By ColdDaye
When the Ghostbusters came back to the Institute, it was Perfect Tommy?s fault. He?d promised not to mess with the Jet Car after a bad run of tests that showed the overthruster needed to be tinkered with ? or hadn?t needed to be tinkered with in the first place, which was also Perfect Tommy?s fault. He?d tinkered and taken it for a ?test-drive? along the beach to pick up some babes ? and dodging Little Red?s latest commitment talk. Going there was fine, coming back was a little odd?it?d taken thirty minutes to get there and two to come back?and picked up a couple of passengers along the way.
Luckily, the Ghostbusters had been right in the area, doing a stint on a haunted house as Halloween was only a couple days away. They?d come right over much to Pinky?s chagrin with the Ecto-1 blaring away and explained that there was a massive tear in some dimensional something. All this took a day to trickle down to Norah and considering it was coming from Samantha, she was probably not getting some more of the technical terms, but it sounded scary enough. Apparently there were ghostly sightings all over the Institute and everyone was panicking, or very carefully not in some cases. This had happened before, you know.
Samantha with all her wide eyed sincerity leaned over her plate of yogurt and peaches and Norah watched as she ran her sleeve through cherry dairy and thought about telling her. Samantha twisted her left hand and Norah saw light glint off the engagement ring and blinked as she realized the blonde had stopped talking. ?Are you okay?? Samantha asked.
?Yeah,? Norah said, why wouldn?t she be? Oh. That?s right. Samantha was one of the few who knew. She pushed her watery scrambled eggs into the maple syrup and they sat in silence for a few moments. Presently, she became aware of the beating of hooves. So had Samantha in the way she was looking around. Norah twisted around and looked for the source, maybe ghostly soldiers or something.
She saw Slow Motion?s head jerk up and his eyes swept the room then very carefully he looked back down at the newspaper and to all appearances ignored the sound. But Norah could see one hand tighten white knuckles around his fork.
The sound quieted after only a minute.
?Peter! I told you, the traps ? ?
?Are not ALL full, Egon?There?s gotta be one of them around here ? ? Dr. Venkman began tossing traps with careful abandon. ?Full, full, full, ah! Nope, full.?
?Hey guys??
?What Ray?? Spengler demanded as he swept the PKE meter around in front of him encompassing the gardens, green house, and main buildings.
?Didn?t Dr. Banzai have something to close this last time??
?No ? well, yes, but we don?t even know if this is the same type of tear as last time.?
?Well, a tear?s a tear, isn?t it?? Winston said, removing a trap from his foot where Venkman had dropped it.
?Well, I ? ?
?Egon,? Peter stood trapless, because they were indeed all full, ?Do you really have a better idea? We have to be back by six for the community dinner.?
?You just want to go because Cindy?ll be there,? Ray muttered to him.
?I broke up with Cindy ? you mean Tanya,? Peter answered, out of the side of his mouth.
?I ? ? Egon dropped his shoulders. Janine would be waiting for him and Winston had explained on the way over why she?d been so miffed that he had been late for their date last week. This could make it up to her and maybe she?d stop rescheduling their appointments without telling them. Winston swore the two were related.
?Alright,? he said.
?So they shot something into the whatever it was and closed it,? Neal tightened his grip on the box and hefted with his legs and wondered why frozen meat had to weigh so much. He?d heard the rest of the story from Pecos and was now dutifully letting his future wife in on the secret, secret just because the US Gov didn?t like this happening. Once was enough, twice was too much, and now some people were making noises that the whole Institute should be shut down but they always did that.
?So it?s all over?? Samantha asked. She?d opted to carry carrots in a grocery bag this round, up the small hill to the cafeteria kitchen entrance.
?Yep, that?s it!? He shifted his weight onto his back foot and opened the door with his other foot.
There were still the ghosts to contend with. Big ghosts, little ghosts, scary ghosts, not so scary.
As he was re-tying his tie for the third time Dr. Banzai repeated his speech for the awards reception, ?It is such a great honor to accept this award?just glad we could help?no?very excited to continue working together?? He squinted at his reflection, was it getting blurry? The lines Peggy swore weren?t there were deepening and his legs seemed to be shortening. He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head. When he opened them again he didn?t recognize the person in the mirror. Except that he did.
Dad, Father, what do you call your dad when you?re all grown up? He?d never had cause to wonder, because ? and now all he could do was stare in shock as the ghost raised a hand in a wave, and smiled like he?d seen so long ago whenever his father was proud of him. The joy would come later but he felt something give something that all the rewards or the thankful people couldn?t touch, something that he hadn?t even realized he needed. His father was proud of him. And now he knew. He stared at the ghost trying to figure out just the right words until it began to fade, still smiling and all that came out was, ??wait-?
Norah had gotten over the shock of seeing her dead sister in her room pretty quickly. She was thankful the bullet hole didn?t show, or had been somehow not transferred to the after life. ?Hi, Morrigan,? she said.
?Hiya sweet-treat,? Morrigan replied, smiling. She still had lip gloss on and Norah almost fooled herself into thinking she could smell the grape flavoring.
?So, what are you doing here??
?I?m checkin? out your new digs. Good place, okay people,? the ghost gestured to the wall next to Norah?s bed, ?I like this,? she said, about the photo collage. ?It?s every bit of you.? That had been important, when Morrigan was alive, that Norah find every facet of herself.
?Thanks,? she said, then, ?Only okay people?? she smiled. It hurt to smile.
?That Theo guy, watch him. Tell him if he touches my little sweet-treat I?ll haunt his sorry ass in a way no cavity can match!? Morrigan looked so grim that Norah knew she wasn?t joking. Norah hoped somewhere that Theo would mess up again, would give Morrigan a reason to stay or come back at least, but she squashed it quickly.
?I?will.? That seemed to be all there was to say. Not, please don?t go, not I miss you, not is mom there too? Because some things couldn?t be said. They were understood, anyway.
Morrigan looked at her and nodded slowly, ?We all love the fine tune you are sweet-treat. Every bit.? She cocked her head, ?There?s a someone for an everyone, sweet-treat.?
She had told her that almost every day for a year while she brushed Norah?s hair in the morning, so Norah nodded, ?I know.?
Morrigan smiled, ?Yeah. But sometimes you need reminding.? She passed a ghostly hand over the space between the two sisters and then said, ?I?ve got your back for always, Lenorah Deirdre Tappersling.? And then she was gone.
Norah touched the air before her and smiled again and tears fell down her cheeks but it was a good kind of crying. It needed doing.
And because it was Perfect Tommy?s fault in the first place, and he needed some sort of punishing his wardrobe got slimed. Again. He tossed a used to be brilliant blue silk shirt on the ground in disgust. ?Very funny!? he shouted. No one answered.
Last time, it?d been Rawhide. This time it was probably the s- but Rawhide was alive now?Perfect Tommy slipped his gun from his belt and held it in front of him. He turned and tracked his eyes up from the blue shirt that?d cost somewhere around a hundred or so over the bo on the floor and then up on the bed and his finger tightened around the trigger as he saw
But that would be telling.
