Carl and Beth came giggling and frolicking down the stairs in the middle of the afternoon and made their way into the kitchen. Beth started making coffee, and she looked at the clock on the oven at the same time.

'Oh good Lord – Jamie'll be back any minute!' she said.

'I guess we need to work on our timing,' Carl grinned.

Beth smiled at him. 'Really? You think we'll be overtaken by that impulse often?'

'I don't see why not, since we're both going to be around the house most of the day.'

'Well, maybe... but come September, is Jamie even going to be here at night? We still don't know where he's planning on living, do we?'

'I guess if he keeps living here, he'll be around most of the day anyway,' said Carl. 'Maybe he'll stay. It's not too bad of a commute to Queens when he does have to go, is it?'

'No,' said Beth, 'but nor is it so easy that it'd be pointless moving there.'

'If he does, I guess he could still come bursting in at any time with his dirty laundry over his back.'

'Now you're not being fair. Kevin always did his own laundry when he was a student... and before that, even. Eduardo did his own as well.'

'He did, huh?' said Carl. 'I can barely remember that – it seems like a lifetime ago.'

'It's even more than a lifetime for some people,' said Beth, smiling as the front door was heard to open, followed by the sounds made by three energetic teenagers in search of refreshment.

'Hi, Mom, hi, Dad,' said James, as he wandered into the kitchen and made his way to the fridge, followed by two girls. 'So, what do you ladies want? Go-Gurt? Fruit cup? Sunny D? A little of all three?'

The two girls dumped their school satchels on the breakfast bar.

'Don't you have anything more substantial?' asked one, going to look in the fridge with James, while the other girl went over to Carl and Beth.

'Hi, guys,' she said, embracing Beth and smiling at Carl, then waving a leaflet at them. 'This is some stuff about accommodation at St John's College they gave us – I thought maybe you'd like to look at it. We can live right on campus! Affordably, too, if we go for quad rooms... well, if I do.'

'I can't imagine this house without any kids in it,' Beth sighed, taking the leaflet. 'Thank you, Chita. It's not your responsibility to give these to us, you know.'

'I know,' Conchita said cheerfully, 'but Jim would've probably forgotten.'

'Quad room, huh?' said Carl, looking suspiciously at the leaflet over Beth's shoulder. 'I assume those are single-sex?'

'Of course,' said Conchita. Then she grinned impishly and added, 'Not that it makes a difference if you're worried about your boy's honour, huh?'

'I was actually thinking about you,' said Carl. Then he looked over to where James and his friend had begun chasing each other around with Go-Gurt, and said, 'Anyway, James is into Isabel, right?'

'I think so,' said Conchita.

Carl beamed and said loudly, 'It's nice to see you again, Isabel. I'm so happy you three are all going off to college together. I guess you'll want to get in on Conchita's quad room, won't you?'

'Well,' said Isabel, 'I'll probably have a single.'

'Good idea!' said Carl. 'Then you can have plenty of privacy for... whatever you want to do,' and he grinned at James. 'Maybe you'd like a single too, Jamie. Fewer distractions – keep you on track.'

'Don't worry, Dad, I'll stay on track,' said James, 'just so long as you repay me by remembering to feed Ralph and Felix. Talking of which, that needs doing. Do you ladies want to help me?'

'Okay,' simpered Isabel, while Conchita smiled knowingly and shook her head, so James and Isabel went charging into the hallway and up the stairs without her.

'Good girl,' said Carl, giving Conchita's shoulder an affectionate squeeze. 'I think she'll be good for him.'

Conchita raised an eyebrow. 'Better than Harry, you mean?'

'Not specifically,' said Carl. 'Harry was nice too. I never had a problem with Harry.'

'Well, good,' said Conchita. 'But, um... Uncle Carl, you know Isabel pretty well by now, right?'

'Of course,' said Carl. 'You two've been friends with her for years, haven't you?'

'Yeah,' said Conchita, exchanging a look with Beth. 'Longer than you might think, actually.'

