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It was like a car crash. You couldn’t peel your gaze away, but you couldn’t bear to look at it any longer.
Upon entering your bakery in the morning, you were horrified to find half your display case shattered, treats either missing or squished on the floor. Were you robbed? Against your better judgement, you held your keys in between your fingers as a makeshift weapon and headed to the cash register.
All the money is still here? You glanced back towards the door curiously. It had been locked normally, and the windows weren’t broken or undisturbed. You headed to the kitchen to see if the back door had been breached but froze in your tracks once you saw… it.
A disgusting, green, floating...blob… was snarling and slobbering down anything it could find; other display items made the night before yet to be displayed, eggs, milk. Its eyes were beady and small, its teeth large and yellow. You couldn't believe it… it was an actual ghost. Standing- no, floating in your kitchen.
Gently stepping back to the front, your hands shook as you grabbed your phone off the wall and punched in the number for the commercial you had seen at least 3 times every day, 555-2368.
It wasn’t long before the loud roar of sirens approached, a white hearse screeching to a halt in front of your business, 4 large men stepping out. You had been standing by the door, unlocking it and approaching them quickly.
Before you could get a word out, a tall man with round cheeks and a tired, yet bright smile held his hand out.
“Hi, we’re the Ghostbusters! I’m Ray, this is Peter, Winston, and Egon.” He introduced each man, and you tried to force a smile.
“Hello. Uh, thank you so much for coming. I didn’t… I didn’t know who else to call. Obviously.” You grimaced, your nervousness making you flustered. “I- I came in this morning and saw everything smashed. I thought I was robbed but I saw… I saw...” You broke your sentence with an incredulous laugh. “I sound crazy.”
“You don’t sound crazy.” A deep voice came from your right. Dark, warm eyes behind thin-rimmed glasses met yours. Egon, if you remembered correctly. “The PKE is picking up valances. We believe you.” His words calmed your racing heartbeat. “Can you tell us what you saw?”
“This ugly little green booger, eating everything in the building.” Ray and Peter’s faces whipped to face you, a bunch of questions from both being spewed at you.
“Uh guys, maybe give her a minute.” Winston interjected.
“A spud-looking ugly blob?” Peter asked, and you nodded. “This job just got a lot more personal.” He muttered, cursing under his breath.
“You know him?” You sputtered as they started to head inside, trailing behind Egon.
“We had an encounter with him once before at the Sedgewick Hotel. He then escaped during the Gozer incident, and we’ve been looking for him since. Peter seems especially against it since he was slimed.” The tall man turned back to face you, jumping at your proximity. “It might do you better to stay out here. Things might get quite messy.” You opened your mouth to interject before sparks of red and shattering sounds stopped you.
“I’ll be out here then.” Egon started to walk back inside before stopping once more.
“I’m not the best at reading people… would you like me to stay out here with you?”
“Don’t you need to be inside... helping?”
“The last time we handled this guy it only took three of us to trap him.”
“And how exactly do you guys trap these ghosts? I’ve always wondered.”
“Well the PKE scanner searches for traces of psycho kinetic energy. It acts like a compass to guide us to apparitions. Then we use our proton packs, each equipped with a nuclear accelerator and positron collider to emit proton streams to paralyze…” He trailed off, ripping his gaze from yours. “Peter tells me my ramblings are boring to anyone other than Ray. I’ll stop.”
“No, no. Keep going. Please.” You smiled, already feeling better about the handling of the ghost in your business. “It might sound ridiculous, but the more you explain about it, the better I feel.” He seemed to give a little smirk, clearing his throat before continuing.
You found Egon charming, obviously intelligent, and humorous. You let him talk all about paranormal experiences and parapsychology studies, trying not to focus on the occasional ruckus you could hear from outside.
“Again, I apologize for the early call. Your commercial did say you were available at all times, but there’s slime all over my equipment, I can’t even offer you guys breakfast or coffee. But please, feel free to come back anytime. I guarantee you all a lifetime supply of anything.” You nervously chuckled.
“No need to apologize. We meant what we said, I just never hypothesized that we would yield so many positive results in such rapid succession.”
Your ears perked as the door opened, the rest of the ghostbusters gang smiling triumphantly as Peter held the smoking trap.
“You got it!?” You cried, jumping excitedly.
“Oh, we got it. That ugly little blister will again rue the day he messed with Peter Venkman.” He snickered to himself, handing the trop over to Ray as he approached you. “Now, comes the method of payment-”
“That will be $75.” Egon chimed in. You were stunned, enough to miss the matching looks on the others' faces.
