Hungry Ray - 6

[bloodcount]

This bodes ill. Janine’s spirit cringed as she spotted Winston, perched on the corner of her desk, and Ray, swiveling back and forth in her chair. They watched her as she came in to work bright and early on a Monday morning, four weeks after Ray’s return. She knew she looked slightly goofy in her business-fabulous ensemble accessorized with scuffed walking sneakers but the two were smiling as if she were a chocolate éclair. She looked from one man to the other and back again with a tight smile on her face as she crossed the garage floor.

“Morning, guys,” she said.

“Mornin.’”

“Good morning, Janine.” Ray beamed and moved out of her chair. She sat down, rather enjoying the warmth he had left behind, and fished her high heels out of her bag as she kicked off her sneakers. She put the sneakers in the bag and the heels on her feet. Properly attired she smoothed her skirt and looked up at them expectantly. Ray spoke again, “Winston made you some coffee. Just the way you like it,” and pointed at a steaming mug on her desk.

“Why, thaaaank you.” Janine took up a sip and gathered her mental, physical, emotional and moral strength and hoped it would all be enough. “Now. What d’ya want?”

Winston leaned in. “We want your soul.”

Ray snickered and Janine rolled her eyes. “Well, typical Monday,” she said and looked them over again. Both men were smiling but evidently tense and sad also. Truly the entire firehouse itself had been on edge ever since Ray’s return. “What’s the story?” she asked him, rightly guessing he was the problem. He was finally well-rested and not as skeletal as he had been and she was glad to see some measure of peace in his eyes. Damn, what was wrong now? Ray opened and closed his mouth for a moment then looked to Winston for help.

Winston dove right in. “Ray can do magic.”

Janine nodded her head. “Uh huh.”

Ray floundered in also, with a gasp. “He doesn’t mean card tricks, Janine. I’m not a magician. A conjurer. I can actually DO magic. I guess you can call me a witch or a warlock if you want to be dramatic about it.”

“Right,” Janine affirmed and waited for the bad news. The men shared a surprised glance.

“That doesn’t bother you?” Ray asked her. She shook her head, smiling slightly. “Uh, Janine, you’re not getting it. Look at this.” Ray pointed an index finger upwards. The coffee can that held all her pens, pencils and candy slid off the desk, hovered a moment and landed gently back into place. He turned back to Janine, with reluctance, to check her reaction.

“Yay!” she exclaimed and clapped her hands. Winston laughed and Ray mimed wilting to the floor in shock.

He clawed his way back up the side of her desk. “Janine! Aren’t you the least bit surprised?”

“Well, no, should I be?” she asked. “Is this some kind of big secret?”

“It SHOULD be, yeah.” Winston said, grinning at his friends with relief. “How did you find out?” Ray was staring at her with something close to appalled adoration and Janine waved her hands dismissively.

“I didn’t ‘find out’ anything. I just always figured that, since Ray KNEW so much that he’d have to be able to DO some of it. He never liked to talk about magic so I never asked him to show me. Although, I always wanted to see something. Thanks, Ray!” she beamed at him.

“Stick with me and I’ll show you such things…” Ray wiggled his eyebrows lecherously and Janine’s jaw dropped.

“Ray!” she shouted. Three weeks ago such flirtation would have been beyond the shy, inherently fearful man. He was so changed. Janine smiled at him, however. Ray was still Ray and he was smiling back.

Winston hated to interrupt but he leaned in anyway. “Janine, listen, Egon and Peter aren’t taking this well at all. Egon wants to study this ‘phenomenon’ and…”

"He wants to end it. ‘Put a cap on it,’” Ray finished. Janine flushed red with shame and anger.

“Oh, he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t!” she insisted. “You’re not dangerous!”

“Um.” Ray looked at Winston and then down at the floor. “Actually…”

Winston held his hand up and shook his head. “No, no. Ray, you’re as dangerous as I am when I’ve got a thrower or a gun in my hand. It’s not your power that makes you dangerous, it’s what you choose to do with that power.” Winston nudged him with his elbow. “I got that out of a Harry Potter book.” Ray grinned.

Janine gasped. “WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!” she shouted.

“It’s ‘LevioOHsa! Not LevioSAH!” Ray snottily corrected her.

“Swish and Flick!” Winston joined in.

“Alohomora!”

Waddiwasi!”

“Lumos!”

