I'm sorry for hating to see you like this." Outside the door, Abby and Erin quickly glanced at each other before turning their gaze back to the arguing pair. Yates made a small note of the redness she saw in her best friend's cheeks.
"Like what?" Holtzy wondered.
"Like someone different." Patty admitted and Holtzmann's mood changed from that of anger, to disappointed agreement. The blonde didn't say a word. She hadn't a clue what to do. She just stood and stared at Tolan for a moment before her gaze moved passed her tall friend and to the brunette a few feet behind Patty. Erin swallowed hard when the blonde looked at her and she bit her lower lip, as usual. After about fifteen seconds, Holtzmann's blue eyes moved to the other woman behind Patty and she felt embarrassed in front of Abby. The woman with glasses looked to Erin beside her when she noticed Holtzy looking at herself.
Once Abby looked to her best friend, Jillian looked down at the floor in front of her with a sigh. She pursed her lips before putting her hands in the large pockets of her overalls and tilting her head to the side while she still stared at the floor. In the silence, she swore she could hear some movement coming from the Ecto Containment Unit. Taking in a deep breath, she decided to speak, though it was soft and she barely muttered clearly enough to understand her. "Erin...I am...sorry...for ignoring you." Her eyes flicked around the room, but never up to the other women present. "I didn't realize I was...and I hope it did not change your views on me as a person."
"That's okay." Gilbert opened her mouth to add her own thoughts on the situation, but was interrupted when Jillian continued.
"Abby, I hope I have not made you uncomfortable in anyway and I really hope we can still be friends." Still, she never looked up and she spoke abnormally fast. It was almost a reenactment of her 'meaning of life' speech in the diner the week after they saved NYC from Rowan. "Especially because we have a really cool handshake and you are the reason I have any friends in the first place."
Yates began to respond. "Of course we're still-"
"And Patty...I am still very mad at you. But you are still very important to me and I don't know how long I hold one of these grudges things, but hopefully it isn't too long or I will just have to quit." The blonde kicked her right combat boot at the floor she stared down at and she felt her hands sweating in her pockets. She refused to look up at any of them.
"What?"Patty and the others took a couple steps forward as they protested.
"No." Erin said.
"You can't quit!" Abby added.
"We need you, Holtzy." Patty spoke up.
"And you know what you all did for me at Bethany's today? We would all do the same for you. Right, guys?" Erin looked to Patty and Abby.
"Absolutely!" Abigail agreed.
Patricia nodded. "Everytime!"
Holtz replied. "Thanks, guys, but I-"
"No!" Gilbert interrupted, a bit aggressively. "You shouldn't quit just because we all know the truth." She paused, looking down at her own feet. "If anything, I'll quit."
"No, I should." Tolan began. "I'm the one who messed things up."
"No, guys. Stop!" Abby almost yelled, stepping in front of Patty, making herself the new center of the room. "NO ONE is quitting alright? I know we've only been together a couple months, but we're all family and we're sticking together. Period. Okay?" She constantly looked back and forth between all three of her closest and only friends. "Don't let what we've built fall apart." Her voice cracked as she spoke. "Now, Patty...you and I are gonna go downstairs to try and convince Kevin that he doesn't need to catch ghosts with us. Meanwhile...Erin you stay up here and you and Holtz are gonna have a talk."
Both Erin and Jill tried to object at the same time.
"But-" Came from the blonde.
"I don't-" Erin shook her head.
"No." Abby scolded. "You're talking." She looked at Holtzmann, then back to Erin, then to Tolan. "Patty, let's go." She began to exit the room, walking by the tallest of the four and hinting at the woman to follow her.
Patricia sighed, getting one last look at Holtzy before turning around to leave. "I really am sorry." As she left, she passed Erin who sent her a weak smile before feeling all the blood rushing to her head. She knew she still had no clue what she would say to the short, quirky scientist, but she decided she'd obey Abby and think of something.