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Just the Way You Are	By : megabsupreme Category: +M through R > Real Ghostbusters Views: 3491 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Real Ghostbusters, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
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Dana Barrett walked determinedly into the Institute for Advanced Theoretical Research. That was the easy part. The administrative staff insisted that Egon was busy and could not be disturbed. That just wasn’t acceptable. She yelled at them until they called security. She stood her ground, and then she saw an rtunrtunity. She heard a young Asian man in a lab coat tell a young Asian woman in a lab coat as they walked past that ‘Dr. Spengler needed her help with an experiment’ and that he would take her to him.

Dana waited until the pair was at the elevator, and then tore off into a run after them. She ran in with them and played innocent. She pretended that she’d been running for the elevator instead of running away from the guards. She got off when they did and walked casually along behind them as if she knew where she was going. When they got to Egon’s lab, she stopped, pulled out a blank piece of paper from her pocket and looked at it with a falsely puzzled expression before exclaiming, “Oh! We’re going to the same place it seems!” She smiled at them, stuffing the paper back into her coat.

They exchanged a quizzical look.

“I thought the lab was closed to visitors today,” the young woman said suspiciously.

“Oh, well Eg-- uh, Dr. Spengler made a special exception for me. Could you tell him I’m here? My name is Dana Barrett.”

“Dana Barrett. I’ll be right back, ma’am,” the young man said. The young woman smiled slightly at her before entering the lab. The door locked behind them. Dana stood in the hall, and sighed in relief. She took off her coat and started to survey her surroundings, fully relaxed now that she was there.

That’s when the guards showed up. They snuck up behind her while she was reading one of Egon’s posters on the wall outside the lab. They grabbed her and started to lead her to the stairwell to escort her from the building when Egon came out of the lab. He was smiling broadly at his unexpected visitor, but he frowned when he saw how she was being treated. “Release her at once!”

“But Dr. Spengler . . . she broke in here!”

“No, she didn’t. She’s my guest and she had an appointment to see me,” he lied.

“Oh. Well, please make sure your guests are on the appointment books next time. Especially when you insist on not being disturbed!”

Dana blushed, feeling really badly that she’d inadvertently caused Egon some embarrassment. However, when she hazarded a glance his way, she saw that he was un-phased by the contemptuous comment from the guard. “Fine.” He frowned at them so menacingly that they finally beat a hasty retreat. Once they’d left, Egon turned to Dana again. He was all smiles. “This was an unexpected surprise, Dana, and a very pleasant one at that. I hope this visit finds you well, but I suppose it wouldn’t, or you probably wouldn’t have gone to so much trouble to get in.”“I’m“I’m so sorry about that, Egon.” She hugged him uncertainly.

He returned her hug firmly. “No apology necessary. Winston, Peter and Ray visited me in a similar manner only they weren’t nearly as quiet . . . or dressed. I think the guards presume that I’m trying to make them irate intentionally, as part of my experiment.”

“Oh.” She smiled, imagining the others invading Egon’s new job like naked locusts plaguing Egypt.

“Please. Come in.”

Dana complied and laid her coat on a chair. Egon’s lab was full of posters and models of human brains, as well as interesting machines and gadgets. There were also a couple two-way mirrors with people on the other side. Dana smiled in puzzlement, not sure she wanted to know what the brilliant physicist was doing to these people. Egon dismissed his assistants, and looked at her expectantly. So she took a deep breath and explained to him what happened when Oscar’s baby carriage rolled into traffic, and how she later found pink slime residue on the wheels.

“ . . . And went right into the middle of traffic. And I started really running after it.”

“Mm hm.” Egon had started fidgeting with his gadgets again after only a few minutes into her tale. He made an occasional vocalization to indicate that he was still listening.

“And then it just suddenly . . . stopped, right in the middle of the street.”

“Mm hm, and did anyone else see this happen?”

“Well sure, hundreds of people.” Dana looked a little offended. “Egon, I didn’t imagine this.”

“I’m not saying you did. It’s just in science we always look for the simplest explanation.” He looked mildly amused at her pique, and she had to smile at herself. Egon was the last person to intentionally insult a friend. ‘Shame on me,’ she thought.