'All right, enough about Isabel,' Beth said hastily. 'It's great that you're so excited about college, Chita. Are you going to use your psych degree to be a cop like James?'

'She's not cut out to be a cop,' Carl said at once.

Conchita laughed affectionately at him. 'Oh no?'

'You're too nice,' said Carl. 'Too gentle. You'd never have the heart to arrest somebody, never mind get the evidence you need to convict them. If you're going to have anything to do with criminals, it'll be to give them a cuddle and make it all better.'

'Well,' said Conchita, smiling, 'don't you think maybe that's a good thing?'

'It'd be nice if you and Jamie did end up working together,' said Beth. 'You'd make a good trauma counsellor, honey.'

'Maybe,' said Conchita, 'but maybe not in the same place Jim's being a cop, if we're sick of each other by then. Mind you, we'd probably have to finally part ways when he moves on to his master's degree – they don't do those in counselling and stuff at St John's.'

'He's doing a master's too?' said Carl. 'Jeez, maybe there really isn't enough in the kitty for him to have a single room all that time. What does he need a master's for anyway?'

'It's in criminology and justice,' said Conchita. 'You remember, Uncle Carl – you thought it was a great idea when he told you.'

'So I did!' said Carl, puffing out his chest. 'That's exactly what a cop needs these days. It'll do Jamie good to have something over all the other kids with normal, boring old psych degrees.'

'He and Isabel are a long time feeding those mice,' Beth remarked. 'I hope they're not getting up to too much up there.'

'Why?' said Carl. 'She's legal.'

'So's James,' said Conchita.

'Oh yeah,' said Carl. 'When I started on the force it only mattered for the girl, but... yeah.'

Just then came the sound of loud feet and voices descending the stairs. Carl beamed at this, and went charging out into the hallway, leaving Beth and Conchita exchanging an uncertain look.

'Mice okay?' he asked, clapping James heartily on the back as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

'Yes, for now,' said James. 'Be careful not to crush them, Dad – they're on me.'

'Oh,' said Carl, hastily withdrawing his massive hand.

'I don't know how you can stand it!' said Isabel, who was hanging back a little way up the stairs.

'Because I love them,' James grinned up at her, 'and because they tickle. I'll come back and entertain you in a minute while Chita plays with them, Iz.'

Carl watched his son make his way to the kitchen, with two bulges appearing in various parts of his clothing at intervals. Carl then looked at Isabel and said, 'Chita playing with the mice, huh? I thought girls didn't like mice.'

'You know Chita loves animals,' said Isabel. 'Haven't you ever seen her with James's mice? She's always liked them, ever since his first pair.'

'I guess I must've missed that,' said Carl. 'He got his first pair in elementary school, you know.'

'Yeah,' said Isabel, 'I know.'

Carl smiled approvingly. 'So you two have exchanged life stories, huh?'

'Well, I, er...' Isabel began to look uncomfortable. 'We know each other pretty well, yeah.'

Carl's smile widened. 'I think that's great.'

'You... you do?'

'Absolutely.'

'You, um... you don't know me very well, though, do you?'

'Oh, I don't know,' said Carl. 'I know you better than I used to know Kevin's friends. I was a lot quicker to learn your name, for one thing.'

'Wow,' said Isabel, looking rather at a loss.

For the first time in the conversation, Carl picked up on something.

'Are you okay?' he asked.

'I just realised something,' said Isabel.

'Oh?'

'Yeah. I just realised I, er... I'm not really that afraid of mice after all. Excuse me, please.'

Carl stepped aside as Isabel finished descending the stairs and made her way back to her friends.

Some hours after all this, a weary-looking Kevin emerged from an elevator and started walking along a deserted hospital corridor. As he approached a glass-fronted door labelled Pharmacology Department, Lucy came out into the corridor and locked the door behind her.

'Hi, Luce,' said Kevin.

'Oh, Kev!' Lucy exclaimed, looking up and beaming at him. 'I'm so glad to see you; I hoped you'd come and find me before I had to leave.'