“Um, Abracadabra?” Winston broke the chain of spells so…

"You lose!” Ray and Janine shouted in unison. The three of them erupted into laughter.

“Ray, if you could make me a broom that flies I’ll be forever in your debt. It would save so much on bus fares.” Janine said.

“You don’t already have one?” Winston was shocked. Janine gave him the glare she usually reserved for her nagging mother and the three of them laughed again. It didn’t take long for them to stop and silence settled over the garage again. Janine sighed.

“Egon wouldn’t really try to…to lobotomize you, Ray. He loves you. You’re his friend. Have you talked to him?”

“No,” Ray admitted. “He’s fallen in with Peter’s, um, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy for now. They’re watching me. I dunno, waiting for me to start sacrificing puppies or something before they decide what to do with me. I don’t blame either of them. They’ve been through ten different levels of magical hell over the years.”

“So have you,” Winston said and his face tensed with anger. “So have all of us. This is ridiculous. You’re not a criminal, Ray.”

“They’re not accusing me of anything, Winston, they’re just afraid. Cautious. And it’s not like they’re hiding under their beds. Me and Peter were up until two last night watching a Star Trek marathon. Egon and I have been working on the Portal, installing new safety locks. I’m nine months out of practice, but we’re working well together. They just…” Ray threw his hands up in frustration. “They just don’t want to talk.”

“Neither do you,” Janine said.

“I don’t have much to talk about. Find it, kill it, eat it, find it, kill it, eat it, find it, run like hell from it, find something else, kill it, eat it. For nine months. Not very interesting.”

Janine looked at him as if he were deranged. “Ray, not very interesting? Do you realize how different you are? You’ve had nine months so you don’t notice the change. You were gone from us for about thirty minutes and the guy I left isn’t the same guy I came back to. Do you understand?”

Ray blinked at her. “I’m skinnier. I can hunt giant lizards and I have my magic back. Other than that I’m exactly the same.” Janine turned to Winston with a wide-eyed HELP ME expression on her face.

“Okay, Ray,” Winston began. “Here’s what I’ve noticed, just to give you an idea. I’ve never seen you more confident. You used to apologize for living just about every single day but you don’t anymore. You’re calmer. You seem older. A lot older than just a few months but you’re also a lot happier. You aren’t knocking yourself out trying to please everybody. You’re still trying to see all sides and keep the peace but that’s just your nature. You’re not so…” Winston made a grasping motion and looked to Janine for the perfect words.

She hesitated and then laid a hand on Ray’s arm. “You don’t seem so…you don’t seem to need us so much anymore,” she said.

Ray was aghast. “That’s not true! That’s not at all true, I missed you guys so much, every single day I just about went crazy wanting you all with me again! I almost died when I came home and saw everyone, at last.”

Janine rubbed his arms in a frantic comforting way. “No! No, that’s not what I mean. I mean you’re more secure with us.” She threw the ball back to Winston and he caught it easily.

“It seemed like, some days, you couldn’t turn your back on us or we’d, I don’t know, do something to you or disappear from you. You wouldn’t say ‘shit’ if you had a mouthful if you thought it might offend one of us. You’re not…” Winston looked towards the ceiling for inspiration and Ray and Janine waited, on edge. Winston smiled. “You don’t treat us like glass anymore. Every time a fight or a disagreement came up you’d go so pale I thought you might glow in the dark.”

Janine interrupted. “It’s as if you trust us now, Ray.”

Ray rubbed his face and gave out a silent laugh. “It’s not that I trust you. Or that I didn’t trust you. Or maybe it is, hell, I don’t know. I can only say that I finally trust myself. I feel safe in my own skin, at last, so I guess that translates as feeling safe with you. I don’t know.” He gazed at them with undeniable warmth and wonder. “I do know that you have no idea how much it means to me that you would know about the magic thing, and not care. Neither of you so much as blinked.” He sighed right from the depths of his toes. “It’s such a relief and I’m so, so glad you’re both still here for me.”

“Awww!” Janine threw her arms around him and Winston gave him a couple of good, hard slaps on the back. Then Janine released him, serious again. “The real biggie is the magic thing. That’s what Egon and Peter are hung up on and, believe me, me’n Winston are curious, too. Quote ‘I have my magic back.’ unquote. Where did it go? Where did you get it from in the first place? What can you do? What can you not do? Why were you so hung up on it? On and on and so forth.” She let him go but kept a supporting arm around his shoulders.

