As Ray found renewed enthusiasm, energy and passion for the project as he hand he rose from the table and walked over to the dry erase board with the marker, freshly uncapped, in his hand and ready to go. Drawing a crude map of the city on the corner of the board Ray divided the map into the five boroughs of New York City and left small dots at the center of each borough.

"It's so simple, why did I see it before?" Ray excitedly tapped the marker on the board as the long awaited answer had finally come to him. "We couldn't build a single shield generator to encompass the entire city, not only was the generator itself an impractical size but the power required to generate said field would be so massive that we would essentially be planting a bomb in the center of the city!"

Paige had turned around in her chair to watch Ray, she leaned casually against one arm as she watched the revitalized scientist crudely devising a new project on the board.

"By reducing the size of the generator and placing five smaller generators at the heart of each borough the power consumption would be greatly reduced, per generator but the shields produced by the five generators will all intersect and strengthen one another through collected energy. AND the risk of someone or something finding and tampering with a small generator will be greatly diminished compared to one massive one to an almost inconsequential degree! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"

Ray capped the mark and tossed it casually over his shoulder as a smile of triumph plastered itself over is face. Running a hand through his hair he breathed an immense sigh of relief. Even the relentless headache that gnawed away at his resolve couldn't affect his positive disposition.

Paige rose from the table and looked down at her small black banded watch around her wrist. "I'm glad that I was able to be of assistance. Although, I merely discovered that the seemingly unsolved equation was in fact already solved."

Ray turned his attention back to the young woman. "Don't be so modest, you helped on an immense level."

"How is that, may I ask?"

"You were able to decipher Egon's cryptic notes and give us a confirmation on his equation. Without that we wouldn't be able to move and begin to design, let alone build, the small generators." Ray approached Paige and extended his hand for her to shake, this time in a less erratic manner than their initial introduction. "Thank you for your help."

The garage door to the firehouse opened wide as Ecto-1 backed up to park inside, its flashing lights illuminating the interior walls in red and blue. The sound of the engine reverberated noisily as the large vehicle returned to HQ with Winston behind the wheel and Peter as the lone passenger.

Paige was again drawn to the iconic hearse as it took its place in the center of the garage. Ray quickly took notice of Paige's intrigue and gave her an approving smile.

Winston opened his door and leaned against the car for a moment, his arms folded over the top and his head laying down on against his arms like a pillow. He was tired and frustrated. Looking up the staircase he could see Paige watching with Ray standing just behind her shoulder. Sighing heavily he lifted his head and made his way over to the other side of the car and pulled open Peter's door.

Clumsily Peter swung his legs over until his feet were outside the car. As he stood up Winston gave him an arm to lean on.

"Something wrong?" Ray called out as he watch his two physically taxed friends exit the car.

Winston let Peter grab onto his shoulder for balance as he helped his injured friend walk over to the staircase. "Peter messed up his ankle on that last bust. Nothing serious but it's hurting."

Ray jogged down the stairs, ignoring the throbbing pain in his head, and met the returning duo on the bottom step. "Do you need to see a doctor?"

"No, it's just twisted." Peter brushed off the concern without losing his cool. "Give me a hand, would ya'?"

Ray stepped in for Winston and helped Peter climb the stairs. "Come on. We'll get you some ice for your ankle and I can get some for my head."

"It's not as easy to recover from a hangover as it used to be, huh Ray?"

"When was it ever easy?" Ray replied dryly as his headache throbbed relentlessly against his skull.

Winston returned to Ecto-1 and opened the rear compartment to gather the occupied trap and the two proton packs. From the top of the stairs Paige watched with indisputable curiosity as the seasoned Ghostbuster went about his routine after each successful bust. Ray and Peter passed by her at the top of the stairs and noticed her intense engrossment.

"Hey kid," Peter caught her attention with a quick word. "why don't you go help Winston? He can't carry two packs at the same time."

Paige's eyes lit up but she managed to keep her excitement concealed within her calm response. "Don't I require proper training to handle such equipment?"

"Nah!" Peter replied carelessly as Ray helped him to make it to the now unoccupied chairs around the table. "Just follow his lead and don't touch anything hot."

