Reestablishing Tradition

By Cybra

A/N: A little bit of angsty sweetness that goes with "Luck of the Irish." I love both Egon and Garrett to bits, and I love how they act off of each other in this and other episodes. I can almost remember their conversation in this specific episode word for word even after all these years…:::sigh::: Must find copy of episode…

Disclaimer: The Extreme Ghostbusters belong to people other than me. I wish I owned Egon and Garrett, but I don't.

"So the byproduct of that Blarney Stone stuff was mostly-flat grape soda, huh?" Garrett Miller's voice asked from behind the physicist.

Egon Spengler didn't even pretend not to hear his student. He knew that Garrett hadn't left since he had been present when Garrett had requested to work the nightshift that night. In fact, he had a feeling he knew why Garrett had asked to be on the nightshift and had been waiting for him.

Rather than insult Garrett's intelligence, he abandoned his further inspection of the tablet with the names of the leprechaun's intended victims to face the only member of the Ghostbusters ever in a wheelchair. Rising from the swiveling office chair, he stated, "I think it's time I introduced you to an old tradition Peter and I had around the firehouse after a rough bust."

Leading the way into the kitchen, knowing that his student would follow, Egon automatically walked to the cabinets containing the necessary ingredients for the infamous Spengler hot chocolate.1 He remembered many a night spent with his old friend Peter Venkman over mugs of the sweet brew, talking over problems or nothing in particular depending upon the situation. When the other original Ghostbusters left, long nights spent alone over a mug of hot chocolate became the norm as loneliness and emptiness invaded his longtime home. Despite the fact that it was nonsense to keep himself well supplied with the required ingredients for the most agreeable of his old family recipes, he kept buying more than enough for just himself.

But now he was thankful that he had kept in the habit of buying more of the hot chocolate ingredients than he needed. Now he had someone who needed him to share that old tradition with him, and he was more than happy to oblige.

Garrett waited patiently and quietly at the kitchen table as Egon prepared two mugs of steaming hot chocolate, seemingly lost in thought. Once Egon set his mug in front of him, the redheaded teenager picked it up and sipped at it. "It's really good. Not the store stuff."

The scientist shook his head. "No, it's an old family recipe. One of the only ones I can really stomach or enjoy feeding to someone." He took a sip of his own hot chocolate. "Peter and I used to talk for hours over mugs of hot chocolate if something was bothering one or both of us. Sort of an impromptu therapy session. Of course, we'd also have one of these midnight snacks if Peter's bouts of insomnia decided to take place on one of my late nights in the lab."

Obviously, the teenager decided to take this as the opening it was supposed to be for he said quietly, "You lied to me this afternoon. About the stuff that got rid of bad luck."

Egon set his mug carefully down on the table. "I did."

There was no use denying the fact. Both of them knew the truth. To lie about it would just make Garrett angry and rightfully so. Everyone had a right to know if they were being lied to, especially if they already had a good reason to believe that they were.

Garrett didn't say anything, staring into his mug for a few minutes before taking another sip.

"When you went out to get your pizza," the physicist began, "I put the grape soda in the flask2 as a sort of…insurance policy. I had hoped that I wouldn't need to fool you, that the leprechaun's curse would simply wear off, but it wasn't helping that you were believing in that curse so much that you were actually helping it come true." He paused but when his student didn't respond continued, "So I had to trick you into believing that it had worn off so that your belief would actually break the curse."

The blond scientist waited for what felt like decades as Garrett alternatively studied and sipped from his hot chocolate. Occasionally, Egon himself sipped from his own hot chocolate, all the while wondering what thoughts were spiraling through Garrett's mind.

"It's kinda funny," Garrett said at last. "The entire time, in the back of my mind, I kept thinking, 'Man, that stuff tasted familiar.' But I couldn't put my finger on it. Then when we were in Ecto comin' back here, it just hit me out of the blue." He shook his head. "And I call Eduardo slow."

"You had other, more important things on your mind than what you drank."

"Yeah, maybe." The redhead looked back up at his teacher, two pairs of blue eyes meeting each other. "But you really worked a miracle, Egon. I don't know if I can repay you for that."

"You already did. In the elevator."

Garrett blinked before giving a wry smile and looking back down at his near-empty mug of hot chocolate. He'd forgotten about the Sphinx and the conversation in the elevator. Neither of them had spoken about it to anyone. "Maybe I did and maybe I didn't. You pulled me out of a real hole."

"So did you."

"No, wait. Hear me out. I was about ready to quit the whole thing because everything I was doing was messing it up for the team. If you hadn't done that little trick with the soda, we'd most likely have a leprechaun still wrecking havoc on New York. Plus being a Ghostbuster's one of the most important things if not the most important thing in my life now." He met Egon's deep blue gaze with his own. "You gave that back to me."

Moved by the teenager's words and unsure of how to answer, Egon motioned an offering to refill the mugs, which Garrett accepted with a nod. As he did so, the last remaining original Ghostbuster reviewed Garrett's small speech. Though the adrenaline junkie had no real gift of words most of the time, when it really mattered and he spoke what he truly felt, Garrett could say some interesting if not meaningful things.

"You gave that back to me," Garrett had said, as if ghostbusting was a dream that he hadn't originally thought he could attain, then attained, and then nearly lost. As he thought about it, Egon realized that perhaps that wasn't too far from the truth. Had Akira not attacked, the business wouldn't have been reopened and Garrett would still be hanging on to those old stories from the original Ghostbusters, dreaming of what it would've been like if he'd been one of them.

"Garrett, I only helped you get it back yourself," Egon said at last. "I pushed you in the right direction and helped you regain the confidence you needed back with my little deception." As he set the mugs back down on the table, he met Garrett's gaze again, a smile tugging at his lips. "But I'm very glad that I was able to help."

Garrett gave him a slight smile of his own before Egon sat down and both sipped at their hot chocolate.

After a few minutes of companionable silence, he inquired, "So you and Peter used to do this a lot, huh?"

"Mm-hmm."

The redhead grinned with a shade of his normal eagerness and playfulness. "Then I think I could get to like the nightshift."

Egon merely smiled a bit more, raising his mug slightly in agreement.

End Notes

1Sheila Paulsen of Real Ghostbusters writing fame is, as far as I know, the one who makes the most use of the Egon and Peter hot chocolate thing. Since it's been even longer since I've seen much of The Real Ghostbusters than I've seen an episode of The Extreme Ghostbusters, I don't remember if Egon and Peter really did such a thing, so Sheila might have invented this tradition. Just giving her credit just in case. No copyright infringement intended.

2In the episode "Luck of the Irish," Egon tells Garrett to "Toss the beaker into the air and catch it." Uh uh. I took a year of AP Chemistry and what the grape soda was actually held in is called a "flask." Either this is a mistake done by the writers or the animators. In either case, I don't think Egon himself would make this sort of mistake. One of the other Ghostbusters or Janine, yes. Egon Spengler, no.