Ray was daunted. “That’s a long story. A really long story. Okay,” he made himself more comfortable. “I, uh, I had a really unusual family, especially my mom…”

“Wait. Save it,” Winston interrupted. Ray and Janine turned to him, surprised. “No, I’m serious. Don’t tell us yet. I’m going to call a meeting and you can tell all of us. This is important. And you know? You can use it.”

“Use it?”

“Peter’s been dying to crack into your head over your family since you two were teaching in college. If you’re finally going to talk about your mom he’s going to want a front row seat.”

“You’re right! I need to talk and Peter needs to listen so all I have to do to drag him over to my side...”

“Is to talk, finally. Talk about hitting Pete where it hurts! And Egon won’t stand alone so he’ll fall in with us and everything will be okay!”

“Geez, guys, manipulate much?!” Janine didn’t know whether to laugh or scream.

Ray’s tone was worried as he turned to her. “Um, you won’t, ah, support Egon will you?”

Janine felt a cold whoosh of anger fly through her body. She was nowhere near that weak. She and Egon had never so much as dated and she was desperate for him but she wasn’t his doormat. And Egon wouldn’t DARE study Ray. Would he? “Nah. He’s wrong about this one. ‘Put a cap on it.’ my fat Aunt Fanny. I’m on your side, Ray.”

“We’ve got her soul!” Winston rejoiced and Ray high-fived him. Janine’s anger faded as she laughed at them.

Winston got up. “No better time like the present. I’m calling the meeting now so you two put your boxing gloves on.” He walked determinedly up the stairs, obviously preparing his own battle strategies for dragging Egon out of the lab and Peter out of denial long enough for everyone to sit down at a table together. Ray and Janine watched him go with some trepidation. Ray made a strange, not happy noise and pulled Janine closer, wrapping his arms around her tightly and despondently resting his chin on the top of her head. Janine settled against him and hugged him back, sending him all the warmth and comfort she could. Suddenly she laughed and he smiled down at her.

“What?”

“You really have changed, Ray. Time was this…” she gave him a squeeze. “… would make you go so red. You’d stutter and let go and fall over something trying to get away. You were so shy.”

Ray looked her full in the face. He wasn’t blushing at all. “Life’s too short to be so fearful, huh?” She could feel his breath on her face. They were so close…Janine let him go and stepped back, composing herself.

She met his eyes and took a deep breath. “Oh, Ray. You’re no fun anymore.”

****

“A meeting?” Peter asked Winston with panicked annoyance. “Why do we need a meeting? What’s there to decide?”

“Perhaps we need to establish the limits of Ray’s abilities and seek ways to understand and limit them. In the interests of safety,” Egon answered.

“Why don’t we just put him in containment, Egon?” Peter sneered. “Or we could dissect him? I’m not going to any meeting, this is ridiculous.”

“That’s what I said,” Winston interrupted quickly. “But Ray wants to have a little chat with us.” Winston brought out the figurative carrot. “Something about his mom, I dunno.”

“His MOM?!” Peter repeated. “His mom. Right. Okay.” His head lolled back on his neck and he gurgled sarcastically for a moment. “Gggaarrggh.” Then, with a defeated groan, he leaned over and hit the intercom switch. “Janine?”

“Yeah?”

Peter paused a moment over Janine’s innocent and amused tone of voice and glared at Winston. Winston smiled beatifically back. “Firehouse Meeting from the Depths of Hell will begin in the kitchen in five minutes. Round up Ray, lock the front door, loan me fifty bucks and turn on the answering machine.”

“Can do, except for the fifty bucks. You have to actually pay me before I can lend out money, y’know.”

“Oh, details, details. Peter out.” Peter switched off the intercom and his smile faded as he saw Egon eagerly gathering a psychokinetic meter, an energy analyzer, a cell-sample kit and a pair of ecto-scopes. “Gonna have some fun, mighty witch-hunter?”

Egon angrily turned to him. “We need to know what we’re dealing with here!”

“We’re dealing with Ray!” Peter shouted back.