“Oh. Really? From how much you told me about the equipment, I was sure it was going to be more. I’m not sure if my insurance covers ‘class five full roaming vapor,’” You quoted Egon’s earlier ramblings. “So I’m already anticipating a loan in my future.”
“$75.” Egon stated again. You felt your cheeks flush at his kindness.
“Deal. I’ll have a check for you at the end of the week.” The group had quickly packed up and left soon after that, leaving you to your own devices.
“So,” Venkman’s voice broke the silence in the hearse. “When I fancy a customer I’m a ‘creep’ and ‘game show wannabe’ but when Egon does it and deprives us of $4,925, I might add, it’s cute?”
“At least his girlfriend’s fully human, Venkman.” Winston teased, rolling the window down to light a cigarette.
“She’s not my girlfriend.” Egon stated bluntly but remained quiet. Peter would say, and Egon would have to agree, he wasn’t the best with women, usually preferring to avoid them. It was either that or have to live through the ill-attempted fibs they conjured when he finally opened up to them only to be considered a freak or nerd. You seemed different, kind. And not in a fake way.
But it didn’t matter. They had finished the job and logically, would never cross paths with you again.
-
You had paid the Ghostbusters and eventually gotten your business back up and running. When the news got a hold of the Ghostbusters having a bust at your place, business boomed, eager adults and teens coming in to capitalize on phantom fever.
And Yet, even as time passed you somehow you couldn’t shake the kindness of Egon Spengler comforting you. And he wasn’t… unattractive...
Okay, so he was really attractive.
That thick, curly hair, sharp jaw, and deep voice. You’d have to be blind to ignore it. You were surprised none of the tabloids ever reported anyone else but Peter with a girlfriend.
But that’s not why you were going to the headquarters, at least, that’s what you kept telling yourself. You knew Egon had given you a discount, although you couldn’t imagine anyone why. The only reason you could think of was he felt bad with how startled you were.
No, you were heading to the headquarters with four large offerings of cookies, muffins, cupcakes, sweet loaves, chocolate truffles, danishes, and brownies.
“Can I help you?” You recognized the familiar voice, the deskplate reading “Janine Melnitz.”
“Hi! I was wondering if I could talk to someone? I don’t have an appointment, but the Ghostbusters helped me out awhile back and I never felt as if I properly thanked them. Um- I also remember speaking with you so, I brought you something to thank you with.” You pulled your arms up to show the baskets you were holding.
A broad smile broke out on her face, Janine standing and helping you carry your goods upstairs to the kitchen.
“Well, well, well… look what we have here.” Ray, Winston and Peter sat at the kitchen table, playing cards, standing once they caught sight of you and Janine.
“These are for us?” Ray asked, making you chuckle.
“Oh yeah, ever since the Ghostbusters came, my bakery is New York’s hottest, most affordable, hangout.” You snickered, trying not to be obvious as you looked around to catch sight of the parapsychologist who had been occupying your thoughts.
“You know who would love these? Egon.” Peter teased, and you tried not to blush. “You should take some down to him, he’s in the basement checking up on the Containment Unit.”
“No, that’s fine, I really should leave anyway. Wouldn’t want to inconvenience you all any longer.”
“Nonsense, Dr. Spengler loves sweet things, has such a penchant for them, I’m sure you could actually get him to eat something, and if you can, a little water, okay? Janine, if you could escort her, please?” You had no time to make up a decent excuse as Peter rambled on, waving to dismiss you.
“Venkman, you’re playing a dangerous game.” Ray mumbled under his breath.
“No, I believe dangerous would be defined as having dreams about spectral entities sucking you off.” Peter retorted, making Winston choke on his muffin and silencing Ray. “One of you guys has to get a real girlfriend.”
Your steps were heavy on the metal stairs, drawing Egon’s attention. You. The woman he hadn’t stopped thinking about, no matter how hard he tried.
“Hi.” You greeted shyly.
“Good afternoon.” Egon pushed his glasses up. “What do we owe the pleasure?”
“I dropped some gifts off as a thank you. I hope you enjoy them, since I have no doubt you won’t accept anything else as payment.” You teased boldly, trying to hide your nerves. “I heard you were a fan.”
“My parents didn’t allow for sweets, but on the few occasions I would visit my grandparents my grandmother would always sneak me a twinkie or two.”