Suddenly, his female assistant re-entered. “We’re ready, Dr. Spengler.”

“Good, we’ll start with the negative calibration.” Dana and Egon watched an arguing couple through one of the two-way mirrors. They were in some sort of waiting room. Egon took readings of them with a complicated-looking hand-held device. Curiosity got the better of Dana as she watched him operate.

“What are you working on, Egon?”

“Trying to determine whether human emotions actually affect the human environment. It’s a theory Ray and I had when we were still Ghostbusters.”

She looked a little puzzled, but she started to understand why the guards thought he was provoking them on purpose. She wondered if maybe he was provoking them intentionally, knowing Egon. She stared at the arguing couple. They were really at each other’s throats. “Can they see us?” she asked him.

“No. They think they’re here for marriage counseling. We kept them waiting for over two and a half hours and I’ve been gradually increasing the temperature in the room. It’s up to 95 degrees at the moment.” The young male assistant suddenly came into the room with the couple. He said something to them and they both went ballistic. “Now my assistant has asked them if they’d mind waiting another half-hour.” When they started yelling, Egon’s meter went crazy. “Oh good. Very good. Very, very nice.” Egon rarely sounded passionate when he talked about anything, unless it was science or Janine. She smiled thinking of the day she saw the two of them kissing in Central Park. They looked very happy, and it made her miss Peter. Deciding that her thoughts were drifting into dangerous territory, she got back to the topic at hand.

“So Egon, what do you think?”

“Excellent, just excellent. Do the happiness index next,” he instructed his assistant, distracted again.

“I mean about the carriage.”

Egon looked through the viewfinder of a video camera that faced the other two-way mirror. There was an adorable little girl there, playing with toys. In fact, the girl was surrounded by a room full of toys.

He startled her by answering her question. “Well, I’d like to bring Ray in on this if you don’t mind.” He’d actually been listening. Who knew?

“Sure, whatever you think.” She suddenly looked panicked. “But not Venkman.” That just wasn’t something she was ready to deal with yet.

“Oh. No.” He chuckled.

“Do you ever see him?” she asked, smiling.

“Occasionally,” Egon responded over his shoulder while checking dials on a large machine against the far wall. Dana smiled to herself, thinking of her ex-boyfriend.

“How is he these days?” She turned and walked over to examine one of Egon’s gadgets, feigning disinterest in his response.

“Peter? Well he was borderline for a while.” Egon looked up at her back. “Then he crossed the border.” He quickly went back to work, smiling to himself at Dana’s obvious and feeble attempts to seem unconcerned about Peter Venkman.

“Does he ever . . . mention me?”

Egon looked up and smiled at her back again. “No,” he lied. Then he stealthily took readings of her from behind. They were pretty high.

“Oh.” Dana’s face fell a little, but she quickly stowed her disappointment and turned to face Egon, who quickly stowed his monitor. “Well, we . . . we didn’t part on very good terms and then we sort of lost track of each other, uh . . . after I got married,” she explained.

The female lab tech interrupted again. “We’re ready for the affection test.”

“Good. Send in the puppy please.” Egon walked over to the glass and bent down.

“I thought of getting in touch with him after my marriage ended, but . . .” Her voice trailed off. She looked through the glass at the little girl. The male assistant brought her a puppy. Dana knelt down next to Egon. “Oh. Isn’t that sweet?” She looked at Egon critically. He was an unusual man, but a really kind one too. She smiled again, thinking how lucky Janine was. “I really appreciate you doing this.”

He looked at her and smiled in return, a comforting smile. “Try not to worry.”

They stood together. “Here’s my phone number. You’ll call me?”

“Yes.” He looked at the card, reading the information carefully.

“I’d rather you didn’t mention any of this to Peter if you don’t mind.”

“No, I won’t.” Dana smiled again at him. He was such a good friend, to Peter and to her. She kissed him on the cheek, overtaken by a sudden impulse. He flinched a little and smiled, blushing furiously.