“Guys!” Winston stopped them. “We haven’t dealt with anything since Ray came back. We haven’t talked. That’s all we’re going to do now is talk. Believe me, I think Ray has a lot to say. Put those things down, Egon, you don’t need them.” Egon slowly complied. “Let’s go, guys.” Egon swept past them both without a word and headed down the stairs. Winston headed for the door as well and, noticing Peter hadn’t moved, stopped. “C’mon, Pete, we’re just going to talk.”

Peter closed his eyes for a moment and slowly opened them again. “Winston, you just don’t know.” Winston started at his hollow, haunted voice.

“I don’t know what?”

“You think this is so simple. Ray has magic. Whoopee. But, no, it’s not simple at all.” Peter silently moved closer and his voice dropped to a whisper. “The storm, Winston. The storm is breaking. Nothing is going to be the same. A sea-change is going to hit all of us like the lightning did and I’ll be goddamned if we’ll be able to survive it this time. This is more than one of my pseudo-psychic bullshit hunches, it’s a fact, and I know I’m right. I’m always right. This house is about to blow wide open.” Winston rocked back on his heels, a sudden look of real fear on his face. Peter walked through the door and turned back to Winston, still standing stunned in the frame. “I thought if I could ignore it long enough we’d all be alright but I was wrong. So, c’mon, Winston. Let’s go talk.”

Winston numbly followed Peter to the kitchen.

***Darwinism in Action #2***

Winston decided that Peter was NOT going to fake him out with hysterics either real or put on. He took the meat tenderizer that served them for a gavel out of the fork drawer and took control of the proceedings himself. He sat down at the head of the kitchen table as immovable as a two-ton stone and silently dared anyone to say anything. Peter and Egon stared at him for a moment. Without a word Peter sank into a chair and Egon followed his example. Winston suddenly smelled pizza and Ray and Janine walked in bearing hot and deliciously greasy food. Janine had obviously placed her order with the Pizza Plaza long before Peter had ordered her to. Winston nodded approvingly and got up to get the plates and napkins. Good thinking on her part. A meeting of this sort should not be entered into with low blood sugar. Egon and Peter got up also and began to round up glasses, ice, sweet tea and Coca Cola.

Everyone moved mechanically and with extreme politeness. Winston waited until everyone was seated again with drinks and pizza, and in Janine’s case, notepad and pen, in hand before he picked up the tenderizer and pounded the corner of the table three times. The ice in the glasses chimed. “Okay, should we read the minutes of the last meeting?”

Janine looked up. “We were interrupted by that Class Five so the last meeting deteriorated into a lot of screamin’. D’you want to hear that?”

“’Yeah, I call this meeting to orrrrGGAAAIGHH!!!!’” Ray laughed. “I’d forgotten about that! That was a really gooey one.”

“Right. We had to clean the kitchen with a garden hose,” Winston gagged.

“Good times, man.”

“Yeah, good times.”

Peter chewed his thumbnail and didn’t join in the fun. Ray’s smile died. “I have a question,” Egon said, folding his long fingers before him on the table. “What exactly is this meeting going to be about? What are we here to decide?”

“We’re not here to decide anything,” Janine began.

Peter took his thumb out of his mouth long enough to interrupt. “Yes, we are. Just wait.”

Janine turned on him but before she could let loose Winston pounded his mallet again. “Listen up, people. I hereby call this meeting to order. And there will, indeed, be order. You will ask permission to speak. You will not bust in with your own bullshit when someone else is talking. There will be no fighting.” He slammed the mallet down hard enough to make the pizza box jump then laid it aside, point made. He thought for a moment. “The purpose of this meeting…is to gather a full report…” He waited while Janine picked up her pen and began to take the minutes in earnest. “…to gather from Dr. Raymond Stantz a full report on his experiences while trapped in the dimension nicknamed ‘Mordor’ and to hear an explanation of the occult abilities he manifested, and continues to manifest, as a result.” He glared at Egon. “Then we will determine what danger, if any, will result from Dr. Stantz’s new abilities. Should any danger be PROVEN,” he let the word hang in the air for a moment and Janine underlined it twice. “Then we will decide what to do about it.”

“Isn’t it nice being on trial, Dr. Stantz?” Peter asked Ray. “Too bad we lost the handcuffs.” Winston was suddenly furious.

“Peter, I know you’re trying to stall so knock it off,” Ray answered, amber eyes narrowed to slits at the psychologist. “You’re not going to disrupt the meeting with guilt.”

“Oh, it’s on now,” Peter sneered and Ray flipped him the bird.