'Yeah, I read your text message ages ago,' said Kevin, 'but then I had to go out to an entrapment and that's where I've been for the past four hours.'

'Everything okay?' Lucy asked.

'Yeah, we got through it in the end,' Kevin said with a small smile. 'So, what's this thing you're dying to tell me?'

'Can't you guess?' said Lucy, grinning from ear to ear.

'I could guess,' said Kevin, 'but then I'd be really disappointed if I was wrong, so...'

'I took a pregnancy test this morning and it came up positive,' said Lucy. 'I'm pregnant with your baby, Kev.'

Kevin remained expressionless for a few seconds as he digested this news, then he beamed all over his face and gathered Lucy into a crushing hug.

'Hey, be careful with me,' Lucy giggled. 'I'm in a delicate condition, you know.'

'This is the best news I've ever been given, Luce,' said Kevin. 'You have no idea how much I love you right now.'

'Oh, I think I have some,' Lucy laughed.

'Let's do an ultrasound!' said Kevin, releasing Lucy but keeping his hands on her shoulders.

'You mean immediately?' said Lucy.

'Yes!' said Kevin. 'Let's do an ultrasound right now!'

'Can we do that?' Lucy asked uncertainly.

'Sure we can!' said Kevin. 'We just need to fetch a machine and find a free cubicle, which shouldn't be too difficult at this time of night.'

'Okay,' said Lucy, 'let's do it!'

'Thanks for walking me home, Beth,' said Conchita, as she fished a key out of her pocket and let them both into her home. 'You didn't have to – it's not even dark. I'd have been all right.'

'I'm sure you would've,' said Beth. 'I just wanted to see the family and catch up, really.'

They walked through to the kitchen where they found Eduardo, Kylie and their younger daughter Rose, who was sitting at the table being plied with sweet tea by her father and squeezed and patted by her mother.

'Oh, Rosy, what's wrong?' cried Conchita, rushing over to her.

'It's nothing, don't worry,' said Rose, swatting her sister away. 'Hi, Beth.'

'Hi,' said Beth, looking at the scene with concern. 'I'll, um... I'll be off then.'

'Oh, don't go,' said Kylie. Then she looked at Rose. 'We can tell Beth, can't we?'

Rose shrugged and said, 'Sure.'

'Tell Beth what?' Conchita asked anxiously.

'If you calm down, I'll tell you,' said Rose. 'It's no big deal, really. Mom just came home and found me levitating, that's all.'

'What?' cried Conchita. 'Oh my God – you're possessed or something! Daddy, you have to do something! What are you going to do? Will she be okay?'

'Of course she'll be okay, seashell,' said Eduardo. 'I'll get some Ghostbusters here, and we can probably get this whole thing fixed in under an hour.'

'Oh, good,' said Conchita, suddenly changing her tone and taking her attention entirely away from her sister. 'So, um... which Ghostbusters would those be?'

'The A-team, surely,' Kylie said at once.

'Is that a good idea?' said Conchita. 'What if something really bad and really complicated happens to somebody else, and there's only the B-team to deal with it?'

'Well, the B-team's very good too,' said Eduardo. 'I'd be happy with either one on call, or we could mix them up – bring a couple of each out here. They can handle that. Or did you have something else in mind?' he asked, looking at Conchita with a raised eyebrow.

'Oh, no, not really,' Conchita said nonchalantly. 'It's just that, well, if you got the two new guys it'd be good experience for them, wouldn't it? And you could, like, supervise and stuff.'

Eduardo sighed. 'I don't know...'

'Excuse me,' said Rose. 'Is anybody interested in what I want?'

All eyes turned to her.

'Let's have the new guys,' said Rose, looking at Conchita, who smiled gratefully. 'I don't want four of them barging in here, and I like Freya and, quite frankly, Josh needs all the help he can get.'

'Well,' said Kylie, 'we all like Freya.'

'And Josh isn't so bad,' said Eduardo. 'Not at ghostbusting, anyways.'

'That's settled, then,' said Beth. 'Would you like me to call?'