“Thanks.” And with that, she grabbed her coat and left him to his work.

The last thing she heard him say as she left was “Let’s see what happens when we take away the puppy.” She nearly choked with laughter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Set of World of the Psychic: Taping . . .

“Hi. Welcome back to World of the Psychic. I’m Peter Venkman. I’m chatting with my guest: author, lecturer, and . . .” He chuckled, “ . . . psychic. Milton Englund. Milt, your new book is called The End of the World. Now, can you tell us when it’s gonna be or do we have to buy the book?” Peter’s veneer of seriousness was wearing very thin. He made a mental note to tear his producer a new hole. If he had to interview just one more whack job he was going to scream.

“Well, I predict that the world will end at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve.”

Peter gave him an incredulous look. “This year?”

“Mm hm.”

“Well, that’s cutting it a little bit close, isn’t it? I mean, just from a sales point of view. I mean your book has just come out. You’re not gonna see any paperback sales for at least a year.” Milton started to look upset. “It’ll be at least another year before you know if you’ve got that mini-series or movie of the week kinda possibility. I mean, just devil’s advocate, Milty. I mean, shouldn’t you have said ‘Hey! The world’s gonna end in 1992!’ or better yet ‘ . . . 1994!’?”

Milton puffed out his chest in obvious offense. “Wait a minute. This is not just some money-making scheme, all right?” He made a big show of placing his hand at his temple to ‘channel his energies’. “I have a strong, psychic . . . belief . . . that the world . . . will end . . . on . . . New Year’s Eve.” He sighed heavily as if the sentence took him great effort to get out.

Peter wasn’t buying a bit of it. His face lit up with a grin of pure skepticism.

“Well, for your sake I hope you’re right,” he chuckled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Egon and Ray met in Ray’s bookstore that same afternoon. A man in black clothes and dark sunglasses was buying a dozen of something very nasty looking from a jar on Ray’s countertop.

“This one’s interesting, Ray,” Egon interrupted the transaction. “Berlin. 1939. A flower cart took off by itself. Rolled half a kilometer. Three hundred eyewitnesses.”

The patron paid and left. “My best to the coven,” Ray told the man in black as he went through the door. “Berlin, huh?” he said to Egon. “You know, we should also check Duke University’s mean averaging studies on controlled psychokinesis.”

“I pulled it.” Egon showed him the book.

Suddenly, a familiar voice from the doorway drew their attention. “Uh, perhaps you could help me. I’m looking for a love potion aerosol that I could spray on a certain . . . penthouse pet to obtain her total submission.”

“Hello Venkman,” Egon drawled in amusement.

“Hey, Pete. How’s it going?” Ray chuckled, opening the cash register to deposit the credit card receipt from the sale to the warlock.

Since Ray looked busy, Peter decided to pester Egon for a while. “Hey, well, uh, hi Egon. How’s school?” Egon sniffed, smirking at the book in his hand. “I bet those science chicks really dig that large cranium of yours.”

Egon glanced up at Peter and replied casually, “I think they’re more interested in my epididymis.” Peter thought back to his biology lessons on the male reproductive system. He nodded and turned away from Egon, clearly uncomfortable with the mental picture. Egon smiled wickedly. Janine would love it: Peter Venkman, speechless. Of course, she wouldn’t be too keen on how he brought about this miraculous phenomenon. ‘Oh well, ‘ he thought. ‘We’ll just keep it between us men.’ He turned back to his book.

“Ray, let’s close this place up so you can buy me a calzone,” Peter suggested.

“Oh, I really can’t do that right now, Pete. I’m working on something. But your book came in!” Ray reached under the counter. “Magical Paths to Fortune and Power.” He handed the book to Peter.

“Thank you.”

Egon gave a derisive snort. “Good luck with that, Venkman.”

Peter pulled a face at Egon then turned back to Ray. “Will you put this on my account please?”

“Mm hm.”

“Take a look at this, Ray.” Egon handed him the book he was reading.

“Oh yeah,” Ray muttered ecstatically.

Peter looked from one friend to the other. They always sucked at being secretive. “What’re you guys working on?”