Keeping his anger under wraps, more anger at himself for letting Peter goad him than anything else, Winston pounded the mallet again. “Peter. Don’t start. We’re all on to you.” Peter leaned back in his chair with a frustrated and malicious light in his eyes. “Ray. We’re ready to listen.” He got right to the heart of the matter. “What’s up with the magic?”

“And what does your mother have to do with it?” Peter asked, leaning forward again. “What happened to your mother?” he laid a gentle hand on Ray’s arm.

Ray smiled at him. “Wow, Peter, you don’t quit. How do you sleep at night, Captain Chickenheart?” An expression of rage and shame crossed Peter’s face and he withdrew his hand. He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair again, avoiding the disbelieving stares of his teammates. Winston hefted his mallet but there were no outbursts from anyone. Abandoned, everyone’s pizza began to grow cold.

“Go ahead, Ray,” Winston said into the silence.

Ray took a sip of coke. “Well, of course, the story does start with my mother. And, of course, she was a witch. A kitchen witch. White Magic, herbs and positive spells. And, of course, she taught me everything she could. Dad was amused, he had no talent for it but he was delighted with the two of us. He had his own skills, y’know, he could field strip a TV in one minute flat. I had such a blast as a kid with my Dad teaching me about the physical world, electronics and mechanics, and my Mom teaching me about the spiritual world. Hidden paths, runes and inner power. I felt like I had ALL the answers at my fingertips and I hated going to sleep at night. Too much fun to be had in our house.” Ray’s eyes were dry and Winston was reminded of his own mother. The still, pained way she would sit when she had no more tears left. The magnitude of Ray’s loss hit him as he thought about his own mother and how he would feel if he ever lost her. If Ray didn’t cry, Winston was very close to crying for him. Anticipating, Janine sniffed and lowered her head over her pad, hiding her eyes.

“They died horribly while I was at camp, three hundred miles away. I got the full story from another loner witch who sensed what went on but wasn’t powerful enough to intervene.” Ray’s hands began to restlessly wander the table rubbing away invisible dust. “A self-styled ‘sorceress’ had just moved into Morrisville and was making trouble. She called herself Eyre, as in Jane Eyre, but her real name was Berta Googe. She was sick and malicious and hung out at the local youth center trying to pick up on twelve year old boys. She was caught and the authorities gave her 24 hours to leave town. It was all they could do. Back in those days there were no laws for dealing with freaks like her. Berta went ballistic and decided she was going to have revenge. She went home and tried to call up a demon.” Ray’s hands passed through his hair and he paused for a long time.

“I did some detective work on her. What family she had said she was evil and incompetent but this spell she got right, somehow. Bang. There was a Class Seven in Morrisville.” Winston and Janine shuddered. Even Egon looked disturbed. Peter continued to stare at the floor.

“Too bad for Berta. She was eaten immediately. And Mom, she was five miles away but she sensed that that thing had come into the world. She tried to magically bind it long-distance to a rock or a dead tree. It didn’t work and it became aware of her. It came after her.” Janine’s head drooped even lower. No one could look at Ray and his voice droned on into the still kitchen as if he were a radio that someone had left on. “Mom sacrificed her life and Dad's life for the energy she needed to blow that thing up. The house began to burn. The firemen came, got it under control, and reported to the entire town what they saw inside.” Peter was looking at Ray now, a sudden terrible dread and understanding dawning on his face. Winston wondered at it.

“They found what was left of Dad against the bookshelves. They saw Mom skyclad and relatively unmarked, skyclad means naked, sorry, in the middle of a protective pentacle in the living room. They could feel the evil vibes the Seven left behind…”

“And you came home,” Peter said, “To learn that you were the orphan spawn of Satan Worshipers.”

“Exactly,” Ray affirmed. “That’s exactly what they thought. They were small town people, they didn’t understand, you see.” Peter moved to grasp Ray’s arm but stopped. Janine sniffed again and Egon scooted his chair closer to her. She smiled at him, gratefully. Winston could only shake his head in horror. Years ago, if he had been first on the scene, he would have made the same assumption and he’d lived in New York all his life. So much for ‘small town’ attitudes. Ah, ignorance. It’s what makes the world go around.

