Hey-O! This story has been in the making for a while now and now here it is! The next chapter in Ray and Denise's lives together!


Ray smiled as he stood outside the front door, looking out at the neighborhood. Life had been good to him. He was making some good money with his job as a ghostbuster. He was happily married to his wife of 16 years, Denise. Together they had their 15-year-old daughter, Danielle. Ray sighed happily watching the paperboy toss the daily newspaper onto the porch. He was enjoying life.

Ray picked up the newspaper and went inside the house. Denise was in the kitchen cooking up some breakfast.

"Well, well", she smiled. "You're up early today, hun."

"Got a busy day", Ray smiled as he sat down. "What's for breakfast?"

"Waffles", Denise answered setting a plate in front of him.

She smiled and sat down with him, putting on her reading glasses and taking a look at the newspaper as he ate. The two of them enjoyed the peace and quiet until their teenage daughter came down the stairs. As much as they loved their daughter, they wished she could just be herself. Lately she had been acting different, trying to be like the popular teenagers in the city, wearing the latest fashion and taking part in the latest trends.

"Morning, Mom", Danielle said. "Morning, Dad."

"Morning, Dani", Ray smiled as he ate.

"Hungry?" Denise asked. "I made extra waffles for you."

"I'm not really hungry", Danielle answered. "I'll just have some juice."

Denise sighed as she watched her daughter walk to the refrigerator. Teenagers were so different these days, always thinking what was cool was what was best.

"Are you still coming shopping with me?" Ray asked.

Lately, their daughter had been pulling away from them, being more distant than she ever was. Ray was doing all he can to reconnect with his little girl.

"Yeah, sure", Danielle answered.

"Honey, Egon called earlier", Denise said. "He said he needs to talk to you about the last PKE readings he had been getting recently."

"He's been getting a lot of those lately", Ray said. "I hope it's nothing..."

He stopped when he noticed something different about Danielle. He stood and walked over to her.

"What is that?" he asked pointing to her ankle. "What did you do to your ankle?"

"Nothing", she answered turning away to keep him from seeing.

"No, turn around."

Danielle sighed and turned back showing the decorated tattoo of a butterfly on her ankle. She smiled turning back to look at him.

"It's not a real tattoo", she said.

"Then what do you call that?" Ray asked. "Why do you have that?"

"It's a decal", Danielle answered. "Everyone's wearing them."

"Dani, this is getting ridiculous", he said getting annoyed with this new attitude of hers. "If everyone jumped off the Brooklyn bridge, would you jump too?"

"I am not a little girl anymore, Dad. I can make my own decisions."

Ray crossed his arms and sighed shaking his head. His patience with her was running thin.

"Dani, if you want to come with me today, get rid of it", he said. "And while you're at it, you should take off some of the makeup you're wearing. You have a lot of it on."

"Mom!" Danielle gasped. "My makeup looks okay, doesn't it?"

"Well..." Denise said trying not to hurt her daughter's feelings. "A little goes a long way, you know."

Danielle sighed and looked away as she turned back to the stairs.

"Fine", she grumbled.

Ray and Denise watched as she left the room before looking down.

"Ray, do you think we were a little hard on her?" Denise asked.

"We needed to be hard", he answered. "Did you see her? What happened to our little girl?"