Ray paled. “Uh . . . well, we’re just . . .”

“Ahem!” Egon cleared his throat and looked at Ray pointedly.

“ . . . checking something out . . . for an old friend.”

“Neat. Who?”

“Uhh . . .” The phone rang. Ray released his breath and answered it. “Ray’s Occult.” There was a pause. “Seven o’clock on weekdays, midnight on Saturdays.” Another pause. “Thank you.” He hung up.

Ray tried to pretend he forgot Peter’s question. Peter did not forget, however. He gently raised Ray’s chin to face him again. “Who?” he inquired with a threatening smile.

“Who? Uh, just someone we know,” was Ray’s weak response. Egon rolled his eyes. This was going to be bad.

“Uh huh.” Peter nodded and smiled broadly at Ray, who relaxed and looked back down at his book. Then Peter quickly grabbed Ray by the ears, squeezing and pulling them painfully in a gesture of torture that always got information out of Ray. Ray screamed.

“Who?” Peter chided calmly, increasing the pressure.

“AH! I can’t! No, no, no, no!” More pulling.

“Yes you can. Who?”

“Nobody! Nobody!” More pulling.

“Can you tell me now?”

“I can’t! I can’t! AH!” More pressure and pulling.

“Now?”

“Dana Barrett!”

Peter let go and stared at Ray in amazement. “My Dana Barrett?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thursday, November 3, 1988
Egon and Ray examined Dana’s son while she and Peter looked on. Dana hadn’t looked at Peter for more than a few seconds so far since they’d arrived with him in tow. Apparently, he’d tortured Ray for information then invited himself along. Oh well, his choice. But it was her choice whether she would acknowledge him.

Never one to let a woman’s attention remain off himself for too long, Peter grabbed Dana’s cello and began to strum a blues rift on it, holding it like a guitar and sneering like Billy Idol. Dana smirked and walked over to take it away from him before he ended up owing her a new cello.

“So uh,tevetever happened to Mr. Right anyway?” Peter asked none too subtlely. “I hear he ditched you and ran off to Europe.”

Peter handed over Dana’s instrument and she turned away from him to put it in the corner where it would be safe from the psychologist. “He didn’t ditch me. We were having some problems and he got a very good job offer from an orchestra in London and he took it.”

“So he ditched you,” Peter retorted.

She turned around to find him tauntingly playing with a snow globe he’d grabbed from her bookcase. He was baiting her. She smiled fondly. ‘Ass. The man is intent on breaking something,’ Dana thought. ‘Well this time, it won’t be my heart.’ She fought hard to keep her smile.

While Egon and Ray examined her son, Peter inueinued to try to get a rise out of Dana. He really wanted to grab her and kiss her, but he knew he couldn’t and that irritated him. So he lashed out at her instead. That infuriated him even more because he knew she didn’t deserve it. ‘Oh well, I’ve already got my foot in my mouth. Might as well go for the whole leg.’ He gave her a nonchalant glance, but his next statement was nothing if not very serious. “You know, you’d have been better off marrying me.”

‘There s,’ s,’ she thought. ‘My chance to make him sorry he ever thought of coming here today.’ She sauntered over to him, a very smug look on her face. “You never asked me. And whenever I brought it up, you’d get drowsy and fall asleep.”

Peter flushed a bit. She was smiling, but her eyes held a cold glare. ‘Well, now that I’ve swallowed my foot, leg and hip, I guess it’s too late to just shut up and let it slide. Maybe I can make her laugh. Ease the tension.’

Peter put the snow globe back on the shelf where he got it and turned dramatically in classic soap opera fashion. “You never got it, Dana,” he said, sounding almost serious. “I’m a man. I’m sensitive. I need to feel loved. I need to be desired.”

Dana chuckled humorlessly and walked up behind him, not even thinking about letting him charm her so easily. “It’s when you started introducing me as the old ball-and-chain,” she said. “That’s when I left.”

He winced. ‘Oops. Forgot about that.’