Ray continued, “You can’t imagine what it was like. Living in that shithole until I was old enough to get away to college. You can’t know. You can’t. And every last one of those bastards, the ones that called me evil and tried to, literally, beat the hell out of me on a regular basis, they were the ones that my Mom and Dad had died to save.” Ray drained his glass and got up to get more ice. It clunked dully into his glass and Winston could feel the chill from the freezer. Ray sat back down and picked up the liter bottle of Coca Cola. He poured. The coke fizzed.

“Magic was a misery,” Ray said at last. “I lost everything to it. It had killed my parents. It had ruined my life. And I was trying so hard to conform, to convince everybody that I was a good kid, a smart and worthwhile kid, so I just smothered every bit of it in my system. I blocked out everything. I denied everything. I denied my parents. I denied Mom. If I could forget her I could forget the pain of losing her. Of losing everything I loved.” He drained his glass again.

“It worked, too. But there was some weird part of me that couldn’t give it up completely. I went into Para-psyche. I became an Occult Expert. I financed this business. I loved the technology. Using my brain to fight the good fight. But then more and problems cropped up that technology couldn’t solve. I used the old Witch Hunter self-delusion, y’know, ‘I’m not nasty and magical myself but I can use magic tools if I had to’ but it didn’t work. Something inside me was eating it’s way out and, I swear, if I hadn’t taken my little vacation I would have had a nervous breakdown.” He picked at a piece of cold pepperoni.

“I fell in Mordor. Fell hard. I had nine months right by myself to come to terms with my life and what I could do and what I knew. And I did. I am, now, the person I was meant to be. I’m not hungry anymore. And I have to pee. I’ll be right back.” Ray got up and escaped in the direction of the bathroom. Janine threw her pen down and blew her nose on a Pizza Plaza napkin. Egon kept close to her, for his own comfort as much as hers, Winston could tell, and Peter pushed his plate out of the way to lay his head on the table. He mumbled something.

“What was that, Pete?”

“I said ‘We haven’t even started yet.’”

“Started what?” Egon asked.

Peter rubbed his forehead. “You’ll see.”

****

Ray came back and sat, his eyes down.

“Ray, we are so sorry.” Janine took his hand and he smiled, leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

“I know. Thank you. Don’t think I’m going to shut up about her any time soon. I’ve got a lot of good stories. But let me get back to it.” He breathed in deep. Everyone watched him expectantly and Janine’s pen was poised over her notepad. “I really don’t have anything more to say. I used my refound, wait, is that a word?”

“No, but it works for me,” Janine assured him.

“My refound abilities to survive in Mordor,” Ray continued. “Mordor really is just nine months of Catch It, Kill It and Eat It Before It Eats Me so I don’t have to go into any great detail about it right now. I will say I had gotten sick and weak. I needed fire and I was basically trapped in the cave that I had fortified for myself. I HAD to use magic. But I’m not giving excuses, I’m not ashamed of what I did or had to do, and I’m not ashamed of myself or what I can do now. As to what exactly I can do, well, I can do a lot but I’m rusty. I need to find my Mom’s recipe box and brush up on what I’ve forgotten.”

Egon raised a hand and Winston acknowledged him. “The chair recognizes Egon Spengler.”

Egon looked uncomfortable but determined. “Raymond, you have access to considerably more than the small ‘positive’ spells your mother left behind. Can we trust you not to go…not to explore more dangerous avenues?”

“Can you trust me not to do anything stupid?” Ray clarified.

“Ah, I would not have put it that way.” Egon was nonplussed by Janine’s sudden glare.

“After what happened to Berta? After what happened to my parents? Not bloody likely, as the English say. You can trust me.” He poked Egon on the shoulder. “I won’t go looking for trouble.” He raised his hand and waved it in front of Winston.

Winston rolled his eyes and complied. “The chair recognizes Ray Stantz.”

“I have a proposal. Give me a probationary period. Fall and Winter is coming up, our worst, busiest time, so let’s see if I can keep it together under pressure without turning us all into poodles or something. That should reassure everybody.”

“Um,” Winston said. “And if we do turn into poodles?” Winston looked at Peter, half expecting a suggestion for a touring dog show, but Peter just sat there.

“Then I’ll leave.” Ray’s solution hung in the air for a moment. Peter raised his hand as if to catch it.

Winston sighed. “The chair recognizes Peter Venkman.”

“You would leave?” Peter finally roused himself enough to ask, his eyes deceptively sleepy. “You. Ray Stantz. You would leave us?”