“Sounds like your parents were strict.” Your hip leaned against the edge of his desk. “My grandmother is the one that taught me how to bake, and inspired my dream of owning my own bakery.”
“How is the bakey?” He asked. “No other entities? Ectoplasm? Moanings? Rumblings?”
“No, nothing that I’ve seen. A few of my workers are still spooked, even if they didn’t see anything.” You sighed. “It’s too bad they don’t understand PKE readings, you could come by again and do a reading to calm them down. Is that the right term? PKE?” You could see a quirk of that unseen smile peak at the corner of his mouth.
“Correct. You could be a ghostbuster.” You snorted.
“As if. I could barely complete an associate’s degree, let alone a PhD.”
“Do you think I should?”
“Hm?”
“A PKE reading. Should I come by and check it out?” He stepped in towards you, concerned.
“Oh! No, I don’t think it’s that serious.” Fuck. If you liked him, shouldn’t you find an excuse to see him again? “Unless, you think so, Dr. I trust your professional expertise.”
“It’s better to be safe than sorry.” He decided, stare unwavering with yours. You coughed awkwardly, pointing to the control panels on the walls.
“So, what is all this stuff?”
“Oh, this is where we put all the vapors and entities that we trap.”
“Really?” You looked at the equipment again with a spark of interest. “Is it unprofessional to ask if you could show me? As an honorary Ghostbuster, of course.” A light exhale escaped his nostrils.
“Of course.” He mumbled, grabbing an empty trap. “Once we catch something we load a trap here, open, unlock the system. Insert the trap, release, close, lock the system.
It’s extremely important to remember to set your entry grid and neutralize your field. The ghost is incarcerated here in a custom-made storage facility.”
“Custom-made? You made it?” His sheepish grin said it all. He’s so cute when he smiles. “Do you mind if I try?” He stepped back, letting you grip the trap.
“Okay, so I load the trap here and release…”
“Close,” Egon recited. “Lock the system.” You turned to notice how close you both were to each other, trying to remain calm.
“And then I set the entry grid to neutralize the field.” You press the top button, finger hesitating over the bottom two buttons, his proximity making you forget.
“Don’t press the bottom one.” He gently grabbed your wrist to press the middle one. “It’s a reversal button. It would let the ghosts out.” You scoffed.
“Why have a reversal button?”
“I’m trying to figure out a way to safely extract all the contained vapors in case the storage unit overflows. It’s happened before.”
“The Gozer incident?”
“Not exactly. It was the asshole from the EPA.” He softly cursed. “But I’m still trying to figure out logistics before theorizing a hypothesis and conducting experiments.”
“I think what you’re doing is really great. Saving people from ghosts, saving… saving me.” Your tongue peeked out to nervously lick your lips, only realizing then that his hand was still holding yours. His gaze seemed calculated as he stared at you, and you wondered if he could hear your heart practically beating out of its chest. You opened your mouth to say something, anything but before you could, his lips met yours.
His lips trembled, but you couldn’t blame him, you were quite nervous yourself. You could feel him pull away, but you didn’t want it to end, freeing his tie from under his sweater vest and pulling him closer.
He let out a noise of surprise, arms coming to wrap around your waist, slipping over the wire of the trap, safely stuck in the containment center, and making you both slam into the wall. You both only separated to sip a quick breath before tangling your fingers in those thick, irresistible curls.
He was more confident this time, capturing your bottom lip between his teeth and tugging. For all the sweets he let himself indulge in, he thought you tasted better, your lips warm and inviting. Damn his intellect, knowledge and beliefs, he felt as if he could be satisfied here with his hands squeezing your soft waist, your own digging into his scalp.
He was about to lock you into another searing embrace when the alarm rang, both of you pulling apart.
“Oh uh-”
“I-” You both tried to speak. You chuckled softly, pressing a peck to his cheek. “Go save the world, Ghostbuster.”
“Tonight. I’ll be at the bakery.” He called as he started heading up the stairs.
“For the PKE?”
“No, I’m going to take you out on a date!” He cried, leaving you in the basement. You squealed softly, leaning back against the cold wall.
So caught up in his thoughts, he didn’t notice that his tie was still untucked, shuffling into his jumpsuit faster than he ever had before. Nor did he recognize the smug expression on Ray’s face as he accepted a crumbled bill from an agitated Peter, who, for all his teasing, didn’t think Egon had it in him.