'No need,' said Eduardo, whipping out a cell phone. 'I'll soon bring them running.'

Lucy made herself comfortable on the bed while Kevin wheeled the ultrasound machine into position and then drew the curtains around the cubicle. Lucy pulled her trousers down a little way, then she pulled her top up to her chest. Kevin immediately squirted a generous amount of cold gel onto her abdomen, causing her to squeal.

'You might've warned me, Kev!' said Lucy.

'Come on, Luce,' Kevin grinned, 'you know how this goes. Okay, let's take a look here...'

Kevin moved the scanner around until he found what he was looking for. An enormous smile split his face, then he turned the machine so that Lucy could see the screen.

'There's the gestational sac,' Kevin said in an awed voice, pointing to a tiny part of the grainy image.

'Oh my God...' Lucy breathed. 'Um... you can't tell how many babies are in there yet, can you?'

Kevin laughed. 'Are you thinking about Phoebe from Friends?'

'Yeah, I am.'

'You've already given birth to two babies at once. Surely moving up to three would be the next logical progression!'

'Moving down to one would be the next logical progression, Kev,' Lucy said firmly.

'Well, that's probably what'll happen,' said Kevin. 'There's only the one sac, so...'

'Tom and Jon only had one sac.'

'Yeah, I can't make any guarantees.'

They both stared at the image on the screen for a while longer, then Lucy let out a particularly deep breath.

'I really should go home now,' she said. 'I might be in time to kiss the boys goodnight.'

'I have my mom's car today,' said Kevin, as he started to pack up the ultrasound machine. 'I'll give you a ride.'

'Thanks, Kev,' said Lucy. 'You really are a diamond.'

'Hey,' said Kevin, 'it's the least I can do, right?'

'Good luck,' said Beth, hugging Kylie in the hallway. 'Let me know how it goes. Ah!' as the doorbell rang. 'I guess I'll answer that.'

She was at the stage of reaching for the door handle when Conchita appeared, barged in front of her, hurled the door open and then said bashfully, 'Hi.'

On the threshold stood two young people, a man and a woman, in full ghostbusting gear.

'Hi, Chita,' said the woman. 'How are you?'

'Okay,' said Conchita, who was looking only at the male Ghostbuster. 'Come on in.' She stepped to one side.

'Oh, hi... um...' the young woman said, smiling uncertainly at Beth.

'Beth,' said Beth, smiling back. 'Hi, and now bye – I'm just leaving.'

'That's a shame,' said Josh, smiling at Beth's retreating form, then turning back to the hallway to see Eduardo standing there looking at him. He smiled sheepishly. 'Here's your proton pack, boss.'

'Thanks,' said Eduardo, taking the proffered item and sliding it onto his back. 'I appreciate you both coming out here at this time.'

'No problem,' said Freya. 'What's the trouble?'

'Kylie found Rose passed out and levitating over her bed.'

'Poor kid,' said Freya. 'We'd better check her out first, hadn't we?'

'She's in the kitchen,' said Eduardo, so Freya made her way to the kitchen.

Josh, meanwhile, hung around in the hallway saying to Conchita, 'Don't worry. Nothing's going to happen to your sister while I'm around.'

Conchita raised an eyebrow and said, 'Oh no? Superhero, are you?'

'Of course not,' said Josh, looking a little cowed. 'But I'll do my best.'

Conchita's smitten look was fading, but it returned the moment Josh placed a hand on her arm and smiled at her, saying, 'Seriously, Chita, I know the feeling. I worry about my kid brother.'

'Come on, Josh – time's a-wasting,' said Eduardo, stepping into Josh's personal space and then chivvying him into the kitchen.

Freya was already taking PKE readings from Rose, with Kylie watching the screen of the meter over her shoulder. When Eduardo came in, Kylie looked up and said with deep concern in her eyes and her voice, 'This doesn't look good, Eduardo.'

'Well, that's reassuring,' said Rose.

'Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry!' said Kylie, giving her a hug. 'Obviously you'll be all right – I didn't mean that you wouldn't. I just hate having to see you go through anything stressful.'