“If I was a risk, yeah, I’d leave.” Ray was openly suspicious.

“We could do away with ‘probation’ and all that nonsense if you would promise, now, not to do any magic at all.” Peter spread his hands as if to indicate what a very sensible solution that was. “That’s safest.”

Ray leaned forward. “I don’t think you’ve been listening to me, Peter. I gave magic up once and I suffered for it. ‘Safety’ is not an option here.”

“And if we said we wouldn’t allow it? If we voted it down? Forbade it?” Peter offered. “Is your new bag of tricks worth losing all your friends?”

Egon stared at him, suddenly aghast. “Peter! How could you suggest…!”

“We would NEVER, Ray!” Janine shouted and stood up. Winston yanked her down with his free hand. “We would never!” she muttered mutinously, jerking her arm away.

“I have the floor!” Peter exclaimed.

Winston banged his tenderizer again. He was leaving awful scratches on the table. “Peter has the floor! Man, this had better…you have the floor.” Winston was at a loss. Janine was flushed a poisonous scarlet and Egon was obviously disturbed. Ray had not reacted at all. He was still leaning towards Peter, waiting. Peter pointed a finger at Ray’s head as if it were a gun.

“If you had to choose between your magic or us, which would it be?” Peter asked again. He brought his hand down and gripped the table.

Winston thought the look in Ray’s eyes was definitely a poodle-considerin’ glare. Could he keep his cool? Or would he turn Peter into a toad?

Ray cocked his head to one side and his eyes never left Peter’s or blinked. “I learned a lot in Mordor,” he said. “And one of the most important things I learned is I can survive without my friends.” He moved closer until he was nose to nose with the psychologist. “I can survive without you, Peter.”

“Holy god.” Janine’s hand shot into the air. Winston wanted to kiss her.

“The chair recognizes Janine Melnitz.”

“Since this is so important to Captain Chickenheart-Venkman I say we vote on it now. Hands up everyone who wants to ban Ray’s magic.” No hands were raised, not even Peter’s. “Hands up everyone who is in favor of the Fall and Winter Probationary Period.” Her fist stretched towards the ceiling. Winston’s went up even higher and Egon raised a compliant finger. “Ray!”

Ray jumped, breaking eye contact, and raised his hand.

Janine was breathing almost harshly. “Okay…okay…we have to vote out the Number One Rule of the Firehouse. Hands up all those in favor of striking the No Magic bylaw.’ Six hands went up, Peter had raised both of his in a sarcastic stretch. Exasperated, Janine went back to her minutes, scribbling furiously to catch up with the changes she had implemented herself.

“Like I have a choice,” Peter muttered.

“You do have a choice, Peter. You always have a choice,” Ray spat out.

“Either you leave or I do? That’s some choice!” Peter snarled.

Winston wondered what the hell the two were talking about. “No one is asking you to leave, Peter. Or you either, Ray.” He picked up his gavel with a sigh of relief. “Okay, we have decided. The Number One Rule of the Firehouse has been struck and Ray Stantz will hereby enter into a Fall and Winter Probationary Period which will expire, ahhh, let’s say Valentines Day. We are all agreed. This meeting is…” He raised his gavel.

“Hold it! This meeting is NOT adjourned!” Peter barked out. “Isn’t that right, Ray?” For the first time Ray looked apprehensive.

“Oh, Peter, we’ve had enough,” Winston groaned.

“No, no, no.” Peter clawed at the scar on his forehead as if it were boring directly into his brain. “Not yet we haven’t. Ray has a proposition to make. Don’t you, Sweetheart?”

“It can wait,” Ray whispered. Winston, Janine and Egon shared a suddenly frightened look among themselves. Winston’s skin was ice cold. What more could there possibly be?

“No, it can’t!” Peter shouted. “Let’s have it all out now. Let’s make it perfectly clear what exactly is at stake here. Okay, Amazing Randi?”

Ray closed his eyes in resignation. Slowly, he turned to Winston and raised his hand. Winston wanted to ignore it but he didn’t understand why. Why was he suddenly so afraid? Why was Ray? Something was moving through the kitchen, something unknown and dangerous that could blow the entire firehouse apart. His mouth was dry but he managed to say the fatal words. “The chair recognizes Ray Stantz.”