As the session dragged on, things went from bad to worse for Peter. Egon and Ray were in the baby’s room taking valences while Dana watched, and they had left Peter alone with the infant, with instructions to get a stool sample.

Peter stared uncertainly down at the little baby who stared up at Peter expectantly. Peter was burdened with conflicting emotions when looking at the boy. He loved him because he was Dana’s child. He hated him because he wasn’t his own. He pitied him the life he would live without a father, knowing all too well how that felt. But most of all, he was furious with himself because the child was living p of of how badly he’d screwed up his one chance in life to be truly happy with the woman he loved more than anyone else in the world. He sighed, deciding that he would try to at least like the child overall, for Dana’s sake.

“You wanna play . . . with a big kid?” The baby stared up at Peter with even wider eyes. Peter smiled down at him then looked somber. “You know, I should’ve been your father.” He thought better of his statement. “I mean I could’ve been.” The child just stared up at him, utterly fascinated by the tall, green-eyed brunette man who was speaking to him so seriously with words the infant couldn’t even understand.

Peter put out his hand for the baby to shake, and the baby held out his tiny hand too. Peter smiled and shook it. “I understand.” He picked the little guy up and began playing with him, bouncing him back and forth and humming. The baby giggled, tickled by Peter’s game. Peter put the baby near his face and the little guy sucked on Peter’s nose.

“Help!” Peter yelled playfully. “He’s gone completely berserk! HELP!” The baby laughed again gleefully.

In the other room, Dana rolled her eyes and went to see what trouble Peter had gotten himself into with her defenseless son. She found Peter pretending to try to pry the child from his face while making muffled shouts for help that caused her son to squeal with glee. She stifled a laugh and walked over to Peter, touching his back affectionately. Peter turned, startled to find she was behind him. “He, uh . . . he had some sort of, uh . . . clear liquid coming out of his mouth.”

Dana smiled. “Yeah, well that happens.etereter cleared his throat and sat, cradling the baby awkwardly against his chest, then lifting him and playing with him again, making the baby laugh.

Dana found the tableau endearing, and fought the urge to kiss both her son and her ex-boyfriend. “So what do you think?”

Peter smiled at the child. “Well, he’s ugly. I mean, he’s not elephant-man ugly, but he’s not attractive.” He looked at Dana, poignantly. “Was his father ugly?”

She rolled her eyes, unable to stop smiling. “Don’t listen,” she told the giggling infant.

“And he stinks,” Peter continued. He looked at the baby. “You wreak, Señor!” The child giggled. “Did his father stink?” he asked Dana. He addressed the child again. “Yeah. Daddy was a smelly, huh? What’s your name?”

“His name is Oscar,” Dana replied, a little irritation in her voice. Peter was pushing it.

“Aww, named after a hot dog, you poor man! You poor, poor man!” Oscar giggled with glee at Peter. They were definitely bonding, and Dana didn’t know if that was a good thing or not.

“But seriously, there’s nothing . . . unusual about him, is there?”

Peter looked at her. She looked petrified for her son’s safety. She deserved a serious answer. He put all kidding aside. “Well, I don’t have a lot of experience with babies.” Oscar yawned and settled his head against Peter’s chest. Dana and Peter smiled at the baby, then at each other. For a brief moment, they felt that maybe they could make a start again . . . but only briefly.

Peter awkwardly passed Oscar to Dana, terrified into stupidly distancing himself again. “But you’re excited now because Momma’s here to get your stool sample, right Momma?” Peter said to the baby, delighted to get out of yet another disgusting chore relegated to him by a certain bespectacled physicist.

“Stool sample?” she asked disbelievingly.

Peter ignored her incredulous look and sauntered into the baby’s room to confer with Egon and Ray. Ray was just finishing up taking PKE readings under the crib. “Nothing,” he announced to Egon, who sat casually on the changing table, deep in thought.

Peter turned to Egon. “So? What now, brainiac?”

Egon thought for a moment, clearly stumped. After some deliberation, he answered, “I’d like to do some gynecologic tests on the mother.”

Peter looked at each of his friends and shrugged. “Who wouldn’t?”
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Just the Way You Are