'Let's deal with it as quick as we can, then,' said Freya. 'We'd better sweep the whole house, hadn't we, Eduardo? Rose is giving off strong readings, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's all hiding inside her, does it?'

Rose looked down at her feet, scowling.

'You need to work on your bedside manner, Freya,' said Josh.

Freya looked at Rose and smiled reassuringly. 'Sorry, Rose. If it is all on you, we can deal with it, no problem. But maybe it's not. Mind if I check your room?'

'What do you mean?' asked Rose.

'Just with my PKE meter,' said Freya. 'I won't go rummaging in your drawers and stuff... well, unless I have to. There's always a chance I'll have to take a little peek, isn't there?'

Rose looked displeased for a moment, then shrugged and said, 'If somebody has to do it.'

'I'll show you where it is,' said Eduardo, leading Freya from the kitchen. Josh watched them go, apparently unsure of whether to follow them, then decided to stay put.

'Where's Merida?' Conchita asked suddenly from the kitchen doorway.

'I don't know,' said Kylie. 'I haven't seen her since this morning. But she had her dinner, didn't she, Rosy?'

'Yes,' said Rose, 'but she didn't meow and try to trip me up while I was giving it to her. In fact she waited until I'd left the room, and then she sniffed what I put down very suspiciously when she thought I wasn't looking. But she ate it in the end.'

'And nothing else seemed wrong at that point?' asked Kylie.

'No,' said Rose. 'I told you – I started to feel weird while I was upstairs reading.'

'How do you feel now?' asked Josh.

Rose looked at him guardedly. 'All right.'

Just then Freya came scampering downstairs and back into the kitchen, saying, 'It seems to be in your closet, Rose.'

'My closet?' said Rose, looking alarmed. 'But that's private!'

'That's what we figured,' said Freya. 'Your dad refuses to go near it, so I thought I'd better come down and get your permission to open it.'

'Why don't I open it?' said Rose.

'You're staying down here with me, Rose,' Kylie said firmly.

'Well...' said Rose, looking at Freya. 'Okay, I guess you'd better do it.'

'Thanks,' said Freya. 'We'll be very careful, I promise. Come on, Josh – time to earn your overtime.'

Josh took one last look at Conchita, then went trailing after Freya as she made her way back into the hallway and up the stairs. When they were out of earshot, Rose looked at Conchita and said dubiously, 'You really like that guy?'

'Oh, I don't know,' said Conchita. 'I don't really know him yet. I think he's hot, though.'

'He thinks the same thing about you, sweetie,' said Kylie. 'But I'm sure you won't rush into anything, even if he wants to.'

'He wants to,' said Rose, as the sound of proton fire became audible from upstairs.

'Don't worry about me, Mom,' said Conchita. 'Worry about Rose!'

'You're right,' said Kylie, and she reached out to stroke Rose's hair. 'Don't worry, sweetie – it'll all be over soon.'

'Yeah, about that,' said Rose. 'I didn't want to tell you in front of Dad, and then I didn't want to tell you in front of Josh, but it might be significant. In between feeding Merida and going to my room to read, I started my period.'

'You did?' said Kylie. 'Oh, baby, you're becoming a woman!'

She flung her arms around Rose and kept them there for a long time. When she finally let go, Rose found herself pulled straight into another crushing embrace, this time by her sister.

'I went into your room and took some of your stuff, Chita,' said Rose, her voice muffled in Conchita's chest. 'I know where you keep it – I didn't poke around.'

'Are you wearing a tampon?' Conchita asked loudly, much to her sister's consternation. 'Be careful about that. No one told me how painful it is taking one out the first time. Don't you even try it until you're sitting in a warm bath.'

'I'm not wearing one,' said Rose, pushing her away with a small smile, 'but thanks for the warning.'