Ray swallowed. “I feel…I feel it would be handy…” He sighed and started over. Peter glared at him. “As I said before, more and more problems are cropping up that are immune to the technology we have here. I feel it would be useful if we all learned alternative methods of dealing with it.”

“You want to teach us some magic?” Janine interrupted, her mouth quirking.

“Yes.”

“Ooh, that would be fun!” Ray smiled at her. An obviously innocent and sincere smile and Peter swore at it, raising his hand right into Winston’s face for attention. Winston batted it aside.

“Alright already! Peter, go!”

Peter went. Right for the throat. “Ray is not proposing headache cures and love potions. Tell us the truth, Ray. Tell us what you really want, here.”

Ray stayed silent.

“I’ll tell you all, then,” Peter said. “There is a storm breaking, here. Nothing will ever be the same again. We are going to change beyond all recognition, or we’re going to leave, or we’re going to die.” He pointed at his head. “I know this. I know this as surely as I know where you can all find the things that you’ve lost. I know it the way I know when the phone is about to ring. Venkman’s Intuition. I am the original Psychic Extraordinaire. I’m always right. I’m right about this.” Peter balled his hands into fists and put them in his lap in an effort to restrain himself. “We all have the potential. Egon, Winston and you, Ray, are descended from magicians. I have my lovely Sixth Sense which is getting worse every year. God knows what Janine has going on but it makes her mighty attractive to spirits and evil sorcerers. And all of us have been influenced, changed, by the creatures we come into contact with. Gods, demigod, spirits, demons and monsters have all left their mark on us and now this. If we allow Ray this, we’ll all be unrecognizable in six months. You mark my words.”

“Are you finished, Threnody?” Ray quietly asked.

“Beware the ides of March, asshole. Now I’m finished.” Peter leaned violently back into his chair and the wood creaked.

Ray didn’t wait for Winston to recognize him. “Peter is right. We all have the potential. The need for us to utilize that potential is getting stronger. The technology won’t help us as much as it used to. We have to adapt or die. I can teach you all…”

“Hold it!” Winston made his patented time-out signal. “Adapt or die? Are you telling us our lives are at stake here?”

“No,” Ray reassured him. “We have a choice. We could either stay and learn or disband.”

“Become witches or leave,” Janine clarified, her pad forgotten in front of her. “I don’t want to leave.”

“I don’t want to be a witch,” Egon said.

“Listen!” Ray said. “Three out of five of our problems depend on an occult solution. There is nothing so powerful as knowledge…”

“And nothing so dangerous either,” Peter said.

Winston let the gavel fall once and silence descended. He rubbed his eyes and took the time to choose his words very carefully. Everyone waited patiently. Finally he said, “We need a break. We need to think about this one. Ray, can you clarify your proposal?”

Ray organized his thoughts. “I propose to teach everyone all that I know in order to give us an increased advantage over the bad guys. I acknowledge that it will change us. You can see how it’s changed me. But I’m still Ray.” He pointed at them one by one. “You will still be Winston. You will still be Janine. You will still be Egon. Peter, you will still be a jerkoff.” He spread his arms wide. “And we are all free to choose. Either we can go on as New York’s premiere heroes or we can step aside and let fate pick someone else. We have an opportunity to grow. To evolve into something powerful and spectacular. I can show you such things…trust me. This was meant to be.” Ray shook his head, frustrated at his lack of words. He gave up and gestured to Winston that he was done.

“Peter.” Winston turned. “Can you clarify your objection?” Peter’s head was down and his hand was caught in his hair. The silence stretched on.

“He can’t,” Ray decided. “He’s just afraid.”

Peter slowly looked up at Ray. His green eyes were as still and sharp as a cobra’s. “Damn right, I’m afraid. I’m afraid of the things that will be attracted to us the way that Seven was attracted to your mother. I’m afraid of what damage we’ll be able to do. As if letting loose with the proton packs weren’t bad enough now we’re adding magic to the arsenal? I’m afraid I won’t be able to control myself if I get pissed off. I’m afraid of what I’ll be able to see, or sense, next. I’m afraid of losing my friends and I’m afraid of losing my mind. Most of all, I’m afraid I’m going to have to leave if the vote goes against me.”

Winston picked up his gavel. “Your threat is acknowledged, Peter.” Peter got up and went out the door. “Everyone meet back here in two hours.” He slammed the mallet down.

tbc