Ray subtly nodded in approval to her as he entered the kitchen to gather some ice.

Paige walked down the stairs in a hasty but collected manner as she walked over to the rear of Ecto-1 where Winston was unhooking the proton packs from their storage racks in their compartments.

"Hey, would you mind helping me move this stuff? It gets really heavy after work." Winston hefted up the first proton pack with both hands and held it out toward her.

Cautiously Paige extended her arms to accept the pack, unsure of how much the pack could weigh or if it was going to be hot or electrically unstable.

Winston eased the pack into her arms and watched as Paige naturally compensated for the additional weight by shifting her own. "Got it?"

"Yes." Paige confirmed as she held the pack firmly by its shoulder straps with one hand and supported its body with the other.

"Great, thanks." Winston tossed the trap over his shoulder, letting the cable dangle where it fell. As he grabbed the second pack he shut the rear compartment door of the car and motioned toward the second staircase leading down into the basement. "Let's go. I'll show you the containment unit."

While Winston and Paige went down into the basement to store the equipment Ray had joined Peter at the table upstairs with two bags of ice in his hands. He handed the larger bag to Peter who placed it gingerly against his unbooted, swollen ankle while Ray pressed the smaller bag against the side of his head where the pain of from his head was the most intense.

"How'd you hurt your ankle?" Ray asked as he stared at the swollen discolored appendage under the ice bag. "Bad fall?"

"Better." Peter lifted up his ankle and propped it on top of the table as he readjusted the ice. "Ghost threw me into a desk."

"Looks painful."

"It's not that bad actually." Peter lied. He hated hospitals.

"Are you sure you don't need it checked out? It looks broken to me."

"You should see the desk!"

Ray just closed his eyes and tried to ignore the headache that was constantly hindering his positive outlook on the night's events.

"Your head still killing ya'?"

"Yup." Ray confirmed as he endured the pain. "But it's my fault, so I'll just deal with it."

Peter leaned back in the chair as he tried to find a way to stall telling Ray about the unfortunate news he had begrudgingly received while at City Hall. As he glanced about the rec room his eye was drawn to the dry erase board with the solved equation in the center and Ray's raw prototype for the new generator and the city map in the corner. "What's going there? Did you get bored and play drunk Pictionary?"

Ray looked at the board and his enthusiasm returned. "That is no drunk party game. That is the solution to Egon's equation AND how we're going to keep this city safe after we're gone."

"Oh, great." Peter shut his eyes and rested his head against the palm of his hand as he propped his elbow up on the table beside his ankle. "At least something will get done."

"Venkman, everything will alright in the end."

"I hope you're right Ray. I really, really do."

Winston had deposited the captured ghost into the containment unit and was showing Paige how the unit functioned as a proper prison for containing elusive ghosts. The young physicist was thoroughly enthralled in the technology used to create such a device as well as the surrounding equipment that had been created to capture the ghosts out in the field.

"All of this equipment," Paige watched as the four proton packs were charging in their appropriate docks across from the containment unit. "was designed and constructed by Dr. Spengler and Dr. Stantz?"

"Yeah, it was all finished before I joined the company." Winston double checked the unit ensuring that the captured ghost was secured within. The green light shown brightly through the otherwise dim basement. "From what Ray's told me he helped Egon with the designs but Egon himself did most of the hands on work. Guess he preferred the solitude of the lab, studying paranormal activity over direct person to person interviews discussing it."

"I can relate." Paige's eye was drawn next to the collection of PKE meters laying across a workbench beside the proton pack charging station. "Are these meters that can track down or identify supernatural frequencies?" Her hands hovered temptingly over the devices but she refrained from touching.

"Yeah, those are the PKE meters." Winston joined her at the workbench. "Psychokinetic energy."

"An energy level produced by the presence of a supernatural entity."

"Something like that."

"This is all very fascinating equipment."

"Too bad it's going to be worthless in a few months."

"Why is that exactly?" Paige pulled her focus from the meters and to he gracious host. "I was told by Dr. Venkman that the equation needed to be solved before the year's end, but he never explained why."

...to be continued...