Suddenly there came a loud clunk from upstairs and Rose looked at the ceiling above her, clearly alarmed. Out in the hallway, a spidery shape that glowed a brilliant white was floating down the stairs, with Josh and Freya in hot pursuit. As the entity was about to phase through the front door, Josh sent a blast of proton fire at it. He succeeded in frightening the thing off-course, but he also blew the window above the door to smithereens.

'Oh no!' he cried in dismay, as Eduardo appeared on the stairs behind him. 'Eduardo, I'm so sorry!'

'Don't worry, Josh,' said Eduardo. 'Absolutely everybody does that.'

Freya, meanwhile, had chased the entity into the living room and managed to secure it in a proton stream. Eduardo and Josh ran after her; Eduardo added his proton stream to Freya's while Josh produced a trap from the equipment strapped to his body and threw it underneath the ghostly shape. Seconds later, the entity was contained.

There was a moment of silent stillness, then Rose mooched in from the kitchen, asking, 'Is that it?'

Eduardo went over to her, ran his PKE meter over her and said, 'There's still... well, traces on you.'

'Just residual, surely,' said Josh. 'I mean, we trapped it, right?'

'Yeah, we trapped it all right,' said Eduardo, looking at the trap, but he didn't sound too sure.

'So what was it?' demanded Kylie, appearing in the doorway behind Rose. 'What did it want?'

'I guess Egon's the man for that,' said Freya.

Eduardo let out a sigh and said, 'We're really gonna notice a difference on that side of things when Egon retires.'

'Sure we can't persuade you to come back, Kylie?' asked Freya. 'Egon's really talking about it now, you know.'

'I don't think so, Freya,' said Kylie. 'But maybe I could hook you guys up with one of the eager young scholars at the Parapsychology Foundation.'

'Yeah?' said Freya with a grin. 'Like one you want to get rid of, maybe?'

'You mean one of the many who don't know how to use the Harvard referencing system?' said Kylie. 'What a good idea.'

'Now, where the heck is Josh?' Eduardo asked suddenly.

He, Kylie, Rose and Freya looked around them. Then Freya said, with a facetious grin, 'More to the point, where's Conchita?'

Eduardo tutted with annoyance and went off in search of them. He ended up in the back garden, where Conchita was down on all fours with her backside in the air, peering into a space underneath the shed.

'Merida!' she said. 'Here, kitty! It's okay – the ghost's all gone now!'

Josh, who had been standing there watching, stood to attention when he saw Eduardo frowning at him and said, 'We found your cat. She doesn't seem to want to come out, though.'

'What's wrong with her now?' Eduardo asked, concerned, and he went to crouch down beside Conchita. 'Maybe there really is something still here.'

'But you trapped it, didn't you?' said Conchita. 'Maybe she's just picking up on some leftover atmosphere or something. I wish she'd come out – I'm worried about her.'

'Me too,' said Eduardo. 'But she doesn't look hurt or possessed or nothing – just freaked out.'

'Hey,' said Josh, taking a step nearer, 'can I take a look at her? I like cats.'

Eduardo turned round and looked at him suspiciously. 'You like cats?'

'I genuinely do,' said Josh. 'I'm not trying to impress anybody, Eduardo, I promise.'

'You'll have to get right down to take a look at her,' said Conchita, getting to her feet, 'and even then you won't see her too well.'

Josh bent right down, just as Conchita had been doing, and peered into the space. As he did so, she looked at him in almost exactly the way that he had been looking at her.

'Oh yeah, I see her,' he said. 'Poor thing – she's obviously shaken up. Wow, she's real pretty.'

'She's not real friendly, though,' said Eduardo. 'I'm afraid you won't be able to bond with her, even when she's feeling better.'

'She adores the four of us,' said Conchita. 'Anyone else, she can't see the point in them even being alive.'

'Well,' said Josh, laughing, 'it's smart to know who your friends are. I guess I'll leave her alone now,' and he got to his feet. 'Don't worry – I'm sure she'll be back to herself real soon.'

He gave Conchita a smile, and she blushed and dimpled at him in return. Then Freya appeared on the scene, saying, 'Come on, Josh – I'm waiting to drive you home!'